Chomsky on what we can do for Palestine
Noam Chomsky — July 29, 2010 2 Comments
The media and commentators — unanimously, to my knowledge — evaded the central fact about the war: the issue was not whether Israel had a right to defend itself from rockets, but whether it had the right to do so by force. It surely did not, because the US-Israel knew that peaceful means were available but refused to pursue them: accepting Hamas’s offer to renew the cease-fire, which Hamas had observed even though Israel did so only partially
Editor's Pick, Politics
The logic of collective punishment
Robert Shone — June 14, 2010 3 Comments
Is all collective punishment unjust? There are logical arguments for and against punishing people collectively in the cases of the BP oil-spill, the Israeli attack on the Gaza-bound convoy, etc. Is it ever justified to punish people who are “innocent” of the wrongdoing?
Editor's Pick, Psychology
Kidnapped by Israel, forsaken by Britain
Jamal Elshayyal — June 7, 2010 2 Comments
Firstly I must apologise for taking so long to update my blog. The events of the past few days have been hectic to say the least, and I am still trying to come to grips with many of the things that have happened.
Politics
Caroline Glick’s “We Con the World” and the Tea Partying of the US-Israel relationship
Didi Remez — June 7, 2010 12 Comments
On Friday, I began to see intelligent, mainstream, Israeli opinion-leaders posting the clip on their Facebook pages. I assumed they were doing so for the same reason I was: To illustrate just how misguided some Israeli public diplomacy efforts had become. A closer look revealed just how wrong I was. These posts were intended for non-Israelis
Editor's Pick, Politics
Chutzpah and hasbara
Richard Seymour — June 7, 2010 0 Comments
You know how it is. For days, it’s been impossible to log on to Twitter without some frantic Israeli apologists urgently messaging you to say – no, look, it’s really clear, these so-called ‘humanitarians’ attacked Israeli soldiers who merely responded, yadda yadda yadda. They lynched those servicemen… Or, better still – peace activists don’t carry [...]
Politics
Israel fakes weapons pictures from Gaza flotilla
Ibn Kafka — June 3, 2010 13 Comments
If all this hard evidence isn’t enough to convince you of the legitimacy of the Israeli action, I rest my case
Editor's Pick, Politics
Chomsky on Gaza freedom flotilla
Noam Chomsky — June 2, 2010 10 Comments
The siege of Gaza itself does not have the slightest credible pretext. It was imposed by the US and Israel in January 2006 to punish Palestinians because they voted “the wrong way” in a free election, and it was sharply intensified in July 2007 when Hamas blocked a US-Israeli attempt to overthrow the elected government in a military coup, installing Fatah strongman Muhammad Dahlan. The siege is savage and cruel, designed to keep the caged animals barely alive so as to fend off international protest, but hardly more than that. It is the latest stage of long-standing Israeli plans, backed by the US, to separate Gaza from the West Bank
Politics
The view from Gaza
Max Ajl — June 2, 2010 2 Comments
Before the attack, Israeli spokespeople and statesmen had sedulously tried to paint the flotilla in the colors reserved for scoundrels and terrorists. “Israel … invited the flotilla organizers to use the land crossings … however, they’re less interested in bringing in aid than promoting their radical agenda and playing into the hands of Hamas provocations…. [The organizers have] wrapped themselves in a humanitarian cloak, but engage in political propaganda,” said Foreign Ministry spokesman Yigal Palmor. Avigdor Lieberman, the Israeli foreign minister, said that “the flotilla is an attempt at violent propaganda against Israel, and Israel will not allow a violation of its sovereignty at sea, in the air or on land.” The flotilla carried hundreds of wheelchairs for crippled Gazans and a dental clinic for Al-Shifa Hospital
Politics
UK must expel Israeli ambassador
Matt Kennard — May 31, 2010 6 Comments
Let him now heed his own words, and stop all arms exports, expel the UK ambassador. The enormity of this crime must not get lost in the inevitable mist the Israeli propaganda machine will pollute the debate with. Israel ordered and carried the murder of unarmed humanitarian activists in international waters, trying to take aid to a starving and desperate people.
Politics
Israel’s twisted torturing of Gaza
Richard Seymour — May 31, 2010 1 Comment
In other words, by the twisted logic of Zionism: Israel can impose a blockade on Gaza that systematically starves civilians, leaves them to die without medicine, destroys their sewage and power systems, leaves them utterly dependent on international aid delivery which it imposes the most grotesque restrictions on; then it can demonise and assault an aid flotilla intended to break the blockade, fire on the residents, murder people in their sleep, the better to deter anyone from attempting to violate its supremacy in Palestine again; then it can manufacture whatever story it requires to force a hostile world to accept its actions, muddy the waters, juggle narratives, befuddle and confuse people, following up one bit of legerdemain with yet another and another, etc; and it can do all this while remaining the perpetual victim (remember Sderot!)
Politics
Projectile Dysfunction – Iron Dome, Israel, Trident, And The Media
David Edwards — May 20, 2010 7 Comments
Even prior to the December 27, 2008 Operation Cast Lead offensive – when Israel attacked Gaza with hundreds of bombing raids and drone attacks, and thousands of artillery and tank shells – 14 Israelis had been killed by mostly home-made rockets fired from Gaza over the previous seven years as against 5,000 Palestinians killed by Israeli forces. Some 1,400 Palestinians were massacred in the Cast Lead assault