Miguel d’Escoto Brockmann, the President of the UN General Assembly, has pushed the delegitimization of Israel at the United Nations just that little bit further. One might also point out that, by claiming that Palestinians “are being crucified” by Israel, he’s pushed something else a little further too. (Or is one of our anti-Zionist detractors going to claim that calling such an invocation antisemitic is “shutting down debate?”)
Continue reading ‘UNGA President: Treat Israel like Apartheid South Africa’
Yasmin Alibhai-Brown believes that insufficient attention is being paid to the situation in Gaza. “Where is the media outrage?” she asks, in the headline of her outrage-laden piece for a British national newspaper.
Continue reading ‘More “Speaking Out”’
Josef Ratzinger is a Roman Catholic, bears do what they have to do in the woods and The Guardian is a newspaper with a particular dislike for Israel. None of this is news. However, I feel it would be remiss of me not to mention something in The Graun’s leader today about the current state of play between Israel and the Palestinians.
Continue reading ‘Of Pigs, Grunts and The Guardian’
Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad is in trouble, says The Economist. Citing two of his predictions that spectacularly backfired - that Obama would lose, and that oil would never drop below $100 per barrel - the paper argues that Iran now faces an economic crisis that will weaken the ultraconservative faction Ahmadinejad represents.
Continue reading ‘The False Prophet’
Settler extremists living in a disputed house in the West Bank city of Hebron have erected a banner reading “Supreme Court - Sodom.” This obscurantist insult is directed at Israel’s Supreme Court, which has issued the settlers with an eviction order.
Continue reading ‘“Supreme Court - Sodom”’
Speculation about Iranian “blogfather” Hossein Derakhshan remains rife in the blogosphere, following reports of his arrest earlier this week. Those of us following this strange tale (and there are some who think, not without reason, that it could be a publicity stunt) might want to take note of the fate of another Iranian accused - as Derakhshan apparently has been - of spying for Israel.
Continue reading ‘Iran: The Regime as Executioner’
Mairead Maguire yesterday stated that Israel and only Israel should have its membership of the UN suspended, or revoked entirely, as a punishment for ignoring UN resolutions. Maguire’s pronouncements and activities regularly make the news because she was, along with Betty Williams, awarded the 1977 Nobel Peace Prize for her efforts to build a grassroots anti-violence movement, known as the Peace People, in Northern Ireland.
Continue reading ‘Mairead Maguire, Peace Activist’
Just occasionally, Juan Miguel Muñoz, El País’s rabidly anti-Israel correspondent in Jerusalem, gets something right. Writing here he reports on the ongoing toleration of the outrageous behavior of religiofascist settlers on the West Bank.
Continue reading ‘The Enemy Within’
This is a guest post by David Adler.
John Pilger, the ultra-left New Statesman columnist, infamously said, in regard to the 2004 Iraq insurgency, that “we cannot afford to be choosy” - i.e., that people of the left must support the Baath/jihadi assassins and bombers because they are arrayed against the forces of Empire. He was hardly alone in this view; Arundhati Roy and the British MP George Galloway argued much the same.
Continue reading ‘Barack Baiting’
A number of news outlets are reporting that Iran’s nuclear program has passed the point of no return as regards weaponization. Says the New York Times, “Iran has now produced roughly enough nuclear material to make, with added purification, a single atom bomb, according to nuclear experts analyzing the latest report from global atomic inspectors.”
Continue reading ‘Iran’s Nuclear Moment’
Just a brief note to point readers to an excellent article about the Red Army Faction by Jeffrey Herf. It makes particular mention of the part played by antisemitism in the group’s activities and ideology and, apart from that, serves as a reminder of what an appalling gang of spoiled, selfish and stupid fanatics it was.
It’s not surprising - especially when you recall that Canada announced its decision to pull out back in January - but Israel has finally confirmed that it will not participate in the UN’s Durban II anti-racism conference in 2009.
Continue reading ‘Israel Boycotts Durban II’
My earlier post about Avraham Burg has generated some sharp exchanges in the comments. One contributor feels that I unfairly compared Burg with Norman Finkelstein. But I stand by that comparison and I will now make one more.
Continue reading ‘The Holocaust Mindset’
There’s much to recommend in this review by Christopher Hitchens of Globalising Hatred, Denis MacShane’s new book on antisemitism.
Continue reading ‘Hitchens on Antisemitism’
Now here’s a story that looks decidedly murky. The Jerusalem Post reports that Hossein Derakhshan, a leading Iranian blogger, has been arrested in Tehran on charges of spying for Israel.
Continue reading ‘The Strange Case of Hossein Derakhshan’
