Here is one resistance worthy of the name, in a country that can legitimately be called a concentration camp. You can learn more about the democracy struggle in Burma at The Irrawaddy.
Archive for November, 2010
Last week the Turkish production company behind the disturbing “Valley of the Wolves” movies, released the trailer for the third installment of the series.
1. Over at Good Jew Central Dimi Reider is displeased that a number of his compatriots in uniform cheer, holler and show every sign of being pleased by the destruction of a number of buildings in Gaza during Operation Cast Lead.
Continue reading ‘Good Jew Central, Warfare And Nazi Germany’
Irish state broadcaster RTE is reporting that the “Strofades IV” - a boat hired by Ken O’Keefe and other sane and rational lovers of the international limelight to bring aid to Gaza - is steaming back to Greece from the Libyan port of Derna with the self-righteous ones as unwilling passengers. Why? Because the ship’s captain got tired of being given the run around instead of his agreed fee. Check this story out too for further amusing background.
The Universidad Complutense de Madrid (UCM) has the reputation of being one of the finest universities in Spain. It is financed by the state and it certainly has an original policy regarding the hiring of teaching staff. From February to June this year it allowed Juan Antonio Aguilar and Jesús Palacios to teach a course in its Faculty of Political Science and Sociology.
Continue reading ‘Neo-Fascists Teaching In Top Spanish University’
The present government of Spain, a socialist government, in name at least, has:
increased by 34% the percentage of their income tax that citizens may give to the Catholic church,
abandoned proposals to reform the religious freedom law and hence leave the Catholic church to enjoy privileges denied to other religions,
I’m asking because, in his report to the scrupulously neutral and balanced UN Human Rights Council in September 2009, Judge Richard Goldstone and his fellow commissioners said: “Statements by Israeli political and military leaders prior to and during the military operations in Gaza indicate that the Israeli military conception of what was necessary in a war with Hamas viewed disproportionate destruction and creating the maximum disruption in the lives of many people as a legitimate means to achieve not only military but also political goals.”
Continue reading ‘Goldstone, Goldstone, Wherefore Are Thou, Goldstone?’
As readers of this blog know, in the last couple of weeks I’ve written two pieces about the remarks of Andrew Whitley, an UNRWA official who was more candid than he should have been (here and here.) I want to point out this superb piece by Asaf Romirowsky, which provides some much needed historical perspective. Says Asaf:
Sometimes UNRWA will simply deny its internal critics even existed. In 1952 Lt.-Gen. Sir Alexander Galloway, a noted British soldier-diplomat who was then UNRWA director in Jordan, made what was to become a famous statement to a group of visiting American church leaders: “It is perfectly clear than the Arab nations do not want to solve the Arab refugee problem. They want to keep it as an open sore, as an affront against the United Nations and as a weapon against Israel. Arab leaders don’t give a damn whether the refugees live or die.”
Galloway’s solution was straightforward: “Give each of the Arab nations where the refugees are to be found an agreed-upon sum of money for their care and resettlement and then let them handle it. If… the United Nations had done this immediately after the conflict – explaining to the Arab states, ‘We are sorry it happened, but here is a sum of money for you to take care of the refugees’ – the problem might have been solved long ago.”
Do be sure to read all of Asaf’s piece, co-authored with Alexander H. Joffe, here.
This article by Winston Pickett was originally published in the UK Jewish Chronicle.
Now that the latest terror threat has been neutralized - with a little help from the Saudis - we’ve entered the predictable post mortem phase. This is the political scrum in which government, security, intelligence and law enforcement authorities scramble to apportion blame and devise strategies to keep air travel safe.
Continue reading ‘Jews, not Israel, are the Islamists’ Target’
Karl Pfeifer, a veteran anti-fascist and journalist and a longstanding contributor to Z Word, interviewed Esther Webman, research fellow at the Moshe Dayan Center for Middle Eastern and African Studies and the Stephen Roth Institute for the Study of Contemporary Antisemitism and Racism, Tel Aviv University, about her new book on Arab responses to the Holocaust.
Karl Pfeifer: In your book From Empathy to Denial / Arab Responses to the Holocaust (Co-author Meir Litvak) you emphasize discussing “as Jews and Israelis” this subject matter, to have “tried to maintain, as much as possible, a dispassionate approach”. Why did you qualify your ethnic origin as “our shortcoming”?
Esther Webman: Unfortunately, when it comes to the Arab-Israeli conflict there is a widespread belief that an Israeli is biased when he deals with Arab issues. And we do understand that as historians, we always have our own subjective position which might be reflected in our writing.
Continue reading ‘Arab Responses to the Holocaust: Esther Webman Interviewed’
There’s a long interview with Felipe González, the former socialist prime minister of Spain, in El País today. In it he speaks of an opportunity he spurned to carry out a targeted assassination of the leadership of the Basque terrorist group ETA.
Continue reading ‘Felipe González And Targeted Assassinations’
Here’s my latest article on The Huffington Post.
Recently, I wrote about the case of Andrew Whitley, who is the New York Director of UNWRA, the UN agency tasked with aiding Palestinian refugees. Whitley told a conference in Washington that the so-called “right of return” is unlikely to ever be exercised, and that efforts would be better expended on integrating Palestinian refugees into the countries where they have been living for decades.
Continue reading ‘UNRWA Shames Andrew Whitley’
About 20% of Israel’s population is Arab and Israel comes in 15th in the UN’s (yes, the UN) latest Human Development Index rankings. The closest ranking Arab country, the UAE, comes in at number 32 on the list.
via Yaacov
The Casa Sefarad-Israel is a state-sponsored body in Spain which aims to increase awareness in that country of its Sephardic heritage and Jewish culture in general and to improve ties between Spain and Israel. It has just released the results of a survey it commissioned on attitudes towards Jews in Spain.
Continue reading ‘New Research on Attitudes To Jews in Spain’
