Fascinating historical recollection: In 2002, [former Labour spin doctor Alastair] Campbell records in his diaries, Rupert Murdoch, James and Lachlan came to dinner at Downing Street. The conversation turned to the Middle East: “[Rupert] Murdoch said he didn’t see what the Palestinians’ problem was and James said it was that they were kicked out of…
Showing all posts tagged Judaism
Liberal Zionists struggle with brutal Israeli realities
Some, like editors of the Australian Jewish News, simply don’t see themselves as liberal at all and prefer to blindly back Israeli policies because they perceive their role as Diaspora Jews to be robots without thought. That’s what Zionism has done to my people. Witness a recent editorial on BDS: The hostile mob arrayed outside…
How to really end the Zionist occupation of Palestine?
Jerry Haber, an Orthodox Jew, writes: For some time I have had a dream about a community, a coalition, a big tent that includes within it all those constituencies who cry out to end the occupation now. Yes, I know, there already is a US Campaign to End the Occupation, and they do good work.…
Jewish rule 75421
Confused Jew (aren’t we all?) John Safran: There’s this unspoken thing among Jews ‘that no matter whether you’re kosher or not, you always ask for kosher meals on aircraft to help keep the demand up.
Obama success; US more hated in Arab world than during Bush
What does Washington expect when Israel is allowed to brutalise the Palestinians, drone attacks are killing countless civilians and Arab dictatorships are warmly embraced? The hope that the Arab world had not long ago put in the United States and President Obama has all but evaporated. Two and a half years after Obama came to…
Two Australian activists make history in Israel
Bravo: According to various news reports, two ”˜air flotilla’ activists who arrived in Israel last Friday have been allowed to remain in Israel (and travel to the West Bank freely) on the condition that they ”˜refrain from disrupting the peace.’ The activists were part of the ”˜Welcome to Palestine’ campaign which sent hundreds of European…
Why cultural boycott is legitimate weapon in face of repression
What weapons for an occupied people? A population facing repression? Cultural, academic and economic boycotts are important tools and must be utilised. I argued this in a recent essay in Overland in relation to Sri Lanka and Palestine. This post on Mondoweiss shows that the debate is global and opponents of boycotts have fewer arguments…
Real democracies don’t censor dissent but Israel isn’t a real democracy
Evidence for the prosecution: The Israeli parliament has passed a law in effect banning citizens from calling for academic, consumer or cultural boycotts of Israel in a move denounced by its opponents as anti-democratic. The “‘Law for Prevention of Damage to the State of Israel through Boycott” won a majority of 47 to 38, despite…
Don’t be seduced by Israeli car company’s occupation friendly stance
Better Place is an Israeli company, with an Australian office, that is delivering electric cars for an enviro-friendly future. Sounds nice in theory but in reality the company, as I have written for a while, operates in the occupied West Bank and should therefore be shunned. Yet anther mainstream story, this time in the Guardian,…