Amira Hass in Haaretz writes about the kind of people one meets across Israel and the Jewish Diapora (“but the West Bank is thriving” types): Israelis really love to hear how good things are in Ramallah. This is the conclusion from talks with the kind of Israelis who don’t demonstrate with Palestinians and face teargas,…
Showing all posts tagged Haaretz
A Palestinian state “around 2011”
Here’s the Palestinian “vision”, courtesy of Western funding and largess. Impossible to achieve? No. A provisional Palestinian “state” could be called today. The question is what it will look like, what happens to the Jewish settlers and how will Israel react. Right now, the thought of a viable Palestinian state seems close to impossible: Next…
If only Israel had more people like Gideon Levy
The totally unique Israeli journalist Gideon Levy is interviewed by the Electronic Intifada and doesn’t hold back: The Israeli media, which is a free media, free of censorship, free of governmental pressure, has been dehumanizing the Palestinians, demonizing them. Without the cooperation of the Israeli media, the occupation would not have lasted so long. It…
AIPAC moves into gear and asks Israel lovers to deepen the relationship
For anybody worrying about Israel’s decline into deeper repression and occupation (such as the former editor of Haaretz, David Landau), America’s leading Zionist lobby would like you and Congress to shut up, now and forever: America’s main pro-Israel lobby group is mobilising members of Congress to pressure the White House over its bitter public confrontation…
What us Jews should be thinking about this Passover
Happy Passover to all my (observant) Jewish readers. Akiva Eldar in Haaretz has a message for you all: One of the harshest of the 10 plagues has smitten the children of Israel this Passover, and they are stumbling about in pitch darkness, bumping blindly into anyone in their way as they head toward the edge…
East Jerusalem should not be touched
While Gideon Levy in Haaretz hopes and prays Barack Obama keeps up his pressure on Israel: Obama is asking Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, and through him every Israeli, to finally speak the truth. He’s asking Netanyahu and the rest of us: What on earth do you actually want? Enough with the misleading answers; the moment…
Oh to be arrogant and Israeli
Amira Hass in Haaretz: Satisfaction – that’s what Israeli faces radiate, at least as observed by people who just came out of Ramallah or Gaza and watch Jerusalem’s busy Ben-Yehuda Street, the Ramat Aviv Mall or Ben-Gurion International Airport. To the Israelis, nothing exists beyond the moment. It’s just like the smugness exhibited by Prime…
The Zionist lobby, an honest look on Al-Jazeera
The kind of debate that only really happens on Al-Jazeera. A discussion on the Israel lobby, Iran, settlements and Palestine between Israel Lobby co-author John Mearsheimer, Electronic Intifada co-founder Ali Abunimah and Israel lobbyist Meagan Buren: Now, after the AIPAC conference, Benjamin Netanyahu has returned from Israel and finds a problem. Poor lad. Here’s Akiva…
Anti-democratic moves in the less than Holy Land
An editorial in Haaretz that once again warns Israel to not run off a cliff morally. As ever, the silence of most Jewish groups in the Diaspora is telling: The Israel Defense Forces decision to declare the Palestinian villages Bil’in and Na’alin closed military zones on Fridays for the next six months is a serious…
FInding a way back to endless talking between Arabs and Israelis
Gideon Levy writes in Haaretz that Washington must back its recent comments to Israel with more than words: Israel – addicted to the occupation, and showing symptoms of overdose and accumulated damage – has finally found a savior to rescue it from its plight. Israel’s redeemer hasn’t just stood idly by for 40 years, but…