Bernard Avishai writes in Harpers about the wonderful economic possibilities of the US-backed Palestinian Authority in Ramallah. I believe he grossly exaggerates the potential to thrive as a society while under occupation (as I explained recently on ABC Radio). So long as Israel shows no intention of giving up its colonial mindset, “economic development” is…
Showing all posts tagged Gaza
How Israel plays Washington day in day out
The Israel Lobby co-author Steve Walt writes in the Washington Post: Like so many of his predecessors, President Obama is quickly discovering that persuading Israel to change course is nearly impossible. Obama came to office determined to achieve a two-state solution between Israelis and Palestinians. His opening move was to insist that Israel stop building…
The time to implement a boycott is now
The following interview by Stu Harrison appears in this week’s Green Left Weekly: “The war could have finished the day before I arrived”, independent journalist and author Antony Loewenstein told Green Left Weekly of his recent trip to the besieged Palestinian territory of Gaza. His trip in July was months after the December-January war, in…
Israeli asks the world to understand his pain and trauma
The New York Times has clearly taken the decision to not overly focus on the devastating UN report over Israel’s war against Gaza. Today they publish an odd piece by David Landau, the former editor of Haaretz: Israel intentionally went after civilians in Gaza — and wrapped its intention in lies. That chilling — and…
Constantly futile Palestine talk is leading in only one direction
With news that Barack Obama, Mahmoud Abbas and Benjamin Netanyahu will meet this week in the US for a completely empty photo-call, this comment on Friday from Hamas legislator Mushir al-Masri at a rally in Gaza’s Beit Lahia is ominous: The choice of negotiations has proven a failure, and it’s time that Palestinian negotiators abandon…
The Zionist blogging army is coming to a battle near you
I mentioned in early September a forthcoming blogger conference in Israel as a way for Zionist forces to co-ordinate propaganda for the state. Let’s call them whores for Israel. Evgeny Morozov, writing on his Foreign Policy blog, has a long post about the event and it’s worth quoting in full: At the risk of stepping…
America likes to bathe with Israeli missiles
The Obama administration comes down on the side of war criminals over its role in the Gaza war. When will more people start to realise that Washington is not an honest broker in the Middle East? The Obama administration sharply criticized a UN report Friday alleging that Israel committed multiple war crimes in its Gaza…
Israelis forgetting how to treat the other as human
Back in January, Assa Doron, an Israeli/Australian research fellow in the research school of Pacific and Asian studies at the Australian National University in Canberra, wrote a piece in the Australian about Jewish dissent over Israel: No one has a monopoly on patriotism or what constitutes national loyalty. Like many others, I too feel for…
Why Zionists know that boycotting Israel is a dangerous weapon
The following article by Philip Mendes and Nick Dyrenfurth appears in today’s Australian newspaper: A few weeks ago the Australia Israel Cultural Exchange staged the sixth annual Israeli film festival. Lost Islands, a film taking its title from a 1970s Australian television series (which amassed a cult following in Israel), kicked off proceedings. By telling…
The Iranian people won’t be silenced
During yesterday’s Jerusalem Day “celebrations” in Iran, this happened: By midmorning in central Tehran, dozens of opposition supporters in green T-shirts and wearing green wristbands – a color symbolising the opposition movement – marched with fingers raised in the V-sign for victory and chanting “Death to the Dictator.” Others shouted for the government to resign,…