Bernard Avishai writes in Harpers about the wonderful economic possibilities of the US-backed Palestinian Authority in Ramallah. I believe he grossly exaggerates the potential to thrive as a society while under occupation (as I explained recently on ABC Radio). So long as Israel shows no intention of giving up its colonial mindset, “economic development” is…
Showing all posts tagged Zionism
Unpacking Iran’s confused attitudes to themselves and Jews
A new study released by World Public Opinion finds encouraging support for an Iranian/American rapprochement: A new WorldPublicOpinion.org poll of Iranians finds that six in 10 favor restoration of diplomatic relations between their country and the United States, a stance that is directly at odds with the position the Iranian government has held for three…
How Israel plays Washington day in day out
The Israel Lobby co-author Steve Walt writes in the Washington Post: Like so many of his predecessors, President Obama is quickly discovering that persuading Israel to change course is nearly impossible. Obama came to office determined to achieve a two-state solution between Israelis and Palestinians. His opening move was to insist that Israel stop building…
Allowing a mainstream audience to see Zionist extremism
Last night 60 Minutes ran a feature on the occupied West Bank (the reporter’s blog on the… subject clearly sees the Jewish settlers as the main impediment to peace). When the journalist Liam Bartlett told settler leader Nadia Matar that all the settlements were illegal, her response was instructive: The UN is biased, uh uh…
The time to implement a boycott is now
The following interview by Stu Harrison appears in this week’s Green Left Weekly: “The war could have finished the day before I arrived”, independent journalist and author Antony Loewenstein told Green Left Weekly of his recent trip to the besieged Palestinian territory of Gaza. His trip in July was months after the December-January war, in…
Israeli asks the world to understand his pain and trauma
The New York Times has clearly taken the decision to not overly focus on the devastating UN report over Israel’s war against Gaza. Today they publish an odd piece by David Landau, the former editor of Haaretz: Israel intentionally went after civilians in Gaza — and wrapped its intention in lies. That chilling — and…
You can’t normalise transport through occupation
Global protests against firms invested in a light-rail system in the occupied Palestinian territories refuse to die. The latest, courtesy of Jonathan Cook: An ill-fated light railway under construction in Jerusalem was originally heralded by Israeli officials as a way to cement the city’s “unification” four decades after the city’s Palestinian half was illegally annexed…
Constantly futile Palestine talk is leading in only one direction
With news that Barack Obama, Mahmoud Abbas and Benjamin Netanyahu will meet this week in the US for a completely empty photo-call, this comment on Friday from Hamas legislator Mushir al-Masri at a rally in Gaza’s Beit Lahia is ominous: The choice of negotiations has proven a failure, and it’s time that Palestinian negotiators abandon…
How much does modern Jewry need anti-Semitism?
Joseph Dana, an American Jew with whom I spent considerable time recently in Israel and the West Bank, is currently living in Europe. He struggles, like many Jews, with the appalling use of violence meted out by Israel to the Palestinians. His latest essay is an interesting examination of the desperate need for contemporary Judaism…
The Zionist blogging army is coming to a battle near you
I mentioned in early September a forthcoming blogger conference in Israel as a way for Zionist forces to co-ordinate propaganda for the state. Let’s call them whores for Israel. Evgeny Morozov, writing on his Foreign Policy blog, has a long post about the event and it’s worth quoting in full: At the risk of stepping…