Hugo Chavez says that “the blood shed in Gaza is the blood of humanity. Venezuela kisses each and every one of you and stresses that it supports the Palestinian people and all those who suffer from the occupation.” Quite the humanist, our Hugo, no? Except that the above photograph shows him embracing Zimbabwe’s dictator, Robert Mugabe, whose most recent contribution to his country’s suffering is a cholera epidemic that has claimed 1732 lives.
Continue reading ‘Mugabe’s Friend Declares Solidarity With Gaza’
This is a guest post by Charlotte Wagner in San Francisco
Early on New Year’s Day in Oakland, California (the East Bay of the San Francisco Bay Area), a public transit police officer shot dead an unarmed African-American man as he lay face down on the ground. The community has been in an uproar, staging protests decrying the alleged police brutality and racism.
What has this got to do with Israel, Zionism, or the current conflict in Gaza?
Continue reading ‘Gaza and a Shooting in Oakland’
David T of Harry’s Place with an eyewitness report from London, where assorted celebs, Islamists, totalitarian leftists and old-fashioned antisemites vented their ire. “There was, in fact, more Nazi imagery on display at that march than you’d expect to see at a fascist rally,” he says.
Here’s an image from Paris.
More details on Ha’aretz.
The city of Resistencia - located about 1000 kilometers northwest of Buenos Aires - is the capital of Argentina’s Chaco province. On Thursday night it was the scene of an antisemitic demonstration.
Continue reading ‘Gaza: Resistencia’s Jews Held to Account’
UPDATED WITH NEW LOCATIONS: Tomorrow, Sunday January 11, rallies in support of Israel will be held in a number of cities. There are many reasons you should attend if there is one in your area, not least the importance of showing the pro-Hamas thugs that they don’t own the streets. Here are the details for the rallies we know about - in New York, London, Manchester, Berlin, Frankfurt, Munich, Montreal, Antwerp and Kiev.
Continue reading ‘Rally for Israel’
“The best strategy to end the increasingly bloody occupation is for Israel to become the target of the kind of global movement that put an end to apartheid in South Africa,” writes Naomi Klein. Hers is a monstrous and monumentally stupid argument; it was also inevitable that someone like Klein would make it and that a rag like The Nation would publish it. Read David Hirsh’s expert dissection here.
“It seems to me to be important to allow a debate about the wisdom and morality of Israel’s current military incursion without accusing critics of being anti-Semites at the first opportunity,” writes Andrew Sullivan. “But it is equally important to note when genuine anti-Semitism really does rear its disgusting head.”
Continue reading ‘Antisemitism Most Foul: The Case of Taki’
Even Al Arabiya, the Arabic satellite broadcaster partially owned by the Saudis, is noticing it - this time in France. There is a wave of antisemitic violence quite literally sweeping the world. There have been incidents and threats in Sydney and Melbourne, in Germany and Switzerland, in Belgium, the UK, Sweden and Denmark. In probably the darkest echo of Europe’s Nazi past, an Italian trade union has called for a boycott of Jewish - yes, Jewish - owned shops.
Continue reading ‘Antisemitism and a Thought Experiment on 116th Street’
According to the police, the violence in Oslo which followed an attack on a pro-Israel demonstration on Thursday was the worst the Norwegian capital has seen since the 1980s.
Continue reading ‘Pro-Hamas Thugs Rampage in Oslo’
Writing in today’s El País, Joan B. Culla i Clarà starts by rejecting Israel’s current operations in Gaza and endorsing a two state solution to the Palestinian-Israeli conflict.
Continue reading ‘Gaza: More Than Pretty Speeches Required’
The two rockets which landed in the environs of Nahariya, northern Israel, on Thursday morning brought with them the spectre of a regional war, drawing in Hezbollah and by extension Iran, which plays the role of sugar daddy to both Hezbollah and Hamas.
Continue reading ‘Iran’s Proxy War in Gaza’
On this and on other blogs (for example here and here), you can see various photos of pro-Hamas demonstrations around the world. This one is from Surabaya, Indonesia.
The building they are demonstrating outside of is a synagogue.
Antara News reports:
Anti-Israel demonstrators sealed the Beth Hashem synagogue in Surabaya, East Java, on Wednesday in protest against the atrocities committed by Israeli military on Palestinians.
The sealing of the synagogue was the follow-up of the demonstration held by activists of Islamic mass organizations in front of the Grahadi state building.
The action to seal the synagogue led by the general chairman of the Indonesian Council of Ulema of East Java, KH Abdusshomad Buchori, was initially marked by orations condemning Israeli attacks on Palestinians in the Gaza Strip.
Earlier the demonstrators burned the Israeli flag and raised the Palestinian flag in front the synagogue that had seldom been used by the Jewish people in Surabaya.
“If Israel would not stop its attacks on Palestine we will conduct a sweep on sympathizers, supporters and Israeli agents in East Java,” Abdusshomad said.
That threat encapsulates the utterly sinister, barbarous nature of the antisemitism which the Hamas salonistas in the west believe is a fabrication to deflect criticism of Israel.
It was, according to Radio Netherlands, “an abnormally harsh comment.” The New York Times said it was “unusually blunt.”
Continue reading ‘Gaza and the “Unusually Blunt” ICRC’
This is a guest post by Karl Pfeifer, a veteran anti-fascist and journalist based in Vienna.
“Hatred of the Jew is not the outcome of anti-Semitic lie and calumny. The contrary is true: the lie and the calumny are the outcome of anti-Semitic sentiments.” - Max Nordau
Continue reading ‘“Excessively:” The Austrian Media on Gaza’
Tomás Abraham is a philosopher and frequently comments on public affairs in Argentina. The following extracts from the latest post on his blog have been translated in such a way as to make his unique writing style approachable in English.
Continue reading ‘Gaza and Antisemitism in Argentina’
