The following feature by Desy Nurhayati appears in yesterday’s Jakarta Post: His recent visit to Aceh made Antony Loewenstein the first Jew that most people in the country’s devoutly Muslim province had ever met or engaged with. Some Acehnese he met were surprised to learn that the Jewish-Australian journalist, author of the controversial and best-selling…
Showing all posts in June 2019
South Africa echoes apartheid in Israel
A country that knows far too well about racial discrimination tells it like it is: The South African government has issued an unusually harsh statement condemning Israel for approving 900 new housing units in Gilo and evicting Palestinians from their East Jerusalem homes, comparing Israel’s actions to the “forced removals” of the apartheid era. “We…
When two-states are dead, Jews are thinking of a one-state future
The liberal, Jewish magazine and website Tikkun publishes a startling piece on the shifting sands of Jewish opinion towards the Middle East. Dreamers, get on board: …If a two-state solution is impossible,as seems increasingly clear, then the only alternative, however improbable, is a one-state solution.
Is Australia capable of looking at itself honestly in the mirror?
John Pilger on Australia’s secret shame: …The rate of incarceration of black Australians is five times that of South Africa during the last years of apartheid. The state of Western Australia imprisons Aboriginal men at eight times the apartheid figure, an Aussie world record. … There is currently a liberal clarion call in Australia for…
Corporate press tells us that US military is nice and helpful
Time magazine issues a feature called, “The ’00s: Goodbye (at Last) to the Decade From Hell“, but gives readers hope for the coming years ahead: We still have the world’s strongest military, which means we can and must lead in maintaining order and crafting peace. I’m sure the people of Palestine, Iraq, Afganistan and Pakistan…
Blackwater boys don’t mix with the rest
Yesterday I wrote about Jeremy Scahill’s explosive revelations that Blackwater are operating covertly in Pakistan and a reliable journalist contact who spends considerable time in the country passed this on: You know there’s a heavily guarded pub in Peshawar called the American Club where these Blackwater dudes hang out. No one else goes there, they’re…
Palestinian farmers don’t care about meaningless gestures
Israel calls a partial settlement halt – rightly rejected by the Palestinians and only partially praised by J Street, both certainly not helped by the fact that East Jerusalem is excluded from the announcement – and apartheid continues: The human rights organization Yesh Din says not one of the 69 complaints filed during the past…
Obama may use the UN to pressure Israel?
The Financial Times is one of the strongest global papers on the Middle East conflict. Less spin, more truth telling. Key writer David Gardiner thinks that Barack Obama still has a few cards up his sleeve (this presumes, of course, that Washington actually has any desire to truly pressure Israel and that ain’t clear): Israelis…
Google appears in the middle of a war zone
Is there anywhere on the planet that Google doesn’t exist? It spread across the web like a wildfire: Google chief Eric Schmidt visited Baghdad today. Yes, just like a statesman. He attended a ceremony with the US Ambassador to Iraq, Christopher Hill, at Iraq’s national museum, where he announced that the search giant would post…
Bomb, bomb, bomb Iran (says Jewish historian)
Israeli historian Benny Morris, a man with a serious dislike of Arabs and Iranians, yesterday unloaded in the UK Guardian and urged nothing less than a military strike against the Islamic Republic. Once again, a leading Zionist voice defines his ideology as nothing other than violence and devastation: The talk in Israel, explicit and open…