The view from Gaza

My latest column for New Matilda features on the ground reporting from Gaza: Six months after the Israeli offensive in Gaza, Antony Loewenstein went to see how its people are coping under Israel’s continuing blockade The no-man’s land you must cross to get from Israel into Gaza is a 500-metre stretch of sand. We —…

Is settler violence not news?

Another week and more settler violence against Palestinian farmers in the West Bank. The Western media is typically absent from the scene. Activst blogger and journalist Joseph Dana continues his weekly eyewitnesses reports from the ground: 1 August 2009 South West Bank Ta’ayush joined the Christian Peacemaker Team to help accompany children to school near…

Get one-state on the table, says Israeli blogger

Promised Land is one of Israel’s finest English-language blogs. I met its author Noam Sheizaf today in Tel Aviv, a 35 year man with a deep love for Israel (and Tel Aviv) and interesting ideas about the conflict. He was dismissive of most Diaspora Jewry, people with little or no idea what is actually happening…

The NYTs on myth and reality in Palestine

Thomas Friedman writes in today’s New York Times that Israel needs to stop building settlements. The rest of his column repeats the now-accepted, yet false myth, that Israel withdraw from Gaza and only received rockets in return. In fact, when you blockade a territory after a democratic election, you better expect some fireworks: For years,…

Settlers continue on their merry way

I was given the following flyer a few nights ago in Jerusalem during a pro-settler rally: This coming Saturday night, join hundreds, if not thousands, of hardline supporters of the “settlement” movement who will camp out on a hilltop near “Kfar Tapuach” in the Shomrom to take part in a unique, all-night music festival that…

The Israelis need to be told over and over again

Following the recent article in the New York Times by Haaretz writer Aluf Benn – essentially arguing that US pressure on Israel just isn’t fair, no, not at all! – a letter writer responds in today’s paper: Aluf Benn states that “as far as most Israelis are concerned, Mr. Obama has made a mistake in…

Helping settle the colonies in the open

Israel-American Mairav Zonszein, activist and writer, exposes the nefarious activities of the US group Nefesh B’Nefesh (which means “Soul in Soul” in Hebrew) in the Nation magazine: In the years since its first plane landed, NBN has brought 20,000 immigrants to Israel from North America and Britain. Of those 20,000, NBN PR and communications manager…

What some radical Jews need to hear

After the New York Times editorialised about the Middle East peace process and essentially repeated Obama administration talking points, the Los Angeles Times, while equally believing in the impossible two-state solution, challenges the Zionist spokespeople who claim Obama is anti-Israel: Evenhandedness usually is considered to be a positive attribute in diplomacy, but when it comes…

West Bank colonies face a necessary obstacle

The Washington Post reports (perhaps a little optimistically) about Israel’s Supreme Court increasingly coming down against illegal West Bank settlements: It has been nearly a decade since the Jewish settlement of Migron appeared on the hilltop opposite this Palestinian village, beginning with a communications tower and followed by a cluster of homes and a fence…

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