My following article appears in today’s edition of Crikey: The Islamic Republic of Iran operates in a completely different universe. Most Iranians are… utterly removed from Western stereotypes – the vast majority I have met are opposed to the authoritarian rule of Mahmoud Ahmadinejad and his recent attempts to crackdown on all forms of opposition. That…
Articles in Crikey
When is a Jew not an intolerant Zionist militarist?
My following article appears in today’s edition of Crikey: Jews are expected to blindly support Israel. From a young age, I was always told that complete allegiance to the Jewish state was non-negotiable. If I didn’t agree with any its policies, said family and friends, best keep them to myself. But the tide is turning…
The debate The Oz doesn’t want to have
My following article appears in today’s edition of Crikey: Is a debate about the Israel-Palestine conflict too hot for The Australian to handle? In his recent controversial book Palestine: Peace not Apartheid, former US president Jimmy Carter describes the Israeli occupation of the West Bank as worse than apartheid South Africa. I was commissioned in…
Will Iran be the new Iraq?
My following article appears in today’s edition of Crikey: Nearly six years after 9/11, the Bush administration (ably assisted by Israel and a handful of acquiescent governments, such as Britain and Australia) appears to be softening up the public for a military strike against Iran. The evidence for such a mission is partly rhetorical. One…
The Middle Eastern equivalent of WWII?
My following article appears in today’s edition of Crikey: The “exclusive” in London’s Sunday Times that Israel is planning to use nuclear bunker-buster bombs against Iran’s suspected nuclear facilities is cause for serious concern in the already volatile Middle East. Of course, such reports, impossible to verify, are reminiscent of a Seymour Hersh investigation in…
Out for Christmas: the US military’s 282-page Counterinsurgency Manual
My following article appears in today’s edition of Crikey: Like so much news coming out of Iraq that is missed by the Western media, al-Jazeera last week published some startling poll results: More than 90% of Iraqis believe the country is worse off now than before the war in 2003, according to new research obtained…
Israel nuke slip no surprise, but what about Iran?
My following article appears in today’s edition of Crikey: Israel’s nuclear capability has been an open secret for decades, so when Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert inadvertently admitted this week in Germany the existence of his country’s nuclear arsenal, the world shouldn’t have been surprised. We now know that Britain helped Israel’s nuclear program in…
The Iranian Holocaust Conference attracts the usual cranks
My following article appears in today’s edition of Crikey: The Iranian Holocaust Conference currently being held in Tehran has attracted the usual collection of sceptics, deniers and cranks. The two-day event, initiated by President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, aims to discuss whether six millions Jews were killed by the Nazis in the 1930s and ”˜40s and the…
Usual suspects come out against “biased” Middle East simulations
My following article appears in today’s edition of Crikey: I recently reported… for Crikey on alleged anti-Israel bias of educational simulations on the Israel/Palestine conflict conducted by Macquarie University’s Centre for Middle East and North African Studies. The NSW Jewish Board of Deputies and The Australian have both conducted a campaign to stigmatise the simulations as…
The danger of pretending to be Arab or Israeli
My following article appears in today’s edition of Crikey: Readers of Wednesday’s Australian may have noticed a front page article by Rebecca Weisser which stated: A simulation exercise in which Year 11 students played Arabs and Israelis has been dropped by NSW schools after parents complained it was creating racial tension and painted terrorists in…