Norman Geras has a response here to this debate between David Hirsh and Martin Shaw on whether the eternally proposed academic boycott of Israel would be antisemitic in nature. I’m not going to quote from it because I think that it should be read in its entirety and citing a paragraph might give readers of this blog the impression that they had got the gist of the argument and could move on elsewhere.
When it comes to resolving the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, perhaps the most complicated variable is the land itself. That’s why a peace proposal which would allow Gaza to triple in size is worthy of a second look.
There is an extremely interesting essay by Perry Anderson here about contemporary Turkish history. It deals at length with the similarities and differences between the genocides of the Jews and Armenians and the different degrees of recognition that they have received since they occurred.
A new survey of global attitudes on subjects ranging from minorities to gender to terrorism makes grim reading. In Europe, malign sentiments towards Jews and Muslims are on the rise. In the Middle East and in the wider Muslim world - from Egypt to Turkey to Indonesia - opinions about Jews are overwhelmingly negative.
Karl Pfeifer has kindly given Z Word permission to publish the following email correspondence between himself and Tikkun assistant editor Dimitri Zagoroff (see my previous post).
Tikkun is an American Jewish magazine on the left which takes its name from the theological concept of tikkun olam - repairing and improving the world through the promotion of social justice.
There is a grim irony in the fact that, in a year marking the sixtieth anniversary of Israel’s creation, mainstream media interest in the so-called “one state solution” - something that would signal Israel’s demise - has been unprecedented.
There follow some comments on Samuel Fleischacker’s second post in a series on the Israel-Palestine conflict which is appearing over at Normblog. You’ll find my response to his first post here.
Continue reading ‘A Response To “A Cool Hour on the Israel-Palestine Conflict 2”’
One result of the Iraq war has been the commonplace assertion that western intelligence can’t be trusted. Agencies collect information which is unreliable and open to manipulation by political leaders bent on war.
Over at the excellent It’s Almost Supernatural - essential reading if you want to get informed, nuanced commentary of how the Middle East conflict plays out in South African politics - Steve says that there are now two Israels:
A few months ago, I debated Antony Lerman, the Director of the Institute of Jewish Policy Research, on the relationship between anti-Zionism and antisemitism. Today, Lerman has a piece in Ha’aretz on a similar theme. He complains that scholarly discussion of antisemitism has been corrupted by an excessive focus on anti-Zionism.
Continue reading ‘Antony Lerman Plays Politics with Antisemitism’
In the old “John or Paul?” debate, I always rooted for John. And I think I did so - as did many others - more as a judgment on their solo careers, rather than on their contributions to The Beatles. Lennon wrote some fantastic material on his own. His full-throated cover of Ben E. King’s “Stand By Me” is a masterpiece. McCartney gave us “Mull of Kintyre.”
There will be much - some might say too much - commentary today, the seventh anniversary of the atrocities of September 11, 2001.
For two days in succession, the New York Times has run op-ed articles highlighting the dangers posed by technologically-savvy terrorism. Given that tomorrow marks the seventh anniversary of the atrocities of September 11, 2001, that’s perhaps not surprising.
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