Newsweek profiles Palestinian Prime Minister Salam Fayyad. The tag-line for the story speaks for itself: Prime Minister Salam Fayyad’s unorthodox approach is winning plaudits from the West. That could be his undoing. While the Western-backed Palestinian Authority talks about “economic development”, the West Bank occupation merely deepens. This is no recipe for an independent Palestine…
Showing all posts tagged settlements
One state, two state”¦who cares so long as there’s a solution?
My following article appears in today’s Crikey: US President Barack Obama has consistently stated that he imagines a two state solution in the Middle East, with viable Jewish and Palestinian nations alongside each other. Israel, in a clear sign of who runs the show, announced last week that it intended to continue building colonies in…
So the mad settlers now run Israeli policy
Amos Harel writes in Haaretz: Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu knows his control over the land of outposts is flimsy. He is not the one who will decide how many caravans will be placed on hill 725, or how many Palestinian orchards will be uprooted near Yitzhar. A senior defense official told Haaretz: “Israeli law was…
Black is white and Israel is a pure nation
Sometimes it’s important to understand the mindset of Zionist extremism, its profound hatred for Arabs and belief in Jewish exclusivity. George Gilder, “the world’s foremost technology futurist”, published an essay in July in the journal of the neo-conservative American Enterprise Institute. Its message? At the heart of anti-Semitism is resentment of Jewish achievement. Today that…
Can you be an Israeli patriot and believe in co-existence?
Israeli peace activist Uri Avnery spoke out against a boycott of his own country last week and received huge condemnation (and probably praise) in the process. I don’t share his optimism in the Israeli people somehow recognising the rights of Palestinians and ending the occupation (he appears to seriously ignore the ever-growing power of the…
The Jewish community has no debate on Israel
The following letter by Michael Brull, blogger for Independent Australian Jewish Voices, appears in today’s Sunday Age: Dvir Abramovich (”There are as many Jewish opinions as there are Jews”, 30/8) quotes approvingly some Jewish declaration that ”most communal roof bodies include a wide range of opinions”. [But] all major communal Jewish organisations support almost everything…
Tell us about your non-believing and non-Zionist friend
This Israeli campaign is almost unimaginably crass: A day after mounting a scare-tactic campaign to prevent the assimilation of Diaspora Jews, the Prime Minister’s Office and Jewish Agency received some 200 calls, most of them reporting names of Jews living abroad. However, many callers also blasted the campaign – which describes assimilation as a “strategic…
Paying a dear price for ignoring Palestinian rights
Israeli businessman and West Bank settlement builder Lev Leviev, someone I’ve discussed before on this site, is currently experiencing some serious financial troubles. It couldn’t happen to a nicer man. But, more significantly, are his troubles partially related to the global boycott campaign against his Zionist expansionism? The Alternative Information Centre investigates: On 31 August…
Obama is being fooled by Israel (and he feels fine)
Steve Walt in Foreign Policy knows who is really in charge with the Israel/America relationship: In an obvious gesture of defiance, the Netanyahu government in Israel intends to approve the construction of hundreds of additional housing units in West Bank settlements. All such settlements, it is worth noting, are considered by most of the world…
When illegal settlements aren’t really all that illegal
What illegal Jewish colonies in the West Bank? The state prosecutor’s representative twice hinted that construction in West Bank settlements might be retroactively legalized Wednesday, seemingly representing a major policy turnaround. The two responses are a departure from the state’s usual response that the structures are illegal and are expected to be demolished.