Israel is running rings around Obama

I share Gideon Levy’s despair in Haaretz over America’s seeming unwillingness to pressure Israel over its settlement program and overall behaviour in the occupied territories. During my recent visit to Israel, the West Bank and Gaza, an overall sense of resignation and despair hung everywhere: With great sorrow and deep consternation, we hereby declare the…

Very unequal before Israeli law

Gideon Levy in Haaretz on the ethnic cleansing in Jerusalem: The distance between Sheikh Jarrah and Sheikh Munis has been shortened in one fell swoop. Those who contend that Jews must be given back their property cannot in the same breath deny the Palestinians’ property rights because of their national origin. It’s true that a…

The silencing of an important voice

This is concerning news sent by Israeli human rights group New Profile: Dear Friends, This morning I by purely chance learned Haaretz had fired Meron Benvenisti.…  I phoned him and he confirmed this, relating that Haaretz had fired him at the end of May.…  His dismissal will be formally activated at the end of June,…

Jews who need a good, long hug

Gideon Levy writes in Haaretz about the worthlessness and bigotry of the settlers in the West Bank and receives this comment (from Australia): It is people like Gideon Levy who do more harm to Israel than any anti-semite any where else could, simply because the fact that he`s *Israeli*, gives him the credibility to undermine…

Beyond time to wield the massive stick

Israel’s Strategic Affairs Minister Moshe Ya’alon said on Saturday: Settlements are not the reason that the peace process is failing, they were never an obstacle, not at any stage. Even when Israel pulled out of [Palestinian] territory, the terror continued. Even when we uprooted [Jewish] communities, we got ‘Hamastan.’ That is why I propose that…

IAJV May newsletter

The following email was sent out yesterday to Independent Australian Jewish Voices (IAJV) signatories: Dear friends, We would like to inform you of the following events: – Haneen Zoabi is the Knesset’s only female Israeli Arab MP and she arrives in Australia this week. She’ll be appearing on many mainstream news outlets and giving talks…

If the Americans are truly serious, well…

Progressive Zionist lobbyist MJ Rosenberg wonders why the Israelis think they can ignore the requests from Obama to move towards a two-state solution: There can be no doubt: Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu does not much care what President Obama thinks about negotiations with the Palestinians. He seems to be making the same mistake that Obama’s…

Kill them, any Arabs will do

Gideon Levy, writing in Haaretz, targets Israeli media cheer-leaders of wars against “enemies”: And what of the cheerleaders who sat on the sidelines of this hellish nightmare? Perhaps we should at least hold them accountable? They sat in their television studios and at their newspaper desks. Oh, how the commentators were excited and stirred excitement.…

Is this the ideology that makes Jews proud?

Gideon Levy writes in Haaretz about the failures of Zionism (and the Israeli left): And what is Zionism nowadays? An archaic and outdated concept born in a different reality, a vague and delusive concept marking the difference between the permitted and the proscribed. Does Zionism mean settlement in the territories? Occupation? The legitimization of every…

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