I’m currently at the Auckland Writer’s Festival. Wonderful event. Speaking to hundreds of people every day – mainly about the Middle East but also on the importance of alternative voices online – and the one message that keeps on coming up is how rarely dissenting Jewish perspectives or those critical of Israel appear in the…
Showing all posts tagged Iran
The one-minute explanation for the “war on terror”
Lessons on terrorism that every American should know:
As long as Israel remains an American obsession, things will decline badly
Josh Landis @ Foreign Policy thinks that Russia is looking at the Middle East with added interest and I wonder why: So long as America’s No. 1 foreign-policy goal in the region is to hurt Iran and help Israel, Russia will be drawn back into the region and a new Cold War will take shape.…
Americans murdering Afghans, says Seymour Hersh
The journalist who helped break the story that detainees at the Abu Ghraib prison in Iraq were being tortured by their US jailers told an audience at a journalism conference last month that American soldiers are now executing prisoners in Afghanistan. New Yorker journalist Seymour Hersh also revealed that the Bush Administration had developed advanced…
Why internet censorship is a fool’s paradise
My following article is published today by the Sydney Morning Herald/Age online: We live under the illusion that governments can protect us from the evils of the world. Paedophilia, extreme violence, lessons in self-harm and suicide, race hatred and terrorism. We have every right to expect governments to monitor hate and terror sites and arrest…
Debating why the internet should not be censored
The following article by Erik Jensen appears in today’s Sydney Morning Herald: Governments should not censor the internet. The Prime Minister, Kevin Rudd, disagrees and the Opposition Leader, Tony Abbott, broadly supports his position. But two journalists and the head of government affairs for Google in Asia strongly agree with the proposition. “We have to…
Bring Auschwitz into the Israel debate and take a back seat
Why oh why do so many Zionists only write in apocalyptic language? Because that’s all they know. Victimhood is too appealing. Here’s Sarah Honig: Obama’s endgame is to debilitate, demoralize and destabilize Israel. All he offers Israelis is a choice of how his inimical goal will be achieved. This may be via allowing Iran the…
Can Australia please not hate refugees for five minutes?
Here’s Australia’s Liberal Party, the main Opposition, with its election-style ad. Note the brief section on refugees, red lines indicating an invasion of “illegals” from countries such as Iran, Sri Lanka, Iraq etc. Not racist at all. No chance:
Is Bin Laden in Washington DC?
A unique interview in the US this week between Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad and ABC’s George Stephanopoulos: Stephanopoulos: If you did know that Osama bin Laden was in Tehran, would you show him hospitality? Would you expel him? Would you arrest him? Ahmadinejad: I heard that Osama bin Laden is in Washington DC. Stephanopoulos: No,…
10 tips to convince those virulent Israel haters
Rabbi Marvin Hier is the founder and dean of the Simon Wiesenthal Centre, a leading Jewish organisation in the US. The document below is truly astounding, a hilariously clueless attempt to refute allegedly unfair claims against Israel and Jews. Black is white, the occupation is a charming day in the park and Israel just wants…