The various attempts, as the Presidential campaign heated up, to depict Barack Obama as hostile to Israel had minimal impact on American Jews, 78 per cent of whom voted for him. Among young Jewish voters, as this informal AJC poll indicates, the percentage was even higher. Indeed, as we reported yesterday, wariness about an Obama administration is more pointed in the Arab and wider Islamic world. One reason why, today, all eyes are on Illinois Congressman Rahm Emanuel, who has been appointed as Obama’s Chief-of-Staff.
Continue reading ‘The Rahm Factor’
It was an astounding night in America and around the world. Even so, reality is quickly intruding into the jumble of elation, incredulity and anticipation which greeted Barack Obama’s election as the 44th President of the United States. Several news outlets report that Obama is not resting, but is solidly focused on his transition team - and, by extension, the issues they will face.
Continue reading ‘Obama and the Middle East’
Omar Barghouti is a leading advocate of BDS (Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions) against Israel and a key figure in PACBI (the Palestinian Campaign for an Academic and Cultural Boycott of Israel). If his latest article on the execrable Counterpunch website is anything to go by, Barghouti is worried that some boycotters are getting cold feet.
Continue reading ‘Antisemitism Lies at the Heart of the Boycott Movement’
Writing in Beirut’s Daily Star newspaper, leading Palestinian intellectual and Al Quds University President Sari Nusseibeh runs through the reasons why the “one-state solution” is enjoying a revival. Nusseibeh, however, is emphatic in his rejection of a unitary state between the Mediterranean and the River Jordan.
Continue reading ‘Sari Nusseibeh Rejects the “One-State Solution”’
Over at Normblog you’ll find the latest installment of Sam Fleischacker’s series “A Cool Hour on the Israel-Palestine Conflict” here. You’ll find my comments on previous installments behind these numbers: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5. On this occasion Fleischacker deals with questions relating to the idea of collective ownership of particular territories.
Continue reading ‘A Response To “A Cool Hour on the Israel-Palestine Conflict 6”’
By all accounts, the Yom Kippur holiday in the Israeli city of Acre (Akko in Hebrew, Akka in Arabic) was an ugly affair, marked by riots and clashes between Jewish and Arab residents.
Continue reading ‘Violence in Acre’
The triangular debate between Norman Geras, Martin Shaw and Engage over the extent to which attitudinal antisemitism is a factor in the academic boycott campaign has continued. I want to weigh in on one point.
Continue reading ‘Genocide Analogies’
In what Yediot Ahronot has billed as a “legacy interview” on the occasion of Rosh Hashana, the Jewish New Year, outgoing Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert has - as he himself says - expressed ideas unheard from any previous Israeli leader.
Continue reading ‘Land for Peace’
I have already commented on the first three posts of a series by Samuel Fleischacker on the Israeli-Palestinian dispute currently appearing over at Normblog here, here, and here. The fourth in the series appeared yesterday and I don’t really have any comments to make on this occasion because I agree with practically all of it.
Continue reading ‘A Response To “A Cool Hour on the Israel-Palestine Conflict 4”’
According to this story, Israel has just received an advanced, early warning radar system, as well the crew to operate it, from the United States. This represents a major step forward for American-Israeli defense integration and will greatly improve Israel’s ability to deal with ballistic missile threats.
Continue reading ‘Israel, Iran and Early Warnings’
UPDATE: The text of Ahmadinejad’s address to the UN, in which he claimed that “Zionists…have been dominating an important portion of the financial and monetary centers as well as the political decision-making centers of some European countries,” can be read here.
Perched in a suite at New York’s Grand Hyatt Hotel, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, in town for the UN General Assembly, has been making nice with the press.
Continue reading ‘Ahmadinejad in New York’
When it comes to resolving the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, perhaps the most complicated variable is the land itself. That’s why a peace proposal which would allow Gaza to triple in size is worthy of a second look.
Continue reading ‘A Regional Solution’
A new survey of global attitudes on subjects ranging from minorities to gender to terrorism makes grim reading. In Europe, malign sentiments towards Jews and Muslims are on the rise. In the Middle East and in the wider Muslim world - from Egypt to Turkey to Indonesia - opinions about Jews are overwhelmingly negative.
Continue reading ‘Pew Survey Shows Bigotry on the Rise’
There is a grim irony in the fact that, in a year marking the sixtieth anniversary of Israel’s creation, mainstream media interest in the so-called “one state solution” - something that would signal Israel’s demise - has been unprecedented.
Continue reading ‘The Politics of Fear’
One result of the Iraq war has been the commonplace assertion that western intelligence can’t be trusted. Agencies collect information which is unreliable and open to manipulation by political leaders bent on war.
Continue reading ‘Iran and the IAEA’
