Genocide is currently occurring in Sudan. Despite former US Secretary of State Colin Powell stating last September that genocide was in fact taking place, the atrocities continue. Australia announced this week that it will be sending a small deployment (a paltry 15 people) to assist the UN mission in the country. Brian Steidle is a…
Showing all posts in June 2019
The third stage
Israeli peace group Gush Shalom have released their weekly message, published in Haaretz: “Israel and the entire world are fascinated by Sharon’s great show in the Gaza Strip. That is the first stage of his plan. “Behind this smoke screen, Sharon is occupied with expanding the big “settlement blocs” in the western part of the…
How much aid is too much?
Israel. The Middle East’s only democracy. A land of freedom amongst tyranny. All true statements if you’re Jewish, but not Palestinian. We now learn that Israel has asked the US for extra aid to fund the Gaza “disengagement”. A journalist colleague in Switzerland tells me that an article appeared in the Hebrew version of Haaretz…
The normalisation of war
Andrew J. Bacevich is a West Point graduate, Vietnam veteran, former contributor to such magazines as the Weekly Standard and the National Review, and former Bush Fellow at the American Academy in Berlin. He’s also a self-confessed conservative. His latest book, The New American Militarism, How Americans Are Seduced by War, discusses the ways in…
Laugh out loud
Ricky Gervais, star and brains behind The Office, is currently shooting his new program, Extras, “a new six-part comedy series set in the world of film and television and focussed in particular on the mundane tedium of life as a supporting artist.” Expect hilarity from the man who made hating your boss socially acceptable. Ricky’s…
Tasty quickies
– March 18 was the 9th anniversary of the Israeli massacre at Qana. The Israeli army shelled and killed over 100 people sheltering in the headquarters compound of the Fijian batallion of the UN Interim Force in Lebanon. A subsequent UN report, which the US under President Bill Clinton tried to bury, painted the damning…
Ratzinger
Germany’s Joseph Ratzinger is the new Pope and will take the name Benedict XVI. Conservative American journalist and Catholic, Andrew Sullivan, explains the significance of the decision: “Ratzinger’s immersion in political culture wars has become even deeper. I also cover his radical innovations on the role of women, gays and conscience. A woman should follow…
Time to act
Moveon.org needs your help: “In the next 10 days the Republican leadership is planning to pull the trigger on their scheme to break the rules of the Senate and seize absolute power over judicial appointments. We must act.” The progressive organisation’s latest alert outlines the dangers of this Republican attempt at subverting democracy: “If radical…
They’re only Palestinians, after all…
The IDF will be unarmed during the upcoming removal of settlers from Gaza in an attempt to defuse conflict, despite the fact that a small minority of right-wing extremists may well use force in resisting. Yigal Serena is a regular Yedioth Ahronoth commentator and writes that IDF thinking on this matter is morally bankrupt: “Had…
Website is born
Scott Burchill is a Senior Lecturer in International Relations at Deakin University in Melbourne and one of Australia’s finest dissenting academics. His website is now live. Check it out.