I appeared tonight on ABCTV News’ The Drum (video here) talking about Osama Bin Laden’s murder and its ramifications, alongside Australian Financial Review journalist David Crowe, US Studies Centre Dr Pete Hatemi (formerly in the US military post 9/11) and former CNN correspondent Michael Ware (here’s partial video of the show, mainly featuring the intrepid…
Showing all posts tagged Hamas
Not all resistance to Western occupation is terrorism
And nowhere is that clearer in Afghanistan, where the Taliban, as vile as it often is, is not the same as Al-Qaeda (or Hamas or Hizbollah or Iran). Our political and media classes have largely failed post 9/11 to even try to understand Islamism or resistance: Considering how closely tied their histories have been, the…
Hold the champagne, Bin Laden’s murder doesn’t remove Western occupation of Muslim lands
Time.com’s Tony Karon, one of the most perceptive journalists in the American mainstream, writes that the US killing of Osama Bin Laden is all about symbolism and will do nothing to help the Western position in the Arab world: Before leaving for a vacation in South Africa in December of 2001, my editor asked me…
Israel either recognises Hamas/Fatah or becomes more of pariah state
Zvi Bar’el, Haaretz: Israel’s Pavlovian response to Palestinian reconciliation, which included the usual threats of boycott, is the result of the ingrained anxiety of people who no longer control the process. For five years, Israel has done everything to change the outcome of Hamas’ watershed victory in the elections in the territories. It did not…
Job of New York Times to amplify Zionist faux fears
Fairness and Accuracy in Reporting get it in one: The New York Times’ David Kirkpatrick filed a report today (4/29/11) on one apparent problem with the move towards democracy in Egypt–the country might pursue policies more in line with what the Egyptian public supports. The most important news here is that Egypt… doesn’t want to maintain…
It’s my fault that Hamas is now working with Fatah?
The proposed Hamas/Fatah reconciliation is a big “what if? moment. How such a decision can operate well under occupation is the ultimate question. In this context, I just received the following email from Jeff Lenchiner, publisher and editor of InsideHoops, on US basketball. Yes, a man who loves sports thinks he should write and tell…
Rules for aspiring politicians and journalists; Israel must be obeyed
If anything has been clear over the last months during the Marrickville BDS/Israel-Palestinian debate, it’s that every major, Australian mainstream politician and most journalists simply won’t allow any dissent on the Middle East. Insecurity, paranoia and bullying are the norm. The local Zionist community just wants to sing the Israeli national anthem. And now this…
ABCTV News24 on human rights in China, Gitmo torture and Sri Lankan war crimes
I appeared last night on ABCTV News 24’s The Drum alongside ABC journalist Marius Benson and lobbyist Sue Cato (video here). While China, we learn via Wikileaks, ignores Australia’s supposed concerns for human rights, I asked if Prime Minister Julia Gillard actually cared about human rights as there had been no public comments from her…
Lock them up in Gaza and don’t be surprised with the brutality
The recent murder in Gaza of Italian human rights activist Vittorio Arrigoni was a shock to all of us. He was killed by a self-proclaimed Salafi jihadi group. The isolation of Gaza almost guarantees some extremism, writes Jared Malsin in Foreign Policy: Beyond the tragic events of the story itself, however, Arrigoni’s death highlights a…
This is what the Palestinian Authority is good at; flying first class
This Newsweek profile/interview with Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas simply shows an elite Palestinian elite utterly out of touch with Palestinians on the ground in the West Bank and Gaza. The focus isn’t on ending the occupation or stopping daily Zionist incursions into Palestinian territory. This Palestinian leadership has become drunk on Israeli and American largesse;…