While non-violent resistance is growing in the West Bank – a threat to Israel and its backers because the vast majority of its adherents are simply demanding equal rights with Jews – it’s hard not to read this and despair. On the other hand, Israel’s true face is being revealed more every day. And we…
Showing all posts tagged settlements
New York Times prefers to view the Middle East as a balanced tiff between two old mates
The New York Times editorialises about the Middle East with its usual “he said/she said” mentality. Both the Israelis and Palestinians must work towards peace but why the hell should anybody in the Middle East see America and Barack Obama as anything other than a nearly unquestioning friend of Israel? Vice President Joseph Biden Jr.…
This is how the US deals with its wild child, Israel
Take news from the Middle East in the last 24 hours. Despairing, infuriating and tragic. This: The Palestinians pulled out of a new round of indirect peace talks last night, even before they had begun, as a protest at Israel‘s decision to announce approval for hundreds of new homes in a Jewish settlement in East…
How many in the West know that Jews are allowed to act as they want in the West Bank?
Haaretz reporter Avi Issacharoff writes, in an article headlined, “Israel policy allows settlers to rampage unchecked“, that the West Bank is lawless and mad: In general, the decision-making body in Israel regarding building over the Green Line has become deliberately destructive, and adopted a policy of “ya’ani” (Arabic slang for something which only gives an…
Another handy reminder of who runs the Middle East conflict
US Vice President Joe Biden’s trip to Israel has been, in the words of the Daily Beast, “disastrous“: Just as Biden arrived in Israel, the Interior Ministry announced the construction of 1,600 new housing units for Jewish residents in East Jerusalem, a move many, including many in the Obama administration, have interpreted as a deliberate…
The OECD may once again be ignoring Israel’s elephant in the ro
Who said brutally occupying another people is a barrier to global acceptance? An exclusive club of the world’s most developed countries is poised to admit Israel as a member even though, a confidential internal document indicates, doing so will amount to endorsing Israel’s illegal occupation of Palestinian and Syrian territories. Israel has been told that…
Washington approves of Israeli settlements but kind of disapproves, too
A classic example of American news-speak: The United States said on Monday that Israel’s approval of building 112 new Jewish homes in the West Bank did not violate a limited Israeli settlement freeze but was the kind of act both sides should be cautious about as they embark on indirect peace talks. “On the one…
Israel and South Africa, feel the similarities
Jerusalem Post columnist Larry Derfner doesn’t mince words: “As long as in this territory west of the Jordan River there is only one political entity called Israel, it is going to be either non-Jewish or non-democratic. If this bloc of millions of Palestinians cannot vote, it will be an apartheid state.” Those are the words…
Prominent Australian Jews, including Peter Singer, reject the Israeli right of return
MEDIA RELEASE 3 MARCH, 2010 Today is the national launch of a prominent new Australian initiative that rejects Israel’s automatic right of return for Jews across the world. Following a recent similar project in the US, 35 distinguished Australian Jews have signed a petition that indicates growing dissent from Zionist policies and dispossession of Palestinian…
Rights is the key question for Israel/Palestine, not just peace
A fine post by Promised Land blogger Noam Sheizaf: When discussing the Palestinian-Israeli political process, the most common error is setting peace as its goal. This is not only incorrect, but also counter-productive, because it serves those who wish to maintain the status quo. The key to ending hostilities is to reframe the received narrative,…