The following editorial appears in today’s Sydney Morning Herald: Israel is a democracy. It contains many political parties with a wide spectrum of views about how to approach the great issue of an eventual Palestinian settlement, as well as many more mundane policies. It has human rights groups which put the Israeli security forces under…
Showing all posts tagged Iran
Like the world didn’t know already
In a rare breach of official American adherence to Israel’s policy of nuclear ambiguity, the U.S. military is terming Israel “a nuclear power” on a par with Russia, China, India, Pakistan and North Korea, all of which have declared their nuclear weapon status, and ahead of “nuclear threshold powers” Japan, South Korea and Taiwan, and…
Hold the champagne for a few decades
Friend John R sends a link to this bleak blog post by Jim Lobe from IPS with a comment: Jim Lobe writes that Secretary Clinton sees a settlement through a Fatah lens and will ignore Arab public opinion on Hamas. He sees the dead hand of Dennis Ross on rallying Sunnis against Iran. This is…
Being heard above the noise
Voices of reason remain alive in Iran, despite the ever-tightening repression: The Iranian Writers’ Association has issued a statement protesting repression and persecution against “different groups of the Iranian society” in the recent months. The report, dated February 23, notes that “in the last few months, along with the deterioration of economic and social conditions…
Read the fine print carefully
As I cover extensively in my book The Blogging Revolution, web hosting firms are increasingly keen to censor websites if deemed too “controversial”: The fear is that web hosting providers may decide it’s simply less trouble to prohibit host blogs in countries where some individuals are sanctioned. Best to know a company’s terms of use…
The quiet Jewish calm
New York Times columnist Roger Cohen on the relationship between Iran and its Jewish minority. Like I wrote in my book, The Blogging Revolution, the myth of Jews being oppressed in the Islamic Republic is simply propaganda.
An Israel of the mind
My latest New Matilda column is about the recent Israeli elections and the issues of Jewish identity: Do the results of Israel’s recent election really point to significant changes in the Jewish state? According to most regional analysts, the results of Israel’s recent election signal a profound shift to the right. But a deeper reading…
A policy designed by moral pygmies
The art of state terror, practiced by Israel and many others, should be condemned in the strongest possible terms. Just the latest example: It is using hitmen, sabotage, front companies and double agents to disrupt the regime’s illicit weapons project, the experts say. The most dramatic element of the “decapitation” programme is the planned assassination…
Talking Palestine in Ubud
I’m currently in Ubud, Bali after being invited by the Ubud Writers and Readers Festival to conduct an event tonight. The following article appears in the current edition of the local paper, The Bali Advertiser: 2009 Ubud Writers and Readers Festival presents Antony Loewenstein author of “My Israel Question” and “The Blogging Revolution” Just as…
Why a debate over Zionism has to happen
The Australian Jewish community has reacted with predictable anger to a couple of local Jewish academics who are calling for the dismantling of Zionism. I had no personal involvement in the statement but I support an important debate over the future of Zionism and its detrimental effects. I was interviewed by the Iranian satellite channel…