For Australian diplomacy – usually little more than a rubber-stamp for everything Israel does – this is significant: Australia was last night preparing to abstain in a United Nations vote on a resolution urging Israel and the Palestinian Authority to investigate allegations of war crimes committed during last year’s war in Gaza. The UN General…
Showing all posts tagged Gaza
The UN thanks Israel for allowing glass into Gaza (really)
The weakness of the UN in the Middle East. Scraps on the table and even then they thank the Israelis for nothing: 24 February 2010 UN Special Coordinator Robert Serry called on Israeli President Shimon Peres today to discuss efforts to resume Israeli-Palestinian negotiations, the situation in the West Bank, and the continuing crisis in…
How the fishermen of Gaza are not coping
Gaza today: Ten years ago, Gaza’s approximately 3,600 fishermen were hauling out approximately 3,000 tons of fresh fish a year, supporting an even larger 30,000 people in Gaza. Since then, violent clashes with – and ever-tightening restrictions by – the Israeli army have virtually destroyed the once-booming business. Today, just 20 percent of Gaza fishermen…
Hamas has a rat in the ranks?
It seems quite possible: Hamas last night vigorously denied that a renegade from its own ranks helped set up the assassination of Hamas leader Mahmoud al-Mabhouh in a Dubai hotel room last month, a shock claim made by Dubai’s police chief, as echoes from the killing and its investigation continued to resound in the Middle…
What constant power cuts means for the people of Gaza
Hussam El-Nounou runs an NGO in Gaza that deals with people suffering mental problems: These constant and long power cuts have turned everything upside-down here. We barely get ten hours of electricity per day. To compensate, a lot of Gazans have bought small generators in order to be able to turn on their lights, televisions…
Netanyahu knew all about the murder of Mabhouh
The Mossad murder of a Hamas man in Dubai will not simply disappear. The London Times has more details: In early January two black Audi A6 limousines drove up to the main gate of a building on a small hill in the northern suburbs of Tel Aviv: the headquarters of Mossad, the Israeli secret intelligence…
Leading American Jewish newspaper praises Israel for its wonderful openness
The Jewish Forward believes the Israeli government has shown itself to be wonderfully open after the Goldstone report (what are these editorial writers smoking?). Yet in its own, painful way, the Goldstone report has been a revealing exercise. It revealed that the Israeli military has made a genuine attempt to investigate many of the charges…
The nuts and bolts of the Gaza tragedy
Sara Roy in the Nation on Gaza: Gaza’s protracted blockade has resulted in the near total collapse of the private sector. At least 95 percent of Gaza’s industrial establishments (3,750 enterprises) were either forced to close or were destroyed over the past four years, resulting in a loss of between 100,000 and 120,000 jobs. The…
Is Israel mature enough to understand the value of rights?
An instructive op-ed in Haaretz by media consultant Gilad Heiman that offers the Jewish state some advice that will probably be ignored: Israeli public relations stems entirely from the Zionist Israeli narrative, without any genuine attempt being made to learn the language of human rights, which is dominant in international public discourse. We expect the…
Calling all Jews, please help us sell the vibrant state of Israel
Israel’s liberals have become politically invisible. The country is therefore increasingly run by the right and far-right. Hooray for them. In light of the Jewish state’s shocking global image (aside from the political elites who love its plucky nature and war against Palestinians), the Israeli government has a wonderful idea (it’s truly hard to read…