Danny Ayalon, deputy foreign minister to Israel’s Avigdor Lieberman and resident clown, has a vision for the Middle East. Gather around, children, it’s compelling and breathlessly reported by the Murdoch press: In an interview with The Weekend Australian, Ayalon accused Saudi Arabia of funding a campaign to delegitimise Israel and drew on the former Soviet…
Showing all posts tagged West Bank
What’s the connection between Jewish settlements and Angola?
Israeli businessmen and West Bank settlement builder billionaire Lev Leviev has long been targeted by activists for assisting in colonisation. His businesses have been boycotted and rightly so. And his glorious work continues, according to the front page of yesterday’s Wall Street Journal on blood diamonds in Angola: The war’s end led to a surge…
IAJV June newsletter
The following email was just sent to the Independent Australian Jewish Voices email list: Dear friends, The recent Gaza flotilla debacle has brought international attention to the blockade on Gaza by Israel. Media coverage has been intense and we have been pleased to see the growing dissent worldwide among Jews. The wider community is no…
Australian “green” company linked to Israel’s occupation in Palestine
My following article appears today on ABC Unleashed/The Drum: My investigation has found a leading Australian electric car company is linked to an Israeli firm that operates in the illegally occupied Palestinian territories. Better Place, advertised as “dedicated to zero emissions driving”, is part of a global venture capital firm based in California that has…
The reasons most Israelis have no real interest in giving up the West Bank
While America’s neo-conservatives begin a full-fledged campaign of hatred directed at Turkey, this is how one of the United States’ major (war-supporting) Jewish writers, The Atlantic’s Jeffrey Goldberg, frames the debate; Israeli fear, paranoia and belligerence: Last night Mrs. Goldblog and I went to a dinner at which The Situation was the main topic of…
Splitting Palestine in two
As usual, Amira Hass in Haaretz hits the point in one swoop: The achievement of the failed flotilla to Gaza – mainly, it must be conceded, by its dead – is that the demand is being heard from everywhere that Israel halt its policy of siege. The government of Israel was not willing to listen…
The deadly burden of occupation
A fascinating new report by Israeli group Adva Center that details the true cost of Israel’s ongoing colonisation program. And just remember, this is what most Jews in the Diaspora are backing: Marking 43 years of Israeli occupation of the Palestinian territories, the Adva Center published today its bi-annual report on the burden of Israel’s…
Jews who make excuses for not really speaking out
Following the revealing article in yesterday’s Sydney Morning Herald on Jewish dissent, these letters appear today: It saddens me that Peter Slezak wants to be a “non-Jewish Jew”, apparently glorying in some weird self-imposed excommunication (”Promised land needs home truth”, June 8). If he was an activist in the Australian Jewish community he would know…
Pappe on Israel’s ultimate goal
One of Israel’s finest historians, Ilan Pappe – now based in England – has a necessary take on the Jewish state’s current path of self-destruction: One would have thought that Israel’s drastic decline in international reputation would prompt new thinking by its leaders. But the responses to the attack on the flotilla in the past…
Questioning the Promised Land is a Jewish need
I’m pleased to see my friend and co-founder of Indpendent Australian Jewish Voices (IAJV), Peter Slezak, with a piece in today’s Sydney Morning Herald on the importance of Jewish dissent. These are the kinds of debates the Jewish community are so afraid to have. By defending all Israeli actions, they are blind to the reality…