When “apartheid” is the only word to use

The Middle East Report dedicates an edition to the key issue in the Middle East: We have used the word “apartheid” to describe Israel’s system of rule over the Palestinians with eyes wide open to the incendiary quality of the term and the uniqueness of the South African ordeal that it automatically evokes. Our purpose…

Getting Jerusalem in a head-lock and not letting go (if only)

I just caught up with Andrew Sullivan’s column from last weekend’s Sunday Times on Obama and Israel. Despite the fact that Jeffrey Goldberg worries about Sullivan’s Zionist credentials, Sullivan argues that Obama has played the Middle East well so far and holds a trump card: In the long run Obama retains one key advantage. He…

Of course we should examine the occupation, not ignore it

The New York Review of Books has a blog and David Shulman weighs in on the UN Goldstone report, rejecting the criticism that the wider context of the occupation be forgotten: …The report’s attempt to link whatever happened in Gaza with what has been going on in the West Bank for the last forty-two years…

Best just be Jewish and forget about the rest

At least somebody in Israel acknowledges the profound legal discrimination between Jews and Arabs in the country: An Israeli judge made an historic ruling last week when he decided that an Arab teenager needed “protection” from the justice system and ordered that he not be convicted despite being found guilty of throwing stones at a…

Forgetting Gaza is still destroyed

Gaza, land of ruin: Tens of thousands of Palestinians in Gaza living in tents and damaged homes face a wet, cold and miserable winter as Israel’s blockade of the coastal territory continues to prevent the importation of building and reconstruction material. During the last few weeks Gazans were given a brief reprieve from the oncoming…

Israel lobby funds another media tour. Read all about it

My following article is published today on Crikey: “Peter Hartcher is the Sydney Morning Herald’s international editor. He travelled to Israel as a guest of the NSW Jewish Board of Deputies.” Hartcher’s latest piece for his paper tells a familiar tale. The UN Goldstone report on the Gaza war… ”‰—”‰in which Israel and Hamas are accused…

How much do we really know about Zionist influence on British elites?

The entire Channel 4 Dispatches investigation of the Zionist lobby’s influence on British politics. This Guardian piece sums up the desperate need to fully uncover the role of Likud extremism on the democratic system: Every year a very grand lunch is given by the Conservative Friends of Israel at a central London hotel. Anyone who…

The Goldstone report resonates deeply in Gaza city

Tariq Abu Dia, owner of the late President Yasser Arafat souvenir shop in the Rimal neighborhood of Gaza City, said: “Today we put out 50 keffiyehs made of white fabric with the Dome of the Rock in Jerusalem and the name ‘Goldstone’ embroidered on them, to honor his work.”

The mainstream media should not take free trips to Israel, repeat after me

Following Peter Hartcher’s article in yesterday’s Sydney Morning Herald that allowed Zionist spokespeople yet more opportunities to white-wash their crimes in Gaza, the following letter is published in today’s paper: Peter Hartcher’s reflection on the Goldstone report fails on a number of counts (”Israel feels tarnished as critics apply apartheid tag”, November 17). Hartcher repeats…

Without serious pressure, writes Roger Cohen, Israel will not change

New York Times columnist Roger Cohen has written extensively this year about the Israel/Palestine conflict, and his latest column continues that tradition. Its importance lies in telling Americans how content many Israelis are with the status-quo (namely occupation): I’ve grown so pessimistic about Israel-Palestine that I find myself agreeing with Israel’s hard-line foreign minister, Avigdor…

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