Between Dome of the Rock and a Hard Place
From the category archives:
Ha’aretz runs today a stunning and thoughtful article about how Israel must learn the language of human rights. Written by a media consultant and former adviser to the Interior Ministry, Gilad Heimann, the article manages to cut through Israeli social psychology and government hasbara efforts with admirable efficiency.
The core argument is this: [...]
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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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A number of my readers have asked me about the difference between a settlement and an outpost. This distinction is typically made, in the minds of Israelis, as the difference in formal recognition by the government versus the informal establishment of small caravans, often by the most radical fringes of settler society.
This [...]
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Sometimes numbers are worth a thousand words. And if the numbers aren’t enough, the selection of maps on this website (which can be found under the Resources tab) can provide another couple thousand words worth of images.
Length of the West Bank-Israel border: 196 miles.
Projected length of West Bank wall: 437 miles.
Projected proportion [...]
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Its a news day full of tension and contradictions. First, the good—and most important—news. The Israeli army is preparing to move the route of the segregation wall in Bil’in village, where it had annexed Palestinian land and sparked weekly, mostly nonviolent protests against the land grab, according to an IDF officer’s pledge disclosed [...]
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Ehud Barak is one the last Labor people standing. He sold out what were the purported values of Israel’s center-left Labor party in order to gain a seat (defense minister) in the most right-wing government Israel has ever had (the current one). By doing so, he helped facilitate the unprecedented collapse of one [...]
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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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I recently found myself in an argument with my father, who failed to believe a simple fact I was presenting him. The easily verifiable argument I was putting forth was that Fatah tried to overthrow militarily the new, democratically elected Hamas government in Gaza, and that this coup attempt was being done with US [...]
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Have you ever heard of a ranking official of a sovereign nation apologize to the official of another country for the perfectly legal machinations of its esteemed and independent judiciary? Yeah, I didn’t think so.
Yet this was the treat afforded to global audiences when Britain’s foreign secretary, David Miliband, called up former foreign [...]
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