My following article is published in the Huffington Post: The Obama administration’s National Security Adviser General James Jones told the “pro-Israel and pro-peace” Israel lobby J Street this week that America believes “Israeli security and peace are inseparable.” The comment received a wild cheer, although similar comments were made during the Bush years. The over…
Showing all posts tagged West Bank
Lebanon and Gaza changed Zionism’s image
The Nation profiles the shifts in young, Jewish identity. Israel right or wrong is so yesterday’s news: Rachel Jones spent the past week in Washington, DC, at the first annual conference for the new progressive Jewish organization J Street. She was passing out literature for Meretz USA, an American nonprofit that supports the platform of…
J Street pushing a policy that leads to disappointment
My following article appears in today’s Crikey: Antony Loewenstein writes from Washington DC: During this week’s first J Street conference in Washington DC… ”‰—”‰a US-based, “pro-Israel and pro-peace” lobby group that aims to widen the debate over the Middle East… … ”‰—”‰an older woman stood up in a session titled “What does it mean to be pro-Israel?” and…
Only good water for the lucky few Israelis
The Israel that many Jews, including at the J Street conference, would rather ignore; a serial human rights abuser: Israel is accused today of denying the West Bank and Gaza access to adequate water through a “total” and “discriminatory” control that enables its own people to consume four times as much as the Palestinians. An…
Why blame Israel for our own violence?
Zvi Bar’el writes in Haaretz on Israel’s sublime delusion and victim mentality: Goldstone was born in June 1967. I am not referring to the judge from South Africa, but to his report, or more precisely, the notion that Israel needs a synonym for the soul-searching it must carry out after 42 years of occupation. In…
Israeli should not help Arabs in the territories
The case of Israeli activist Ezra Nawi is now decided; he will go to jail simply for defending Palestinians in the West Bank: The Jerusalem Magistrate Court on Wednesday sentenced left-wing activist Ezra Nawi to one month in prison, after convicting him of assaulting police officers during the 2007 evacuation of illegal Palestinian caravans in…
Locking up Arabs and throwing away the key
B’Tselem and Hamoked – Center for the Defence of the Individual release a report this week that shows the real burden of the Israeli occupation: Under international law, a state may detain a resident of occupied territory without trial to prevent danger only in extremely exceptional cases. Israel, however, holds hundreds of Palestinians for months…
When two-states die, Israel has a slight problem on its hands
A recent piece in Israeli paper Ma’ariv by Avshalom Vilan, a former Meretz Knesset member, articulates the growing fear of some Israelis that apartheid in the occupied territories is simply unsustainable: Regrettably, however, it is more important to the Israeli leadership to safeguard the coalition than to safeguard the state. Instead of grabbing the bull…
How do we survive love in a time of checkpoints?
A love affair between a Palestinian man and woman in the West Bank and Gaza. Life under occupation.
Come see Jewish only roads and enjoy the ride
Roll up for your relaxing holidays, people. Occupation is now a tourist attraction: The West Bank has a reputation for instability, military checkpoints and the ever-present threat of war with Israel. But the UK is to promote the region as a sun, beach and wildlife destination for British tourists. To the uninitiated, the image of…