One of the undoubted successes of the Gaza flotilla has been highlighting the humanitarian crisis inside the Strip. It’s real; I saw it with my own eyes last year. With news that Iran may escort further aid ships to Gaza – let’s not even think about how Tel Aviv would deal with that – it’s…
Showing all posts tagged Iran
The threat of female flesh in the streets of Tehran
Life for young people in Iran is a constant struggle and I deeply admire the men and women who challenge the hard-liners regressive view of human rights and decency: Iranian authorities have begun police patrols in the capital to arrest women wearing clothes deemed improper. The campaign against loose-fitting veils and other signs of modernism…
BDS gets noticed by Murdoch press
This piece in the Wall Street Journal highlights a serious problem faced by Israel and its Diaspora supporters: Israel’s bungled attempt to stop the aid flotilla from reaching Gaza also highlights how an increasingly forceful strategy by Palestinians and their supporters to turn to boycotts, international isolation, and relatively nonviolent protests is confronting Israel with…
Thank God Israel stopped those 700 terrorists
What is a man to do who simply loves Israel like a fine wine, an aged cheese, a voluptuous lady? Over to you, Murdoch man Andrew Bolt: Jihad was also the spirit on the Mavi Marmara as it sailed for Gaza. Those on board refused offers by Israel that they dock at an Israeli port…
We’re sailing into unchartered waters here, people
A fascinating piece (via Mondoweiss) from the realist website Stratfor: [Exodus author Leon] Uris…used an amalgam of incidents to display the propaganda war waged by the Jews. Those carrying out this war had two goals. The first was to create sympathy in Britain and throughout the world for Jews who, just a couple of years…
Replace Israel with Iran and wonder what would happen
Salon’s Glenn Greenwald has a pithy Twitter comment: I wonder what people would be saying if Iran had intercepted a humanitarian ship in int’l waters and killed 15 or so civilians on board.
Tell Israel to ditch its nuke now
A nuclear-free Middle East is a dream for us all. The elephant in the room has always been Israel, protected by the US and Western powers because, well, it’s the Jewish state. Don’t disturb the Jews. This news therefore is a little surprising but hopeful: The United States accepted Arab demands to pressure Israel over…
Iran has the right to be independent, says Chomsky
Where are the mainstream commentators, hacks and journalists who actually challenge American foreign policy towards Iran? It clearly requires an 80 year old to show sense: Prominent American scholar Noam Chomsky says Washington cannot apply its policy of oppression to Tehran, saying it is not in Iran’s nature to follow orders. Speaking in Beirut after…
How’s that Washington, Middle East continuity coming along?
American foreign policy, under Barack Obama, that’s called terrorism if carried out by any other state: The top American commander in the Middle East has ordered a broad expansion of clandestine military activity in an effort to disrupt militant groups or counter threats in Iran, Saudi Arabia, Somalia and other countries in the region, according…
Washington and the Muslim world, a testy relationship
Views from across the Arab world: We are now approaching the first anniversary of President Barack Obama’s June 4, 2009 speech in Cairo, which offered Arabs and Muslims around the world a new “engagement” with the United States. A year later, how do Arab publics see the results of that effort–and how much do their…