Regular readers will need no introduction to Luis D’Elía. The renowned social activist and prominent supporter of the government of Cristina Fernández de Kirchner shares his thoughts with the world on Twitter and a few minutes ago he posted this:
Continue reading ‘Argentine Jews: Someone’s Keeping An Eye On You’
Imagine that you are a distinguished academic, a sociologist say, or a historian. You have a nice job in an American university, your family background is Catholic Polish and though you are well known to experts in your own area of study the broader public has never heard of you.
Regular readers of this blog will know that we have repeatedly argued against the usefulness of the Northern Ireland analogy applied to the Israel-Palestine conflict. Nevertheless, like the corpse of a drowned dog, it keeps bobbing to the surface again and again. The latest example is by Ali Abunimah in the New York Times. With a deep sigh and a heavy step I’ll now proceed to take it apart.
The view is widely held that Turkey is ruled by a moderate Islamist party, the AKP, that is committed to democracy and integration with Europe and that it is the old secular elite that stands in the way of modernization and human rights. Many also believe that the decline in Israel’s previously good relations with Turkey can be explained entirely by Israel’s assault on the Mavi Marmara.
Continue reading ‘Foreign Illusions About Turkey And The AKP’
Michael Collins isn’t a name that will mean much to many readers of this blog. For present purposes it will suffice to say that he was a key figure in the War of Independence that led to Ireland winning its freedom from Great Britain. He was shot dead in an ambush during the Irish Civil War 88 years ago today.
Continue reading ‘Michael Collins, 88 Years and Burying the Past’
Writing in the New York Times Charles M. Blow says that,
While Jews are only 2 percent of the United States population, their influence outweighs their proportion.
Well said, Charles. Perhaps you might like to devote your next column to saying what measures you think ought to be taken to reduce Jewish influence. Limit Jewish participation in higher education? Make Jews who run for Congress pass a loyalty test? Make one non-Jewish vote count for two Jewish ones in swing states? The possibilities are endless. (Via Phoebe)
Noam Sheizaf and Larry Derfner are worried about the possibility that Israel might attack Iran’s nuclear facilities. No surprise there. What sensible person could contemplate such an idea with equanimity? However, both of them fall into the trap of assuming that all the risks are stacked on the side of attacking and none on the side of not taking military action.
Continue reading ‘Sheizaf, Derfner And What Deterrence Means’
By way of Haaretz I learn of a pledge by 150 Irish artists not to perform in Israel. Most of the signatories are nonentities whose undertaking not to perform in Israel is about as meaningful as one by me not to run for president of Azerbaijan would be.
Many readers will have already come across Jeffrey Goldberg’s piece in The Atlantic about the possibility of Israel resorting to force against Iran. Though it’s received a lot of attention, I don’t think it’s that interesting; it’s long on personal anecdote (by the way, for a seriously unflattering view of the Netanyahu family you ought to read Chapter 12 of this book) and the views of unnamed sources and short on analysis. People seriously interested in this matter still need to read Tira.
To those of you who can read Spanish I recommend following Luis D’Elía on Twitter. Why should he be of interest? Well, the rotund social activist is a prominent supporter of the government of President Cristina Fernández de Kirchner and on more than one occasion he and his followers have provided the street muscle to keep opponents of the government from holding demonstrations at sensitive locations.
Mondoweiss has reported the death of Tony Judt. I daresay they’d know. As good a moment as any to recall that he regarded Jews as morally unfit for self-government and warned that the Jews as a whole might have to suffer as a result of the alleged crimes of some individual Jews.
Michelle Sieff has an interesting piece here in which she argues against what she sees as a partial application of human rights law to Israel’s responses to Hamas. Her main point is that the goals being pursued by an organization have to be considered when assessing what sort of response to it is justifiable and warns of the consequences if this is not done:
Now that UNIFIL has substantially endorsed Israel’s account of yesterday’s fatal shooting on its border, a couple of thoughts…
This morning’s deadly clash between the Lebanese army and the IDF isn’t the first time that fatalities on a contested border have resulted from attempts to deal with an inconveniently located tree.
Continue reading ‘Israel, Lebanon, Korea, Border Clashes And Trees’
I have no special skills when it comes to predicting the future but I thought I might as well title this post as I have when it occurred to me that many, cough, anti-Zionists, would see three posts in four days about Iran as being a sure sign that something is up. After all, this blog is sponsored by the AJC and hey, come on, we all know what that means….
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