Netanyahu said he would support President Obama’s decision to engage Iran, so long as negotiations brought about a quick end to Iran’s nuclear ambitions. “How you achieve this goal is less important than achieving it,” he said, but he added that he was skeptical that Iran would respond positively to Obama’s appeals. In an hour-long conversation, held in the Knesset, Netanyahu tempered his aggressive rhetoric with an acknowledgement that nonmilitary pressure could yet work. “I think the Iranian economy is very weak, which makes Iran susceptible to sanctions that can be ratcheted up by a variety of means.”
Benyamin Netanyahu is interviewed by Jeffrey Goldberg, here.
David Adler will be known to readers of this blog as an occasional contributor of both posts and comments. He’s now written an essay for the main Z Word site entitled Jazz and Protest: A Reappraisal. As one of New York’s most prominent jazz critics, David is uniquely placed to tackle some of the contemporary interpretations of the notion of jazz as “freedom music,” particularly from such unsavory characters as Amiri Baraka and Gilad Atzmon.
Continue reading ‘New on Z Word: Reappraising Jazz and Protest’
Canada is not British, nor European, nor Yankee, and in all the foreign and domestic sniggerings, objections, protests and complaints about the way Canada and its officials have handled the Galloway file, you will have to look very hard before you find one - just one - that does not wholly depend upon an embarassing error of fact, a delusion, a conspiracy theory, or an outright lie.
Terry Glavin gets it absolutely right, here.
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In case you had forgotten, I’ll remind you. Israel and Iran are at war. Any doubts about this should have been put to bed by the reports of a series of airstrikes by Israel on Iranian arms convoys bound for Hamas as they passed through Sudan.
Continue reading ‘Israel and Iran at War’
Gene described it as a “small, good thing.” An apposite phrase for a special event: a youth orchestra from the West Bank city of Jenin playing for a group of Holocaust survivors in Israel. But it won’t be happening again because the orchestra has been disbanded as a direct consequence of that concert.
Continue reading ‘Jenin Orchestra Disbanded’
Jeffrey White has an excellent piece here about the IDF’s operations in Gaza. I take the liberty of quoting the last three paragraphs in their entirety. Do yourself a favour and read the rest too. Hat tip Abu Muqawama
Continue reading ‘The IDF in Gaza: Conduct of War vs. Conduct of Soldiers’
We’ve made some technical improvements to Vilified: Telling Lies About Israel, the video which I wrote and directed for AJC which had over 27,000 views on YouTube in under two weeks - watch it here.
“There really hasn’t been a totalitarian regime in the last quarter century to which Galloway has failed to lend his support,” observes Michael Weiss in a robust defense of Canada’s decision to refuse entry to George Galloway, Saddam poodle and British MP.
This is a guest post by David Adler.
An anonymous reader has suggested parodic verses along the lines of Caryl Churchill’s short play Seven Jewish Children:
Continue reading ‘Caryl Churchill’s Play: “Easy, Fetid and Smug”’
This is a guest post by AJC’s Ed Rettig in Israel.
In late January, a Spanish magistrate decided to launch an investigation against senior Israeli leaders for crimes against humanity. Charges center on the July 2002 killing of Hamas military commander Salah Shehadeh (pictured,) perpetrator in chief of the Pi Glilot terror attack.
Continue reading ‘Remember Pi Glilot?’
I wasn’t there. Only 100 people were. More from Gene here, who says that the banning of Saddam Hussein’s former poodle from Canada “has turned what certainly would have been a quickly-forgotten tour into a cause celebre – much to Galloway’s delight, I’m sure.” True on one level, but I still think the Canadians were right to invoke their law, and send a message to this craven apologist for tyrants that supporting terrorism doesn’t go unpunished.
As I’ve argued before, one of the problems in portraying Iran’s drive for nuclear weapons as a concern for Israel alone is that it ignores the panic in the Arab world. In the Gulf especially, the chorus for a direct confrontation with Iran is growing. Here’s the Kuwait Times:
Continue reading ‘Iran Spurs Regional Nuclear Race’
This guest post by Felice Gaer, executive director of the American Jewish Committee’s Jacob Blaustein Institute for the Advancement of Human Rights, was published by JTA. Gaer was a member of the official U.S. delegation at the Durban review negotiations in Geneva in February.
In all the deliberations over the U.N.-sponsored Durban Review Conference on Racism, the one abiding concern has been that the infamous first conference in Durban, South Africa, in August 2001, which degenerated into a cacophony of Israel baiting and outright antisemitism, will be repeated next month in Geneva.
Continue reading ‘Durban: Straight Talk’
Professor Gerald Steinberg has written an excellent piece on the Durban Review conference. While there are many commentators who argue vociferously that any contact with the review process is intrinsically toxic, Steinberg counters that we must acknowledge the “substantial and almost unique” diplomatic victory in securing the latest changes to the draft document, even as he concludes that the case for staying away trumps the case for staying in.
Continue reading ‘Steinberg on the Durban Review’
This is a guest post by ganselmi.
On Friday morning, President Barack Obama released a video to congratulate Iranians around the world on the occasion of the Persian New Year, or “Nowruz.” BBC Persian’s hugely popular and officially-banned satellite channel has broadcast the message in its entirety to Iran.
Continue reading ‘Obama’s Nowruz Message: The Limits of Postcard Diplomacy’
