The murder of Al-Jazeera cameramen, Ali Hassan Al Jaber – killed after a reporting team for the Arabic-language channel was ambushed by government forces near the town of Benghazi – has been mourned in Libya itself. A crowd gathered in the city’s main square to honor al-Jaber, a Qatari national. They waved Qatari flags and…
Serco will keep failing because the system is broken in Australia
As more asylum seekers are crying for help on Australia’s Christmas Island – locked up for months on a remote island – all the federal government talks about is fining Serco: The federal government will take action against detention centre service provider Serco if it has breached any part of its contract following two breakouts…
Neo-Nazis love Zionist treatment of Muslims
Who are really the most strident backers of Israel these days? Christian fundamentalists and far-right bigots. More than 60 years after the Holocaust, Nazis take comfort in the Zionist state. Tragic and yet utterly logical. Newsweek reports: To the casual observer, the visiting Europeans at Yad Vashem, Israel’s Holocaust memorial in the hills above Jerusalem,…
Murdoch’s News of the World incubates culture of deception
Today’s Guardian editorial is scathing, necessarily so, and reminds us that the Murdoch empire is always about power and access with ideology a distant second. Remind me why virtually no politicians or journalists dare challenge its power when its actions are clear for all to see? Bravery, please: The collapse of a high-profile murder trial…
West so keen to still be a colonial power in Arab world
Patrick Cockburn on the Western love affair with picking compliant leaders in places we should simply step aside: There is something frivolous and absurd about France’s sudden recognition of the Libyan rebel leadership in Benghazi as a sort of quasi-government. Presumably it’s intended to give the impression Nicolas Sarkozy has a grip on events, it…
Jews who understand why BDS must force Israel to be legal and decent
The International Jewish Anti-Zionist Network has released the following statement (that I’ve happily signed) articulating an alternative and supportive Jewish perspective on boycott, divestment and sanctions against Israel: Because academic, cultural and commercial boycotts, divestments and sanctions of Israel: are being called for by Palestinian civil society in response to the occupation and colonization of…
Australia happy to do America’s bidding over Wikileaks
Let’s not be surprised with this revelation: The Australian government discussed the charge of treason – the most serious of federal offences and one that carries a mandatory life sentence – when it examined the WikiLeaks matter last year. The advice, in a departmental briefing for the Attorney-General, Robert McClelland, was among several documents published…
A message to sell to young Jews the world over
This is what Israel offers, according to Yoram Ettinger in Ynet: Moreover, unlike Obama, most [American] constituents regard President Reagan as a role model of values and view the Jewish State as the “Ronald Reagan of the Middle East,” representing their basic values: Respect toward religion and tradition, patriotism, security-oriented, anti-UN, anti-terrorism and suspicion toward…
Obama very happy to change little in the Middle East
The New York Times clarifies what the Obama administration is really thinking about the Arab world. “Pragmatism” is the key word. In other words, backing autocrats who do the dirty work of Israel and America. Anybody still in love with the supposedly grand visions of Barack Obama? In the Middle East crisis, as on other…
Shock Doctrine alive and well
Naomi Klein on how her thesis is morphing into something even deadlier (via Democracy Now!): AMY GOODMAN: We only have 30 seconds. You published Shock Doctrine in 2007. So much of what you’ve predicted has come to pass. Final words? NAOMI KLEIN: Look, my fear is that climate change is the crisis, the biggest crisis…