An important post by Richard Silverstein which investigates and questions the complicity of US, non-profit organisations in funding, supporting and sustaining the most extreme Jewish settlers in the West Bank.
Showing all posts tagged United States
Prominent Jew helps Iran remain front and centre
Republican Whip Eric Cantor reminded the 2009 General Assembly of the Jewish Federations of North America in Washington this week that Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad is “the man holding the gun with which he vows to kill Israel and the Jews”: Some Jews always need an enemy.
France finally speaks the truth about Israel (and ain’t pretty)
What, a realisation that the Israeli establishment is opposed to peace? Clearly anti-Semitism at work: France fears that Israel no longer desires a Middle East peace deal, French Foreign Minister Bernard Kouchner said on Tuesday, adding that Paris remained deeply opposed to settlement building in the West Bank. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu held unusually low-profile…
J Street believes in Santa Claus
J Street release an utterly meaningless statement that essentially echoes the position of Benjamin Netanyahu. The occupation won’t end and Jerusalem shared (if that’s the goal) in the current circumstances: J Street applauds White House Chief of Staff Rahm Emanuel’s strong remarks this morning at the General Assembly, underscoring the Obama administration’s continued commitment to…
Ahmadinejad wonders just what Obama has really achieved
The Guardian asks Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad what it would take to normalise relations with the US: Change should happen in practice. Which change has happened? Was Guantánamo Bay shut down? Were the US policies supporting Zionists and the mass murder of Palestinians stopped? Were the US policies in Afghanistan changed? Were the policies in…
Don’t speak honesty in the US about Palestine, whatever you do
Democratic Representative Dennis Kucinich has often demanded that Israel live up to decent human rights standards. Witness his calls during this year’s Gaza war that Israel may have violated the Arms Export Control Act. This news is therefore unsurprising but once again proves the deformed nature of “debate” in the US over the Middle East:…
Times changing rapidly in the Middle East
My following article appears in today’s Crikey: Times are changing fast in the Middle East. The legal affairs editor at Yediot, Israel’s largest circulation daily, wrote on the weekend that the situation in the West Bank is “apartheid”. One leading American commentator, Time’s Joe Klein, directly challenges Barack Obama to withhold US aid until Israel…
When Jewish poets are far more honest than our leaders
The ability of Jews to speak freely about the Middle East is hardly guaranteed. Even poets were cancelled from the recent J Street conference for daring to be critical. One of those poets, Kevin Coval, writes: Since the second Palestinian intifada I have thought, written and spoken about these issues, but over the course of…
No talks, no peace, only occupation, welcome to Israel
Israeli paper Maariv’s Ben Caspit on who is really running the Middle East show. Netanyahu can take comfort in the fact that Abu Mazen’s situation is much worse than his own.… At least at the present stage.… The Palestinian version that Netanyahu is playing a double game and actually wishes to eliminate Abu Mazen is…
US tells Israel that they’re just tops but people aren’t convinced
The US Ambassador to Israel, James B. Cunningham, spoke a few days ago at Tel Aviv University. Promised Land blog reports on proceedings and it’s an utterly depressing affair: Ambassador Cunningham read a prepared lecture for 30 minutes, and than took questions for an additional half hour. I will report here some of the things…