With the Durban circus continuing, the editor of the Independent Australian Jewish Voices opinion and letters page, Sara Dowse, has a few reflections: In June 1975 I was a member of the Australian delegation to the UN Conference for International Women’s Year. It was held in Mexico City, where for the first time a motion…
Showing all posts tagged Gaza
Divide, conquer and rule
Amira Hass, of Haaretz, writes on Bitterlemons about the profound separation between West Bank and Gaza and Israel’s effective plan to make a unified Palestinian entity virtually impossible: The total separation of the Gaza Strip from the West Bank is one of the greatest achievements of Israeli politics, whose overarching objective is to prevent a…
Israel to bomb Iran? Don’t believe the hype
My latest column for New Matilda is about the relationship between Israel and Iran and the prospects for war: The Israel lobby want to bomb Iran, but calmer heads can see plenty of reasons not to. This time the lobby may not get what it wants, writes Antony Loewenstein Roger Cohen, a columnist for the…
Finding the full view of a war
Imagine if this technology was used during Israel’s bombardment of Gaza?
What, there was a war here?
Here’s a question. Should a Middle East correspondent for a major news organisation (in this case, the Australian Broadcasting Corporation) have any experience in the region? The ABC’s Anne Barker just arrived in Jerusalem and filed this piece for Correspondent’s Report: It’s one thing to see a disaster zone on television or read about it…
Power plays of a serious kind
What’s one colonial state (Israel) doing with another colonial wannabe (Iran)? Security sources say Israel and Iran are conducting rival intelligence operations in Eritrea, the poor African state on the Red Sea. The Israelis fear Eritrea could be a flashpoint if Iranian Revolutionary Guards continue to ship arms to militants in Gaza via the Eritrean…
You can talk about everything, except Palestine
After all the hype, propaganda and dis-information over the upcoming Durban II anti-racism conference in Geneva (see here, here and here), a more measured understanding of the politics is required; it’s not pretty: As the wreckage from Israel’s recent siege on Gaza continues to smoulder, international civil society organisations are assembling this week in Switzerland…
We shouldn’t be grieving for the death of newspapers
My following article appears today in Online Opinion: As a journalist who spends the vast majority of my life online, the seemingly never-ending debates about the future of the media and newspapers can be exhausting and predictable. The same mantras are heard over and over again. Where will the news come from when newsprint dies?…
We are good because we’re Jews
Yitzhak Laor writes in Haaretz that the Israeli establishment isn’t too good at acknowledging the country’s profound failings towards the Palestinians. The signs of an immature nation: On June 19, 1977, the Sunday Times marked the 10-year anniversary of the occupation with a wide-ranging expose on the torture of Palestinian prisoners in Israeli jails. The…
A chance to discuss Israeli PR
Only on Al-Jazeera English. A necessary debate about the role of Zionist spin in the American media and the reporting of the Gaza war: