The recent decision by the NSW Greens to embrace BDS against Israeli apartheid has brought out predictably hyperbolic Zionist lobby rantings. Here’s Yair Miller, president of the NSW Jewish Board of Deputies, rehashing familiar talking points about Israeli democracy, working together with Palestinians and hugging away the occupation. Because that’s worked so well in the…
Hosni, here’s some final resting places in your imposed retirement
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The neo-con corruption of Judaism
Part 7653: Mainstream media coverage, especially in the United States, has been filled with misleading tales. With help from Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and pro-Israel commentators, the regime has distracted many outlets with the arrant nonsense that the popular protests presage a takeover of Egypt by the Muslim Brothers. The Muslim Brothers, yes, are…
Now, be a good little obedient and secular Egypt
The West wants “stability” in the Middle East. So the status-quo works just fine. But wait, how about democracy? Well, maybe, but just so long as those fundamentalist Islamists (or anybody who is a Muslim, really) doesn’t take over. Slavoj Žižek gets it in one: The hypocrisy of western liberals is breathtaking: they publicly supported…
Rape of the third world continues apace in PNG
The toxic mix of Western multinationals, private security and a thoroughly poor nation: Private security personnel employed at a gold mine in Papua New Guinea have been implicated in alleged gang rapes and other violent abuses, Human Rights Watch said in a report released today. The Porgera mine has produced billions of dollars of gold…
Australian PM continues to smear Wikileaks
Our embarrassing clown in chief: Prime Minister Julia Gillard says she cannot – and will not – make Julian Assange’s legal problems go away. But like any Australian citizen, she says the WikiLeaks founder is welcome to return home once they do. Mr Assange, in London fighting an extradition order to Sweden where he awaits…
I’m a journalist and I’m in the US State Department
If more evidence was needed that the vast majority of US corporate media is in the service of US foreign policy, coverage of the anti-Mubarak protests in Egypt have often overlooked the rather important detail of Washington’s backing. For example, here’s ABC‘s Christiane Amanpour: The implications are really big because this is very fundamental. Egypt…
Majority Jewish Israelis loathe real democracy
Evidence: Fully 52 percent of Israeli Jews would be willing to limit the media’s freedom of expression if media reports damage the state’s image, while 64 percent would accept limits on freedom of expression in the event of a threat to national security, a poll has found. Similar percentages would accept limits on professors’ academic…
Why al-Jazeera is a threat
Jeremy Scahill is spot-on; the Arabic news channel does what the vast bulk of Western media refused to do since 9/11; remain unembedded with American foreign policy goals: The real threat Al Jazeera poses to authoritarian regimes is in its unembedded journalism. That is why the Bush Administration viewed Al Jazeera as a threat, it…
West Bank and Gaza Arabs likely to march in numbers, too?
Amira Hass in Haaretz says it’s highly unlikely because Palestinians are exhausted and both live in police states. They wonder; what would it really gain? On Thursday, January 20, a group of young people wanted to demonstrate their support for the Tunisians. As is customary nowadays, they organized themselves using Facebook and e-mail. And in…