NEWS: News Updates

 

Final stages called for MidEast peace

September 28th, 2012

At a meeting of the UN's General Assembly in New York on Thursday both President Abbas and Prime Minister Netanyahu had a rare chance to discuss the urgent question of Palestine. President Abbas did so, solemnly. Israel's Prime Minister preferred the delegates to imagine a war with Iran. He provided the pictures with the aplomb of a 7-year old and the conviction of Colin Powell with his WMD dossier.

American Christian Right: West and Islam at war until death

September 27th, 2012

The common bonds uniting the right in the USA and Europe are their ignorance and their belief that the West represents civilisation which is under attack from 'savage' Muslims. At home they rely on Stop Islamisation campaigns; beyond their frontiers, Israel is their sole outpost against the Islamic horde. From many articles, we post pieces from Mondoweiss and AlterNet.

How AIPAC transfers Americans’ money into Israel’s military

September 27th, 2012

The imprint of AIPAC on American legislation which channels money and military equipment to Israel is well-known. Here Grant Smith explains how they achieve this. Less well-known is the work of other agencies in smuggling out American nuclear material, allowing Israel to become the only nuclear-armed state in the Middle East (presumably known by the CIA, hence the distrust noted by Jonathan Cook).

Politicians pile in to diss Barak’s withdrawal plan

September 27th, 2012

Israel Hayom (the free tabloid owned by Sheldon Adelson) has launched an interview with Ehud Barak in which the Defence Minister elaborates his suggestion that Israel should withdraw unilaterally from the West Bank after incorporating three settlements into Israel proper. Critics think he is angling for the centre vote and swift condemnation suggests the idea has no traction amongst MKs. It would break the status quo between Israel/Palestine and amongst players in the 'peace process' and jeopardise a larger peace deal.

TUC votes show Israel losing battle of ideas in Britain

September 26th, 2012

The series of votes, reports and decisions by the TUC in the last three years all rest on the assumption that Israel is the oppressor and the Palestinians the oppressed. So, argues Sarah Colborne, it is clear that the Israeli government's propaganda is failing to impress the bulk of people outside the right wing in the UK.

Israeli witch-hunter visits UK to tell us we are funding Palestinian terrorism

September 26th, 2012

Gerald Steinberg, founder and director of NGO Monitor which devotes a lot of time and money to denouncing any NGO which supports Palestinians, recently visited the UK to address MPs at the invitation of the Henry Jackson Society and 'advise' unnamed Jewish organizations that NGOs like Defence for Children International which use the word apartheid should not be given UK grants. The JC gives a disingenuous report, +972 an angry one.

Squeezing Palestinian workers through the Jewish state’s rules

September 26th, 2012

A founding premise of Israel was that Jews would do the full range of work which had not been open to them in Europe. In reality there has always been a shortage of workers for the manual and menial jobs. Fearful of foreign immigrants diluting the Jewish state, writes JKD'Amours, the Civil Administration has begun offering more work permits to Palestinians - with the usual bureaucratic complexities and inconsistencies.

International community must support PA warns UN’s ‘top man in peace process’

September 25th, 2012

In a report delivered to the Security Council last week, Robert Serry, United Nations Special Coordinator for the Middle East, warned that the financial crisis crippling the PA would, if left untreated, bring down the gains made so far in building Palestinian state institutions. That, coupled with the stalemate in negotiations, would make a two-state solution ever harder to bring about.

Clashing needs for religious ambition and a modern economy fought out through women.

September 25th, 2012

Despite its origin as a secular state, modern Israel has increasingly relied on fervent religious Jews to expand its boundaries and justify their seizure of land. Palestinians have lost the most but Israeli women also find their boundaries have shrunk as orthodox Jews venture into the public realm to lay down the rules on how women should behave and dress. Nira Yuval-Davis talks to Deniz Kandiyoti.

Quest for monolithic Israel has created schism and despair

September 25th, 2012

Professor Naomi Chazan contemplates the jittery, unhappy mood in Israel on the eve of Yom Kippur (25-26 September) and chastises the leaders for putting a drive to preserve the status quo with Palestinians and for Jewish uniformity before any ethical concerns.

BBC documents price-tag youth boasting of doing God’s work

September 24th, 2012

They may wear hoodies, but faced with a BBC camera they boasted, bare-faced, of their price-tag exploits. Every stick of wood on the West Bank belongs to them and will be redeemed, every act of terrorism is doing God's work. If such Jewish and Muslim youth seem indistinguishable in their self-righteous intimidaton, the IDF should be able to tell them apart. Yet they done little to uncover this 'enemy within'.

Like or loathe Judith Butler, debate her ideas in public

September 24th, 2012

Eva Illouz from the Hebrew University is not much taken with Judith Butler's ideas about contemporary politics, or even politics as queer theory; but she deplores the horrible practice by some fans of Israel of bullying critics of Israel and exerting private pressure on institutions to

withhold from those critics any acclaim or acceptance rather than engaging with them in public debate.

The lasting horror of a mass killing

September 24th, 2012

The main item in this posting is very distressing to read. It is an account by an Israeli soldier who was there, was so traumatised by what he saw that he was eventually discharged as mentally ill and has been unable to speak about it until now. This is followed by three letters to the NY Times written in response to the article by Seth Anziska, which we posted last week. Only the letter from Israel's spokesman was published.