My following essay appeared on February 19 in the Israeli publication, Haaretz: Newly-elected Australian Prime Minister Kevin Rudd formally apologized last week to tens of thousands of Aboriginals known as the ‘stolen generation’, who as children were forcibly removed from their families by the government until as recently as the early 1970s. The apology was…
Showing all posts tagged Hamas
Blogging the differences away
Away from the politicians and commentators, an Israeli and a Palestinian talk online: They used to meet in Sderot. It seems like ages ago. They were a group of Palestinians from Gaza and Israelis, most of whom were from Sderot. A siren could go off at any moment, but they continued to try to understand…
Gaza’s next top model
Militant chic hits the Palestinian territories: Of all the strategies thought up by Hamas, this was perhaps the least expected. In an apparent publicity drive in Gaza yesterday, the Palestinian Islamist movement handed out copies of a glossy magazine showing off gunmen from its armed wing. On the shiny green cover was a black-masked fighter,…
Little to celebrate
David Grossman, Salon, February 11: Today, Israel is an intolerably opaque place. The public atmosphere is turbid, sometimes horrifically so. This did not, of course, begin with Ehud Olmert, nor during the last war. For many years we, the Israelis, have been sunk in internal strife, to the point that we have lost our ability…
Pea-brained Zionists
Zvi Bar’el, Haaretz, February 10: What is Israel’s military strategy in Gaza? That is a question no one raises anymore. There is no strategy. There are retaliatory measures to react to Hamas’ mood.
Complicit in silence
My following article appeared in yesterday’s Guardian Comment is Free section: During the current Israeli siege of Gaza – correctly described by Saree Makdisi as “strangulation”, Israel’s ambassador to Australia issued a plea for understanding the Jewish state’s position. The ambassador, Yuval Rotem, argued that, “the people of Gaza are not the enemy”. He also…
How to define a people in one sentence
Mort Klein, president of the Zionist Organization of America, The New Republic, February 4: [Barack] Obama doesn’t understand that the Palestinians are more interested in Israel‘s destruction than in establishing a Palestinian state. This is the default Zionist lobby position. Defame an entire people, deny their right to independent thought and presume terrorism lurks within…
The need for Jewish dissent grows
Lynne Segal, Guardian Comment is Free, February 5: Independent Jewish Voices (IJV) celebrates its first year with its eyes on Gaza, demanding an end to the Israeli blockade and, on the uneven playing field of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, an end to human rights abuses on both sides. IJV was formed a year ago to raise…
An accidental war
My latest New Matilda column is about the recently released Winograd Report in Israel and what it says about the institutional failures within the Jewish state: The release last week of the Israeli Government’s Winograd Report was designed to reveal the failures of the Lebanon adventure and hold military and political leaders to account. Prime…
Talking to the “enemy”
The Western conundrum over Islamism: “So, you spoke to the leaders of Hezbollah?” “Yes” “And you also speak with the leaders of Hamas?” “Yes” “And they told you that they support democracy?” “Yes” “And you believe them?” With this the leader of a Washington think-tank smiled satisfied to her audience and sat down. Clearly the…