Two leading intellectuals make separate and eloquent cases that the people of Gaza have the right to resist by any means – including by firing rockets – Israel’s efforts to slowly extinguish their right to self-determination, and possibly to life itself. They argue that the Palestinians have this right most certainly at a moral level, but also [...]
It seems we expect our politicians to be more loyal to Israel than Israel’s own prime ministers. David Ward, a member of the British parliament for the Lib Dem party, which is part of the ruling coalition, has upset his bosses with a tweet. Here it is: Ward was soon in hot water. Douglas Alexander, the opposition foreign minister from the supposedly leftwing Labour [...]
The Israeli media have finally been allowed to partially confirm Hamas’ claim from Sunday that it has captured an Israeli soldier. They are reporting he is missing, presumed dead. Here are three comments on the coverage. First, Oron Shaul’s capture was treated as a non-story by the western media as long as it was only Hamas saying it. Now Israel agrees [...]
As we watch the horrifying slaughter unfold in Gaza, bear in mind the Israeli psychosis that fuels and justifies it. Here are comments from three rightwing Israelis – two leading politicians and a professor – who very much reflect a strain of mainstream thinking in Israel, one that the international media largely avoids noting. Each, in their different ways, is advocating [...]
US Secretary of State John Kerry is confronted by Fox News with a conversation with an aide that was supposed to be private but was caught by an open studio microphone. He criticises Israel’s attack on Gaza, saying sarcastically: “It’s a hell of a pinpoint operation.” That is presumably a reference to the rapidly escalating death toll over the past 24 [...]
Some good overnight news, to which readers have alerted me: Ayman Mohyeldin has been reinstated by NBC as their Gaza correspondent. This is an interesting sign of changing times: NBC, it seems, is waging a rearguard action, feeling the need to restore its credentials for editorial independence. Once it would have been taken for granted that a large media [...]
Here is CNN’s Diana Magney put in a very uncomfortable position indeed for a mainstream reporter. She has to acknowledge the delight a large crowd of Israelis on a hilltop near Sderot are taking in watching missiles hurtling into Gaza. As they cheer in the background of her video report as a missile explodes (see link [...]
Remember the appalling New York Times headline of July 10 over a story about a family of nine Palestinians killed by an Israeli strike as they watched the World Cup on the beach: “Missile at beachside Gaza cafe finds patrons poised for World Cup.” Could you imagine a more obfuscatory and misleading headline? Like the [...]
There’s something deeply ugly, verging on mendacious, about this eye-witness account of the strike against children on Gaza’s beach, which killed four of them, by William Booth in the Washington Post. It begins with what appears to be context but is, in fact, simply an effort to deflect criticism from Israel and blame the victims. [...]
We now have confirmation from the Israeli daily Haaretz of what we should have suspected: that the idea for the so-called Egyptian “ceasefire proposal” was actually hatched in Washington, the messenger boy was arch-war criminal Tony Blair, and the terms were drafted by Israel. The intention was either to corner Hamas into surrendering – and thereby [...]
Three Israeli suspects who have confessed to the gruesome killing of 16-year-old Mohammed Abu Khdeir, who was abducted in East Jerusalem and later burnt to death, are going to plead “temporary insanity”, according to Haaretz. Mohammed’s father guessed as much last week, when asked whether he trusted Israel’s judicial system: “I think they will say that [...]
Lots of people have been wondering over on my Facebook page how it is that Israelis are so incapable of understanding what bombing one of the most crowded places on earth entails: lots of Palestinian civilian casualties. Well, this Israeli TV interview with Palestinian Knesset member Haneen Zoabi should help. The programme is Meet the Press and [...]
Here in one little story, you have the reason why Israel keeps getting away with it. The band Coldplay put a link on Facebook to a video of the song “Freedom for Palestine”. Thousands of “fans” – more likely the hasbara crew – flood their site with angry comments. Fox News, of course, lambasts them. [...]
Notice the security state’s perfect, circular logic, as the US announces that it is introducing more stringent checks at the airport on electronic devices such as phones. Now if you have a flat battery and can’t open a device, you may not be allowed to take it on board with you. This is what Malcolm Rifkind, chairman of [...]
The families of the three Israeli teens killed by their abductors have been the focus of a huge outpouring of national sympathy. But what about the family of 16-year-old Muhammad Abu Khdeir, who was burnt alive by his abductors? How have they been treated by Israel since the devastating news of Muhammad’s murder in Jerusalem [...]
I’m generally a big fan of Noam Chomsky’s work, but I’ve often found myself disagreeing with some aspects of his analysis of the Israel-Palestine conflict. So I’m not especially impressed by his comments as reported here in the Guardian on BDS and the apartheid analogy. But that aside, what interests me more about his latest article, published in the Nation magazine, is [...]
If we want to understand the brave new world we are entering with social media, then this story is an important read. Facebook decided to manipulate the posted content of hundreds of thousands of its users without telling them that they were part of an experiment. What Facebook did was to control what its users [...]
