Is Australia serious about holding (Israelis) to account?

With a bunch of Israelis currently in Australia, many of whom should face war crimes trials, Australians for Palestine sent a letter to the Attorney General demanding action: 3 December 2009 The Hon Robert McClelland MP Attorney General PO Box 6022 Parliament House CANBERRA ACT 2600 Dear Mr McClelland, Australians for Palestine brings to your…

Rudd helps the Middle East story remain one sided

My following story appears in today’s Crikey: Last weekend the Australian’s foreign editor Greg Sheridan interviewed former Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert and provided a platform for him to defend the 2006 Lebanon war, 2008/09 Gaza war and reveal the “most extensive concessions any Israeli leader has ever brought to the table in the search…

The state of the peace process in 2009

Overland is one of Australia’s finest literary journals. Punchy, provocative, topical, relevant and interesting, the magazine re-launched its website this week and is currently running a Subscriberthon. Do it for yourself and the country. Get into it! I was asked to write an original piece for the festivities: Antony Loewenstein is a prominent blogger, and…

Hamas and Israel move along their merry way of further crimes

Sometimes a necessary comparison must be done. First, Hamas in Gaza tightens its rule and undoubtedly increases the chances of human rights abuses: Hamas rulers in the Gaza Strip plan to introduce the death penalty for gangs getting rich off smuggled narcotics. Security officials of the Hamas movement and human rights groups say drug smuggling…

The lack of gas in Gaza causes suffering for all

The latest news about Gaza from Gisha’s wonderful new blog, Gaza Gateway: The severe shortage of cooking gas in the Gaza Strip has attracted scant media and public attention over the past two months. Generally, since the closure was imposed in 2007, the average monthly amount of cooking gas that Israel allows into the Strip…

Extremists should not be welcome in Australia

The following statement was released yesterday by the Construction, Forestry, Mining and Energy Sector union: Kevin Rudd is set to host an Israeli delegation to Australia led by Israeli Vice Prime Minister Silvan Shalom. Shalom is one of the most senior members of the extreme right wing Israeli political party, Likud, forming part of the…

Not all Jews want never-ending war against Gaza

Congratulations to these Jewish brothers and sisters standing up for human rights, not simply Zionist loyalty: British Zionist activists reacted on Tuesday with “bemusement” to a letter cosigned by hundreds of pro-Palestinian Jewish compatriots urging Gordon Brown to adopt the Goldstone Report, which accuses Israel of committing war crimes during its operation last winter in…

Bill Clinton reads Friedman and thinks Palestinians love being bombed

Need evidence that Bill Clinton is part of the problem and not the solution, utterly disconnected from facts on the ground in the Middle East? This Foreign Policy interview will only confirm the bankrupt ideas that marinate in the American political elite (and are merely copied around the empire, including Australia): I still think there…

Hamas willing to investigate its own crimes?

Al Jazeera English scores an exclusive interview with Hamas Prime Minister Ismail Haniya in Gaza and seemingly finds a regime far more willing to investigate its own crimes than Israel: Hamas says it is on the verge of starting its own investigation into whether it committed war crimes during Israel’s war on Gaza. The probe…

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