What I discovered as a Middle East correspondent
Independent journalist Donald MacIntyre has written a reflection on his eight years reporting Israel/Palestine: As the world concentrates on the Israeli Prime Minister’s new “red line” for an Iran strike, Jewish settlement in the West Bank accelerates apace. Settler leader Dani Dayan offered, in a recent New York Times article, a panglossian picture of the…
Shell is a glorious company that takes full responsibility for its actions (or not)
Interesting initiative that I discovered via The Yes Men. This website, murderisbad.com, is an attempt to highlight the reality of a multinational that wants to be beyond the law. Don’t let them: Shell was involved in murders in Nigeria. They would like everyone to forget about it. Shell has… blocked… 71,010 of their own employees from accessing…
Beware the jidadi felafel
We have been warned (via The Daily Currant): Minnesota Congresswoman… Michelle Bachmann… courted controversy today by claiming that falafel and other “jihadi foods” should be banned from school lunches in the United States. In an interview with local television station… KSTPin Minneapolis, Bachmann explained that after visiting a local elementary school she was shocked to find that… falafel… – a…
ABCTV News24’s The Drum on media outrage over Alan Jones and Facebook
Last night I appeared on ABCTV News24’s The Drum (video here) talking about the current media feeding frenzy over broadcaster Alan Jones and his offensive remarks towards Prime Minister Julia Gillard. The amount of time and energy spent on this issue, I argued, was utterly disproportionate to the comment itself. It was crude and wrong…
“After Zionism” reviewed in Arab News
The following review by Neil Berry appears in the Arab News: The mainstream Western media is losing its luster as rising numbers turn to alternative sources of news and opinion. Especially this applies to those concerned with the Palestine-Israel conflict. Students of the conflict increasingly straddle parallel universes, the world of conventional media and an…
Understanding the Alawites in Syria
Nir Rosen, one of America’s finest independent journalists, has spent much of this year travelling around Syria. His latest dispatch is published in the London Review of Books: Syria’s Alawite heartland is defined by its funerals. In Qirdaha in the mountainous Latakia province, hometown of the Assad dynasty, I watched as two police motorcycles drove…
Zionist comedy, intentional and otherwise
1) An aid worker friend of mine, who regularly enters Gaza via Israel’s Eretz Crossing, was sent a questionnaire, a “satisfaction survey” from Israel, asking about its work: A satisfaction survey has been created to help refine the role and services provided for our clientele. This survey will assess the types of services provided and…
“After Zionism” reviewed in Al Akhbar English
The following review by Rebecca Whiting appears in Al Akhbar English: Book Review:… After Zionism… Edited by Antony Loewenstein and Ahmed Moor, 2012 Saqi Books Last September, Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas bid for Palestine to receive full member-state status at the United Nations, based on the pre-1967 borders. After enraged reactions from Israel and the US,…
On Americans being keen to embrace torture and nuking “terrorists”
Welcome to the post 9/11 world in America. Stanford University’s Amy Zegart explains the details of a very disturbing public survey: A quarter of all Americans are willing to use nuclear weapons to kill terrorists. No joke. This was among many surprising findings in a new national poll that YouGov recently ran for me on…