Ari Shavit writes in Haaretz a letter to Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. It’s a fascinating document, fearful, paranoid and alive to Zionism’s likely fate in the 21st century. And where is Diaspora Jewry in all this? Asleep at the wheel, organising regular events to “celebrate” its closeness with Israel: Mr. Prime Minister, here are…
Showing all posts tagged Haaretz
Israel’s Right wants to kill Haaretz once and for all
The indispensable Israeli blog Promised Land on the campaign against Haaretz (mainly because it’s not some jingoistic rag): Haaretz, Israel’s oldest daily paper, has a status that exceeds its limited circulation. Israel’s supporters who whishes to portray it as a thriving democracy give Haaretz as an example; Critics of Israel use Haaretz when claiming that…
Israel is a sick child with no real interest in recovery, writes Haaretz
In a sad editorial, Haaretz laments the state of the Jewish state: The joy attendant on Israel’s Independence Day traditionally focused on emphasizing the growing list of the young state’s achievements and the sense that the country was progressing toward a better future – one of peace, enhanced physical and existential security, integration into the…
How much do we know about Frank Lowy and his beloved Israel?
In my book My Israel Question I discuss the role of Australian Jewish billionaire Frank Lowy and his closeness to Israel. This story, in Haaretz yesterday, reveals both his unhealthy relationship with former Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert and largely unreported role in supporting the Zionist state: The event on Thursday afternoon at the Auschwitz-Birkenau…
Threats to shut down Haaretz and silence any questions
An important by Jonathan Cook in The National that reveals the depressing state of intellectual debate in Israel. If you aren’t for the state, get out of the country, so the thinking goes. Dissent is frowned upon, to put it mildly: An Arab member of the Israeli parliament is demanding that a newspaper be allowed…
Whatever you do, make sure you keep on saying that Israel is a democracy
Throughout the current Anat Kamm case in Israel – where predictably Jerusalem Post columnist Caroline Glick calls the paper behind the story, Haaretz, a friend of Israel’s enemies and “supporting treason” – Zionists in the West still cling onto the same old myths. Take the New York Forward: There is a larger issue here: the…
How many Israelis view journalists doing their job
Gideon Levy on how the Israeli public truly views the latest controversy over press freedom, Anat Kamm, Uri Blau and censorship: If it depended on public opinion, Kamm and Blau would be executed and Haaretz would be shut down on the spot. The general who gave the assassination orders revealed by Kamm and Blau has…
News flash, Jews: another Holocaust isn’t coming
A good editorial in Haaretz: Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu used the official ceremony for Holocaust Remembrance Day on Sunday to warn about the Iranian threat. “The world gradually accepts Iran’s statements of destruction against Israel and we still do not see the necessary international determination to stop Iran from arming,” Netanyahu said, calling on “all…
Living in the West Bank is now (nearly) illegal
A travesty that will likely receive little outrage in the Western political elites: A new military order aimed at preventing infiltration will come into force this week, enabling the deportation of tens of thousands of Palestinians from the West Bank, or their indictment on charges carrying prison terms of up to seven years. When the…
One more nail in the coffin of Israel’s “image”
One of the Israeli journalists at the centre of the current censorship row – Uri Blau, temporarily living in London to avoid the oppressive arm of Israeli state security – writes in Haaretz what is truly at stake: The telephone call I received about a month ago should not have been a surprise. “Your apartment…