Eitan Haber writes in Ynet that the poor Jews are the victims of growing global cooling (he’s right, but it’s hard not to feel such pieces are designed to create sympathy for an occupying people): The US still offers great support to Israel, and White House officials are angry over every statement from here that…
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The crimes in Gaza will be remembered
If Israel and the US believe that killing Palestinians is an acceptable part of doing business, they’re dead wrong: Human rights lawyers and pro-Palestinian activists in a number of European countries hold lists with names of Israel Defense Forces soldiers allegedly linked to war crimes committed during Operation Cast Lead in the Gaza Strip. Existing…
News flash: younger Jews want to use their brains
The JTA reports on J Street’s clear generational divide. Simply put, younger Jews are more ambivalent about Zionism and a two-state solution. They want independent thought and they oppose the Israel right or wrong crowd. Bring it on (and I heard this constantly over the last four days): After all the arguing in recent weeks…
J Street rolls on
Here in Washington DC the J Street conference rolls on. It’s pretty thrilling to be around many like-minded people but also accepting that the mainstream view on Israel/Palestine is still imagining a Jewish state that doesn’t exist (democratic, free for all etc). Here’s a collection of key links about proceedings: here, here, here, here and…
The increasingly toxic smell of Zionism
This is the kind of attitude that I’m hearing constantly here at the J Street conference in Washington DC (time to redefine what it means to be Jewish, critical and pro-peace): J Street’s university arm has dropped the “pro-Israel” part of the left-wing US lobby’s “pro-Israel, pro-peace” slogan to avoid alienating students. That decision was…
J Street begins
The first J Street conference began tonight here in Washington DC. Over 1200 people attended, a few Jewish protesters outside accused the group of being worse than Nazis and the overall message inside was on opening up public debate on Israel/Palestine. On that level alone – and I have profound disagreements with the group on…
Those rules don’t apply to Washington and Israel
Salon’s Glenn Greenwald on Benjamin Netanyahu’s definition of “war crimes”: The Prime Minister says Hamas is guilty for denying Red Cross access to prisoners: exactly what the U.S. did.
Indonesia moves a little towards America, for now
Following my recent visit to Aceh in Indonesia, this piece in today’s Washington Post is particularly interesting (though highlights the seeming inability of the American corporate media to see the world in anything other than what benefits the US): In many ways, Indonesia — a nation of 240 million people scattered across 17,000 islands —…
Discussions and clarifications from J Street
J Street head Jeremy Ben-Ami talks to The Atlantic’s Jeffrey Goldberg and clarifies that his group is desperate to remain in the centre. The key problem with this position, of course, is that such “centrist” negotiations have taken place for years and the power imbalance is largely ignored. The Palestinians are under occupation. This won’t…
J Street: good Jews, mad Jews and many in-between
I’m now in Washington DC for the first J Street national conference. Stay tuned.