The Campaign Against Anti-Semitism in Britain releases a poll purporting to document broad support for anti-Semitic attitudes, leaving many Jews insecure. But the context here must include the transformation of Israel’s image, from an admirable project to a regional bully
It’s a “tragic irony” that Israel which has withstood thousands of terrorist rockets is to be investigated by the International Criminal Court, the US State Department says, fulfilling its role as the defender of the Jewish state
‘NYT’ pillories French mosque leader who justifies jihadists going to Syria because Israel recruits French youth to kill Palestinians. But he has a point. And what about Times columnist David Brooks’s son, who joined the IDF because he believes in that cause?
Ahmad Tibi, member of Israeli Knesset, says that Israeli police look on Palestinians as hostiles and not citizens, which may explain killing of 20-year-old in Negev
Furthering his ceaseless campaign to leave no Jewish victim of the Charlie Hebdo tragedy unexploited, Benjamin Netanyahu recently said “Israel is the only place you can proudly proclaim ‘I am a Jew.’” Scott Ratner writes, “Israel is actually the one place that any Jew with a social consciousness should feel more ashamed of his or her identity than any other country in the world. After all, in no other country besides Israel is Judaism the perennial justification for a decade’s long quest to suppress and uproot the culture and presence of millions of non-Jews.”
Basil AbdulRazeq Farraj was nearly two years old when his father was arrested by Israeli authorities in 1994. Since he has celebrated many birthdays separated from him as his father remains in Israeli detention. Farraj writes on his father’s birthday this year: “I am celebrating my father’s love that transcends the prison walls he became so acquainted to. I am celebrating his unwavering commitment to justice and equality. I am celebrating the few words he sent out, through a lawyer, while on hunger strike seven months ago: “my determination reaches the furthest point in the sky.” I am celebrating the moments we had and those we will have.”
David Samel remembers Joan Peters, the author of “From Time Immemorial: The Origins of the Arab-Israeli Conflict over Palestine” who died this week at the age of 78. Samel writes, “The bizarre chapter of Joan Peters’s contribution to the Middle East debate does not end with her death. Her arguments, both those she adopted from others and those she formulated herself, still constitute a huge portion of the go-to hasbara repertoire. From Time Immemorial is an embarrassment that taints anyone who embraced it as well as those who continue to do so.”
A prosecutor for the International Criminal Court has opened an inquiry into possible war crimes carried out by Israel in advance of the Palestinian government’s official ascension to the court. Meanwhile, the Palestinians plan to re-file a UN Security Council resolution to end Israel’s occupation.
Marc Ellis writes, “While heartfelt, the various “Je suis” campaigns are diversions that draw us deeper into the international security abyss.”
President Obama told Democratic senators he knew they faced donor pressure to ramp up sanctions on Iran. In reporting this, the NYT never mentioned the Israel lobby, which applies that pressure