This is from the University of Plymouth student blog in England. They say there are 30+ “occupied universities” in the UK. AFter 4 days of occupation, Plymouth students say the university has agreed on Palestinian scholarship, aid to Gaza, and…
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Monthly Archives: February 2009
Slumdog’s Muslim protagonist
Just saw “Slumdog Millionaire.” Loved it. Very Dickensian. One comment: It interests me that the movie’s hero, Jamal Malik, is a Muslim. And so the world and the Motion Picture academy are celebrating a Muslim Oliver Twist. That’s helpful. And…
Killing of 3 top Palestinian footballers in Gaza has helped unite Palestinian community
Yesterday I met two Arab intellectuals, Mustapha Tlili and Ambassador Clovis Maksoud, during a taping for Press TV and was struck afresh by how upset the Arab world is over Gaza. I don’t think this is fully understood in the…
‘Tikkun’ pronounces Gaza operation ‘successful’
Here’s a link to an American Jewish Committee site where Doug Lieb’s article attacking Jerry Slater’s piece in Tikkun has been posted. Lieb’s article is also published in the latest issue of Tikkun, which thereby takes on the old Commentary…
‘Commentary’ seeks to discredit charge that Gaza attack was ‘disproportionate’ without even citing casualty figures
I just got my March issue of Commentary. It’s not online yet. It includes a long article by Yiddishist Ruth Wisse called “Now, About That ‘Proportionality'” which of course says that Israel was right to destroy Gaza. There is something…
Scoundrel time
The battle is joined. The other side is gearing up. Here is a fabulous post by MJ Rosenberg saying that the Weekly Standard and other usual suspects want to hold McCarthy-like hearings about Chas Freeman. Meantime, something I somewhat-apprehended last…
Why I believe the theory of the Israel lobby
Here’s why I believe in the Israel lobby theory of American Middle East policy. Here is Anne Bayefsky in Forbes the other day urging the Obama administration not to “sacrifice” Israel to the U.N.’s Durban conference. (Advice taken.) Bayefsky is…
E tu– ‘Tikkun’ gives space for official Jewish argument that Gaza was ‘just war’
Here is the forthcoming Tikkun magazine. The articles are not yet on-line. But isn’t this curious. Here is what looks to be a great piece on Gaza by a meticulous moral scholar, Jerry Slater: A Perfect Moral Catastrophe: Just War…
When the Israel lobby presumes to speak for the interests of Palestinians, continued
Regarding David Makovsky’s congressional testimony in which he presumed to speak for Palestinian interests, I missed the crucial link! Here it is. And here is the story: In 2004 Makovsky, the goodnatured scholar who works for the Israel lobby WINEP–and…
The rabbi said, ‘All those stand up who believe Israel should remain a Jewish state’
More about Paul Berman, whose lofty interview about Gaza on the American Jewish Committee site, Z-word, is under my skin. Berman says: As for the anti-Zionist left in America: The Nation magazine, the Answer movement, the professors who want to…
Berman says Congress won’t deal with Hamas-Fatah. But will Obama?
Howard Berman, chairman of House Foreign Affairs, has issued the following defiant statement about the fresh news of negotiations between Hamas and Fatah to form a unity government: “The U.S. Congress will find it impossible to work constructively with any…
This isn’t the first time Makovsky has told Congress how to improve Palestinians’ lives
Earlier today we reported that Israel lobbyist David Makovsky in testimony to Congress had urged Israel’s use of “appropriate biometrics” as a means of screening Palestinians at Israeli border crossings so as to shorten lines. He recommended this as a…
Israeli Apartheid Week hits YouTube
And the Hasbara rejoinder: Also watch Elliot Mathias, the director of the Hasbara Fellowships, prepare students to combat Israel Apartheid week here.
David Makovsky of WINEP calls on Israel to implement ‘appropriate biometrics’ for Palestinians at border crossings
At DailyKos, “Rbguy” is providing excellent coverage of a post-Gaza hearing conducted by the House subcommittee on Middle East and South Asia (under the Foreign Affairs committee). Here’s part of his report on David Makovsky, the cheerful guy from WINEP,…
Should have seen this coming: Lieberman makes Netanyahu look warm and cuddly
Frightening. Ben Smith in Politico on Lieberman’s charm offensive: Others argue that he could be a useful foil for Benjamin Netanyahu, allowing the new prime minister to better cast himself as a centrist. Smith also says that even Joe Lieberman…
Israel planning a ‘mass expansion’ of settlements in the West Bank. Your response Sec. Clinton?
George Mitchell should really travel to the Middle East more often. Every time he lands in Israel/Palestine there seems to be a blockbuster leak regarding the settlements. Akiva Eldar is reporting in today’s Ha’aretz that the Israeli civil administration in…
Poll: Clear majority of Israelis oppose 2-state solution
51 percent to 32 percent, according to post-Gaza poll apparently done for Israeli TV network.
Legislative warfare: one phone call turns a civilian into a ‘human shield’
Anees writes from Jerusalem: Eyal Weizman is an Israeli architect and scholar of the spatial aspects of Israel’s Occupation and military operations. His many excellent essays/books/interviews are worth checking out. In this recent article on ‘lawfare’ (law+warfare) in Gaza, he…
Abunimah does the numbers: Palestinian majority next year
Yesterday I posted John Mearsheimer’s belief that Palestinians outnumber Jews in historical Palestine right now. Well, here is Ali Abunimah’s estimate from last year, that Jews are 5.15 million and Palestinians 5 million, and both are under 50 percent of…
CBS exec’s comments on Palestinian self-government have long American pedigree
Jeff Ballabon, lately appointed a CBS vice president for communications, writing a few months ago: Palestinians simply are not interested in or ready for the creation of a state. Stephen Douglas, the Democratic senator, speaking in Jonesboro, Illinois, in September…
Berman once laughed at settlements, now says he has always opposed them
Paul Berman’s comments on Z-word about Israel/Palestine are so troubling that I need to visit them again. You know me, I’m like a dog with a bone. Well this is what he says about the occupation: I know that a…
Dennis Ross’s lowly portfolio is sign that Obama is handling the lobby
Another important sign that Obama is changing the water in the aquarium. The Israel lobby is openly derided in this piece on Foreign Policy’s Cable, which, echoing the new conventional wisdom in Washington, virtually mocks Dennis Ross’s lack of a…
Israel lobby is fracturing somewhat on Avigdor Lieberman
Avigdor Lieberman may have come in a surprising third in the elections in Israel, but he knows where the ultimate power base is. So today he has an op-ed in the New York Jewish Week trying to overcome the criticism…
Breakthrough
Today’s letter from the office of the Director of National Intelligence selecting Chas Freeman, a man of the world, as director of the National Intelligence Council… Steve Clemons says the thrashing of the anti-Freemanites reveals the weakness of the lobby:…
‘Daily News’ publisher to Gaza: Drop dead
This sort of story makes me sick. Here’s Marcia Kramer of WCBS television in New York carrying the water for the Israel lobby by turning on Hillary Clinton for her statements pressing for Israel to speed up aid to Gaza….