Following my article yesterday in the Sydney Morning Herald on Israel/Palestine, the following letters appear in today’s edition: For an alternative to Antony Loewenstein’s polemic against Israel (“Western politicians prefer to ignore Israel’s inherent racism”, October 28) I refer readers to Freedom in the World: Israel 2010 by Freedom House, a venerable and widely respected…
Showing all posts tagged Hamas
Western politicians prefer to ignore Israel’s inherent racism
My following article appears in today’s Sydney Morning Herald: Imagine a mainstream Australian politician saying that Aborigines should be banned from leading tourists around Uluru because they might “present anti-Australian positions” to visitors. The outcry would be furious. But a bill is currently before the Israeli Knesset, led by a parliamentarian from the “moderate” Kadima…
Let’s not starve them in Gaza but getting close would be fun
What kind of democratic state would do this? That’s right, Israel isn’t a democracy for Arabs, so this kind of blatant racism is just another day at the office: In the three years since Hamas took control of Gaza, Israeli officials have employed mathematical formulas to monitor foodstuffs and other basic goods entering the Strip…
Baltzer speaks on Palestinian rights
I spent time last week here in Sydney with visiting American Jewish writer and activist Anna Baltzer, a passionate advocate for the Palestinian cause; quiet, determined and strongly calling for BDS and a one-state solution. She was interviewed tonight on ABC PM Radio: MARK COLVIN: It’s only weeks since the launch of the latest round…
Myopic Jews berate IAJV for caring about human rights
Following the Australia-wide advertisement by Independent Australian Jewish Voices (IAJV) calling for a more open debate over Israel/Palestine, the following letters have appeared in the Australian Jewish News over the last weeks: What a dismay to find Independent Australian Jewish Voices’ advertisement in last week’s AJN. We do live in a democracy where anyone has…
If the Taliban can be engaged, why not the other “terrorists”?
So Richard Barrett, the coordinator of the United Nations Al Qaeda-Taliban monitoring team, thinks it’s time to “talk to the Taliban.” Guess the next major piece in the New York Times will be that Israel should talk to Hamas, Hizbollah and Iran.
Resistance vs terrorism is a complex beast; enter the Tamil Tigers
Post 9/11, finding nuance in the state view towards “terrorism” was rare, indeed. But here is a challenging example, questioning the idea that every form of resistance is somehow connected to al-Qaeda: More than three years after federal agents locked up a Sri Lankan immigrant they say was the top U.S. representative of the Tamil…
McGeough shows how few MSM reporters tell the truth
A masterful speech by Sydney Morning Herald journalist Paul McGeough at last weekend’s Festival of Dangerous Ideas in Sydney. He covers the non-existent Middle East “peace process”, Zionist paranoid and bullying, media coverage and the colonial project known as Israel. Such honesty is rare in the MSM. Savour it: Since 1948, a constant in Israeli-Palestinian…
Roll up for another few decades of settlement expansion in Palestine
My following article appears on ABC’s Unleashed today: Will they or won’t they? The international media were counting down the hours until Israel’s self-described “settlement freeze” ended this week. Most Western journalists, based in Jerusalem and Tel Aviv, looked for any signs from the government of Benjamin Netanyahu that would appease the perceived outrage of…
Here’s your future Palestinian state
Nora Barrows-Friedman writes from occupied Palestine that the US and Israeli backed Palestinian Authority is behaving exactly as directed, brutes establishing a police state: “The Palestinian Authority (PA) forces came late at night and started shooting inside the camp,” Shihab said. “They came in, shooting, acting like the Israeli military. They wanted to make the…