Israel, The Day After

Last week, an interesting article by Daniel Gordis appeared onTablemag.com. Gordis, a committed Zionist intellectual, is concerned about the inevitable collapse of the Jewish state and its impact on world Jewry in general and American Jews in particular. Although it’s reassuring that Zionist scholars are now realising that that the Jewish State is on its way out, even more importantly, Gordis’ article gives us a glimpse into contemporary Jewish identity politics, Jewish culture and Zionist collective psychosis. And... Read article

Did America Say NO To Israel?

In the last few hours we have learned that the US had made massive reductions to joint military exercise with Israel.  Originally slated to include 5,000 US troops, Washington will now only send 1,500 to participate in Austere Challenge 12 with Israel.  Apparently, the American administration is concerned with a possible Israeli strike on Iran. Some Israelis seem unhappy with the American decision. The Times quoted a senior Israeli military official as speculating, “Basically what the Americans are saying is, ‘We... Read article

A War Israel is Just Begging for an Excuse to Start

Just hours after the attack on Israeli tourists in Bulgaria, Israeli PM Benjamin Netanyahu and his Defence Minister Ehud Barak were quick to announce that Iran and the Hezbollah were behind the attack. In fact, it didn’t take the Israeli PM more than two hours to blame another country for committing an act of war on Israeli citizens in a third country’s territory. Of course, Netanyahu didn’t provide any evidence to support his thesis. In fact, even today, three days after the attack, no clear leads suggesting any Iranian... Read article

Burner Against Burner

Earlier this week we learned that Israeli Knesset Member Michael Ben-Ari (National Union) tore the New Testament to pieces and then threw it in the trash. MK Ben –Ari was quoted as saying  “This abhorrent book (The New Testament) promoted the murders of millions of Jews during the Inquisition and the autos da fé… this is an ugly missionary provocation by the Church, there’s no doubt that the book and its senders belong in the trash of history.” Unfortunately, such a disgraceful attitude towards a text is no... Read article

Did Israel Nuke Arafat?

Since we now have conclusive evidence that Arafat was poisoned by radioactive polonium 210 and since Israel is the prime suspect in Arafat’s 2004 assassination, surely it is time to point the finger at Israel and its leadership and to demand explanations. Already in 2004, Silvan Shalom, at the time Israeli Foreign Minister, rejected as “scandalous and false” the idea that his country had a role in Arafat’s death. However, this is despite the facts that Israel had earlier threatened Arafat, blaming him for Palestinian... Read article

USS Liberty…What Phil Saw That Day

45th anniversary of the attack on the USS Liberty… Back in 2009, in Houston Texas, Mimi Adams, a distinguished Palestinian solidarity & human rights activist, gave me a present- a USS Liberty baseball cap. She put it on my head and said, “Gilad, in the next two weeks, make sure you have it on your head everywhere you go in America. You will see what happens.” It was around midnight, I was tired and jet-lagged, I couldn’t really understand the significance of the baseball cap, I just wanted to make my way... Read article

Postcolonial Theory, Whiteness & Palestine

Postcolonial, feminist and gay studies share many similarities to the extent that some academics regard these fields as theoretically and ideologically complementary. These fields of study are primarily concerned with politics, the structure of hegemony, the oppressed and the mechanism that brings about injustice. It is only natural then, that these realms of thought, primarily concerned with prejudice and injustice, would become key instruments in our understanding of Zionism and Israeli oppression. Without questioning... Read article

Zionism Is Dead And Kicking

In a recent Haaretz article, leading Israeli columnist Gideon Levy affirms that Zionism is pretty irrelevant as far as Israelis are concerned. Similar to the line I myself develop in The Wandering Who, Levy contends that Israelis do not understand what Zionism stands for. For them it is an archaic notion. The meaning of it is simple. That which seems as a vivid ‘Zionist’ / ‘anti Zionist’ debate is in practice an internal Jewish Diaspora quarrel with no significant practical meaning. Levy writes, “In 2012, the... Read article

On Marine Le Pen And Populism

Marine Le Pen and The French’s Front National are the big winners in the French elections yesterday. France’s Front National scored the best ever presidential campaign first-round result (18% of the votes). As elsewhere in Europe, the French far right is dealing with matters other political parties prefer to avoid or shove under the carpet. Yesterday results proves that many French are primarily concerned with issues to do with immigration and ‘identity loss’. While the so called ‘far Right’ engages with these... Read article

Where The ‘Self’ Ends And The ‘West’ Begins

When we were young there was hope in the air. There was good reason to look ahead. Some of us enrolled at university, but we also knew that if life did not shine on us, there were plenty of factories that offered enough jobs to those who were willing to toil. Yet it seems our children are not so lucky. Not much is awaiting them. The Western economy is on the brink of collapse. When we were young, there were two ideologies around. In a cold manner, they bitterly chewing away at each other. One ideology maintained that... Read article

Never Again’ Is An Empty Slogan

The United States must resolve that ‘never again’ is not just an ‘empty slogan’, said U.S. President Barack Obama on Thursday, in a statement marking Holocaust Remembrance Day. Yet, I am left bewildered, what does president Obama refers to? Is  ‘never again’ a universal message pointing at genocides in general or did he refer to Jewish suffering only? With  1,455,590 dead Iraqis due to an Anglo American criminal war, it seems as if the USA is actually complicit in an actual genocide. Obama’s comments... Read article

Baroness Ashton and Jewish Sensitivities

The European Union’s High Representative for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy was criticised yesterday  for  comparing the killing of three children and a rabbi in a shooting attack in France to the situation in Gaza. At the “Palestine refugees in the changing Middle East” conference in Brussels, Baroness Ashton, described the murders in Toulouse as a “terrible tragedy”, but  she then added: “When we see what is happening in Gaza and in different parts of the world – we remember young people and children... Read article

Obama, AIPAC & The Rest of US

Yesterday at AIPAC annual conference, the American president had to go out of his way to appease his Jewish crowd. He used every trick in the book, he even peppered his talk with some Yiddish sporadic words and he did it all just to justify his decision not to launch a World War as yet. One should ask, how come a lobby of a small state that practices the most appalling racist expansionist politics and practices has managed to gain so much political power in the USA. As it happens, more and more academics and political... Read article

Two People, One Hummus

A talk given in Toronto at The Islamic Society of York, Canada 24.2.12 I was asked to talk to you today about the on-going dispute within our ranks between those who support the One State Solution for the Israeli Palestinian conflict, and those who advocate Two States for the two people. Interestingly enough, this is a topic I hardly comment on, and not because I am short of vision, opinion or ideas, but rather because I do believe that the fate of the people in Palestine and Israel should be decided by the Israelis and... Read article

Zionist Immoral Intervention

Alan Dershowitz – Zionut extrordinaire… Alan Dershowitz is whining again, this time on the pages of the Jerusalem Post.   Apparently The Friends Seminary of New York which assigned its students to read my papers and invited me to attend a class,  has made it clear to Israeli ethnic cleanser apologist that he was not welcome in its premises. Dershowitz Admits Defeat In short, Dershowitz admits total defeat. The Quaker school that was “unwilling to cancel Atzmon’s appearance” made it clear to the Zionist... Read article

Israel Better Forget About War On Iran

Israeli Ynet admitted today that an Israeli air force attack on Iran is unrealistic. The Israeli paper quoted a New York Times article that described such an attack as ‘highly complex operation’. It would require at least 100 planes.  Israeli jets would have to refuel in the air en route, fight off Iran’s air defenses and attack multiple underground sites simultaneously. American military experts seem to agree amongst themselves that Israel doesn’t necessarily has the means to accomplish such an operation. The... Read article

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