Yes, a theocracy.

In my last post, I stated the obvious: That despite the US media’s constant statements to the contrary, Israel is a theocracy, not a democracy. There’s a whole lot of reasons why this is clearly the case, but today, we read of women being forced to sit in the back of buses because, well that’s [...]

What? “an Israeli national bike-team uniform, a water canteen emblazoned with “George W. 43” and a global positioning system for the handlebars, loaded with the trails on his Texas ranch and riding paths in Israel.”

Gentle reader, I ask you to imagine the outcry from a story featuring Bush sporting an Egyptian (or Mexican for that matter) national bike team outfit. The following NYT article speaks for itself and unwittingly – or perhaps wittingly - makes many of my points that I’ve discussed earlier. Israel, a theocracy, is even referred to as a “democracy”.   
 Pool photo by Jack Guez

January 10, [...]

Speaking of Livni

See here for previous comments regarding Israel’s Foreing Minister, Tzipi Livni.
Bethlehem – Ma’an – Israeli foreign minister Tzipi Livni seems to be preparing to back up the Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert following the publication of the Winograd report on the failures of the Israeli army in the 33-day war between Hezbollah and Israel in [...]

Another Sad Farce: Israel deems use of cluster bombs ‘legal’

Cluster bombs (pictured below) are, by design, lethal to unprotected people. That is to say, to civilians; militants are usually in ‘hardened environments’. Furthermore, the unexploded remnants continue to kill civilians, especially children. A sad day indeed when the Israeli government proudly claims their use perfectly justified.
 
Many bomblets fail to explode and continue to endanger [...]

A step in the right direction

But, what must be remembered is that any such theoretical aid will be moot if Israel continues to violate international law by expanding the settlements. Israel’s clear desire is to succeed in the fait accompli of rendering a Palestinian state impossible. They have accomplished this – which is why such talk of a ’Palestinian state’ is absurd. Also, one should [...]

A historical glance of media bias against the Palestinians

As an historical perspective is always helpful in analyzing policies and behaviors, I offer this a 1993 analysis done by FAIR, which sows the ingrained racism (e.g., “It was not in them, or in the ways of their culture, to make such a daring leap”) we’ve come to expect from major press sources in the US. Also on full display is [...]

US/Israeli Role in fomenting civil war in Palestine

The below is from an excellent journalistic source FAIR. In the below, they have analyzed (1) the role of US and Israel in causing the violence in Gaza; rather than discussing this externally imposed impetus for violence, the dominant discourse in the US is “Arabs killing each other over Jewish land” and (2) the silence of the [...]

Israeli policy of denying medical care to Palestinian children

This article discusses one of the saddest manifestations of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. Because occupied Palestine is forced to be economically dependent on Israel, it cannot afford modern equipment in its hospitals, even medicine faces long delays at Israeli checkpoints. Now that Gaza has been declared “a hostile entity”, children are dying of things like chicken [...]

Pro-settlement sentiment in young Israelis

It is noteworthy that this made it into the Times at all. Of course, the writer mentions an example Palestinian violence, but not the daily and far more deadly occasions of settler violence against the Palestinians. The settler movement is the single biggest obstacle to peace; unfortunately  there is obviously a continuing problem as the younger generation continues the pogrom against Palestinians. 

December [...]

Letters from Dershowitz to UC Press and Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger attempting to prevent publication of Norman Finkelstein’s ‘Beyond Chutzpah’

Norman Finkelstein is a scholar (PhD from Princeton) who lost both parents in the holocaust – and Dershowitz still slanders him with the ‘anti-Semitic’ invective. But, because Finkelstein thinks Alan Dershowitz’s unstinting support for Israel’s brutality against the Palestinians is unconscionable, Dershowitz has used all means at his disposal to attack him in both public, and as [...]