My following interview appears in the Guardian: During an event at the Sydney writer’s festival last month, Israeli writer and author Ari Shavit told a packed auditorium that his country was “an oasis in the Middle East”. He explained to the audience, who largely appreciated his words despite some grumblings when he condemned the occupation…
Showing all posts tagged Zionism
ABC Radio discussion on faith, belief and politics
Last weekend I spoke at the Sydney Writer’s Festival and one of my panels was this fantastic event (recorded and played on ABC Radio’s Sunday Nights yesterday): A Muslim-Christian-Muslim, a Jewish-Atheist and a Scientist-Atheist-Humanist walked into a room… for a conversation with John Cleary of Sunday Nights. Writers Reza Aslan, Antony Loewenstein and Jim Al-Khalili…
Only fools deny reality of apartheid in Palestine
After US Secretary of State John Kerry’s recent comment about “apartheid” one day potentially appearing in Israeli controlled Palestine, the reality today is that apartheid already exists. Two pieces from the Israeli newspaper Haaretz. An editorial: At a G-20 conference in Cannes in November 2011, then-French President Nicolas Sarkozy termed Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu a…
Thank you Zionist lobby for helping grow BDS profile
Interesting article in yesterday’s Australian explaining how typically ham-fisted, bullying and clueless media attacks by the Israel lobby is helping to draw public attention to the rise of boycotts against Israel. No kidding: A Jewish association has branded the racial discrimination case against University of Sydney’s Jake Lynch counter-productive, saying it has only raised the…
How to solve the Middle East crisis in eight minutes
Rap News have been producing sensational political videos for years. Their latest, on Israel/Palestine, is a cracker:
The real significance of Bob Carr's comments on Israel lobby
Much of the media has dismissed former Australian Foreign Minister Bob Carr’s diaries as being obsessed with irrelevance, diets and exercise. In fact, the diaries are fascinating and focus on a range of international events (see my Guardian column this week on the Zionist lobby sections). I saw Carr last night at Sydney University and…
Why we need to discuss unhealthy power of Zionist lobby part 44225
My weekly Guardian column: To have a prominent political figure challenging the power and message of the Israel lobby is almost unheard of in most western nations – which is precisely what makes the… just released diaries… of former Australian foreign minister Bob Carr all the more remarkable. Across 500 pages, Carr catalogues his intense exercise regime,…
The Australian review of "Prisoner X"
My following review appears in yesterday’s Weekend Australian newspaper: Understanding the insular and tribal Melbourne Jewish community has fascinated sociologists for decades. With one of the largest concentrations of Holocaust survivors outside of Israel, proudly Zionist and with strong Jewish day schools, it’s a world that created Ben Zygier, the Australian Mossad agent who committed…
"After Zionism" review surfaces
Back in 2012 I co-edited a book, After Zionism, with Ahmed Moor (it was released in an updated edition in 2013). Now the magazine at the University of Technology Sydney has published a review (yes, just a little late and on page 17): Israel is a stark anomaly. There are few… states in the world that…