Salute to Israel 2009

My following report was published on Mondoweiss today: Last year I was told a story about a friend’s visit to Israel on the Birthright program. After visiting Auschwitz and waving the Israeli flag, his group were shown around Israel. One night they were in the Jordan Valley and as the sun was setting a guide…

Our government does not speak for us

The following letter is circulating around Australia and reflects the deep anger towards the government and its media whores: As citizens of conscience we would like to protest in the strongest possible terms against the proposed Australia-Israel cultural exchange trip to Israel to be led by Julia Gillard and involving other parliamentarians, academics, business people,…

The luxury of distance and money

Sometimes, Jewish blogger Richard Silverstein nails it: Bill Clinton and George Bush Jr. spoke in Canada yesterday, each earning more than $150K for the gig. Frankly, I can’t imagine anyone possessing enough wisdom to be worth paying such a sum to them for dispensing it. But I guess enough people are star struck that they…

The Israeli face to the world

A senior settler official, Danny Dayan, rejects a report by Peace Now that finds nearly half of the land occupied by Israeli settlement outposts in the occupied West Bank is private Palestinian property: Not a single Arab has been harmed [by settlement activities].

They won’t wait for political action

While the Obama administration wonders how to pressure Israel to cease settlement building – how about withdrawing the billions of dollars in annual aid? – concerned citizens are taking a stand: Britain’s main academic union voted overwhelmingly to boycott Israeli universities and colleges. The University and College Union passed the boycott resolution at its annual…

How many Jews oppose this?

What kind of Judaism is this? A perversion: Jewish settlers threw stones at a Palestinian car in the West Bank today, causing injuries, Palestinian medics and Israeli police said. Medics said two men were taken to hospital, one with a fractured skull, and four others were treated for minor injuries after the early morning incident…

Talking is no longer enough

The head of Sydney University’s Centre for Peace and Conflict Studies Jake Lynch explains why it’s appropriate to academically boycott Israel: Israeli academics are the source of a great deal of significant criticism of, and opposition to, Israel’s policies…so there is no suggestion that individual contacts should now cease. Discussions about peace journalism have been…

Negating their history

Ahmad Samih Khalidi writes in the Guardian that the Palestinian leadership should be very wary to accept Israeli terms: The fact is that the demand to acknowledge Israel as a Jewish state is meant less to block the prospects of being swamped by Arabs – as Israeli propagandists claim – and more as a …­covert…

If only they cared about the Arabs

The recently deceased Israeli writer Amos Elon wrote the following passage in 1967, a fascinating insight into where his country was already headed: Had they [Palestine’s Arabs] agreed in 1919, not to turn Palestine into “the” Jewish homeland, but to incorporate “a” national home for the Jews, as stipulated by the Balfour Declaration, a Jewish…

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