Page one story today from Israel’s leading paper, Yediot: The Obama administration intends to present Israel and the Palestinians with a new outline for ending the conflict. Yedioth Ahronoth has learned that the Americans will pressure the sides to sign a framework agreement for a final status arrangement within a year — but the agreement…
Showing all posts tagged Judaism
When will more Jews not back occupation and oppression?
Many Australian Jews see their role as simply backing anything Israel does. Nuke Gaza? No worries. Those Palestinians clearly deserved it. Here’s a letter in this week’s Australian Jewish News that perfectly captures the mood. Thanks for mentioning Independent Australian Jewish Voices! Thank goodness for the unswerving, if not always uncritical, support for Israel by…
Don’t see Turkey with rose-coloured glasses
Turkey has recently received much global support for its strong stance against Israel and backing for the Palestinians. But Ankara’s repression of its Kurdish minority cannot be ignored. The story of an American journalist recently deported for reporting on these very issues.
Wikileaks shows the CIA understands how the US is seen
The latest Wikileaks revelations are intriguing and indicate a fear within the CIA that America may be seen as an incubator of terrorism (and, perish the thought, even a cause of violence): The United States has long been an exporter of terrorism, according to a secret CIA analysis released Wednesday by the Web site WikiLeaks.…
The super-kosher rail car is coming to a Zionist state near you
Segregation is central to Israeli society so this really shouldn’t come as a surprise. An Haaretz editorial calls for sanity: Maj. Gen. (res. ) Yair Naveh, CEO of the CityPass consortium that operates Jerusalem’s light rail system, has proposed allocating sex-segregated cars for ultra-Orthodox passengers. His proposal is astounding and exceeds his authority as director…
Handy tips for those wanting to define anti-Semitism
A Yale conference on “anti-Semitism”, featuring mainly pro-settler academics, many of whom appear regularly in the Western press, that suggests any real criticism of Israel is akin to Jew-hatred.
America says; democracy in the Mid-East is for pussies
Akiva Eldar in Haaretz on Washington’s desperate attempt to continue to maintain “democratic” Israel in the Middle East and US-backed dictatorships in the rear: Despite the fact that they occurred almost simultaneously, any connection between the withdrawal of American combat troops from Iraq and Washington’s invitation of the leaders of Jordan and Egypt to a…
Peter Beinart in Sydney
Saw Peter Beinart tonight in Sydney. Talking about US power, or lack thereof. He’s articulate, bright and knows his subject. And yet Beinart seems oddly detached from the human beings affected by US foreign policy. Victims of Washington are absent in his analysis. And Beinart didn’t mention Israel. I couldn’t ask my question about his…
The “enlightened” occupation
The bravery of people speaking out against Israel’s corrupted soul: It was a single word scrawled on a wall at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem that unlocked something deep inside Inbar Michelzon, two years after she had completed compulsory military service in the Israeli Defence Force. The word was “occupation”. “I really felt like someone…
It’s illegal to even protest illegal Jewish colonies
The Magnes Zionist writes about yet another Israeli jailing of a “Palestinian Gandhi“. Protesting the occupation in the West Bank is illegal in the wonderful democracy known as the Jewish state: So what were the charges against Abdallah Abu Rahmah, the internationally-known organizer of the Bil’in protest, that stuck? Exonerated of stone-throwing and weapons possession…