Between Dome of the Rock and a Hard Place
From the category archives:
This news story will not be news to anyone bothering to read the Israeli papers as Israel was attacking Gaza last winter. IDF spokespeople made it very clear Israel was going to privilege Jewish soldiers’ lives over any concerns about war crimes. This argument is, in fact, part of the Goldstone report’s case [...]
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After months of dawdling, Israel finally completed its UN assignment right at the deadline. Well, not really. As the UN mandated timeframe for investigating IDF crimes in Gaza was coming to a close, the Israeli government handed over a partially finished document that summarized the homework already done and the homework it intends [...]
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Sitting in my hand is Alan Dershowitz’s official critique of the Goldstone Report. I am going to devote time in the near future to rebutting some of the ridiculous claims he makes. To foreshadow my criticisms, Dershowitz’s primary tactic is to exaggerate willfully the claims made by the Goldstone report so he can [...]
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From a few thousand miles away, or even from the relative safety of a television image in Tel Aviv living room, it can seem as though the spiral of violence in the Middle East spins ruthlessly with no end and no beginning. In this confusing situation, people then insert their own ideological perspectives: each [...]
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Dear Haitians, forgive me for using your current and historical suffering to make a political point about a distant land. Nothing I say is intended to diminish your real suffering and remarkable steadfastness in the face of often externally created adversity. Given your history, there is a strong comparison to be made with [...]
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When Israel was destroying Gaza in December 2008, Obama was preparing to take office as president. Progressives around the world turned to him to use his surging diplomatic power to pressure Israel to end the massacre. He stayed silent, for days and weeks, the negative space created by his newfound lack of words [...]
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One year ago, Israel destroyed Gaza. Over 1000 noncombatant human beings, who used to laugh and think and eat and shit and much else besides, were simply eliminated as part of Israeli military action. Was it intentional? I don’t think so, although the more I read about the Dahiya Doctrine the more [...]
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We have all heard it a million times: Israel does not target civilians; it only attacks military targets. I can barely count the number of times I have heard this argument from my family and friends. When all evidence of the Israeli destruction of Beirut or Gaza or wherever comes to light, this [...]
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Last week I highlighted a recent essay in the New Yorker on Gaza. I had a number of problems with the details of the article, but despite those concerns I considered it one of the deeper analyses I had seen in a mainstream American media outlet.
What attracted me to the article? First, [...]
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“Iwant to know how and why it was decided to embark on Operation Cast Lead in the Gaza Strip and to expand it into a ground offensive,” Aluf Benn, diplomatic editor of Haaretz, thunders today:
I want to know if the decisions were affected by the Israeli election campaign then underway and the change in [...]
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