History is turning: This weekend at the eighth annual US Campaign to End the Israeli Occupation national organizers’ conference held in Chicago, delegates from the approximately 300 member groups that make up the US Campaign voted in favor of an academic and cultural boycott of Israel. The vote came on the heels of a presentation…
Showing all posts tagged United States
Why J Street may just be having the right effect (sometimes)
It’s clear that J Street is seriously upsetting the Zionist establishment. Jewish Diaspora leaders who publicly criticise Israeli government policy are both necessary and morally important. Last night during a talk at Sydney University I challenged a senior Jewish lecturer who expressed pain about the West Bank settlements to actually try and do something about…
Afghan occupation breeds hatred
The war in Afghanistan is an unmitigated disaster. It deeply shames me as an Australian that we have trooops in the country contributing to the carnage. Pull out now. The Guardian published on the weekend a moving essay about the effects of last week’s NATO missile attack in Kunduz. The stories of civilian suffering is…
What are soldiers really doing in Iraq and Afganistan?
An important editorial in the Columbia Journalism Review on the need for journalists to report fairly and deeply into wars fought in our name: General William Tecumseh Sherman, like a number of military leaders through history, despised journalists. Tom Curley, president and CEO of The Associated Press, noted in a recent speech that a reporter…
How many US citizens know they are funding illegal settlements?
Not before time: Israeli peace activists are planning to ratchet up their campaign against groups in the United States that raise money for settlers by highlighting how tax exemptions are helping to fund the expansion of illegal settlements in the West Bank. Gush Shalom, a small peace group that advocates Israel’s withdrawal from the occupied…
Why does nobody love journalists?
Mainstream media, you have a serious problem: The news media’s credibility is sagging along with its revenue. Nearly two-thirds of Americans think the news stories they read, hear and watch are frequently inaccurate, according to a poll released Sunday by the Pew Research Center for the People & the Press. That marks the highest level…
Nazism has nothing on Obama’s plan
Max Blumenthal, a favourite around here, was in Washington DC last weekend and profiled the range of anti-Obama figures at a huge public protest. Let’s just say that Hitler’s Germany has nothing on modern day America (according to some of those interviewed):
How the Elders captured a glimpse of Israeli apartheid
Following the recent visit to Israel/Palestine by The Elders, an Israeli lawyer, Emily, Schaefer, wrote this detailed report on her experiences with the group to a select list… (but she has given permission for publication). She helped organise The Elders visit to a Palestinian village: Dear friends, family and comrades, Yesterday might just have been…
What the Muslim world needs from Israel
Saudi Arabia, despotic and a US ally, is a key player in the Middle East, mainly due to its oil reserves. In the New York Times, Prince Turki al-Faisal, former director of Saudi Arabia’s intelligence services and ambassador to the United States, writes that until Israel gives up its colonial addiction to land, the Arab…
We must cleanse ourselves of these aggressive Jews
Salon’s Glenn Greenwald on the frustration of Zionist neo-conservatives who only imagine a world with violence and occupation: Neocons arrogate unto themselves the right to make appeals to what they believe is the “dual loyalty” of American Jews — most of whom, in fact, reject their radical ideology — when trying to coerce support for…