By Leah Levane
Jonathan Cook writes a detailed take down of a recent article by Tony Blair, prompted by the North London attack on four ambulances that belonged to a Jewish charity. Blair blames the left for aligning with “Islamists”. Cook makes clear that “Blair is doing to Muslims precisely what he accuses – falsely – the left of doing to Jews. He is conflating Muslims, a religious group, with Islamists, champions of an extreme political ideology.
By Leah Levane
Last summer, the US Holocaust Memorial Museum quietly removed online materials about American racism and canceled a workshop on the “fragility of democracy,” according to a recently released Politico report. Former employees report that the museum acted preemptively to avoid potential backlash from the Trump administration.
For decades, Defense for Children International – Palestine has worked relentlessly to protect Palestinian children against all odds.
After 35 years it has been forced to cease operations as a result of Israel’s targeted criminalisation of Palestinian human rights organizations.
There really is nothing more to be said.
In sorry. And in rage.
By Leah Levane
Some Israeli politicians have been forced to express criticism of settler violence “But naming it is one thing, and confronting it is something else altogether. And so far, neither the government, the police, or the army have taken any steps — such as arresting the primary perpetrators – that would make a genuine difference on the ground. And the reason is simple: Settler violence is state policy.”
By Leah Levane
Netanyahu and Trump both claim to be meting out extreme violence in the name of God. In this article, Jeffrey Sachs explores the madness and dangers and argues “it gets even worse. Both Trump and Netanyahu are would-be messiahs. They are self-proclaimed agents of God. For them, stopping the war on Iran would mean God was wrong. And the self-proclaimed messiah cannot be wrong, either, because the messiah and God have become, in the grandiose psyche, effectively the same.”
By Leah Levane
Israel (initially) stopped the Latin Patriarch of Jerusalem and another priest from the Church of the Holy Sepulchre on Palm Sunday when they planned to hold only a small private prayer, which was already a sharp contrast to the major and crowded celebrations of this, most important part of the Christian calendar. Even this was too much for the Israeli State, claiming security concerns while their war with Iran was ongoing.
By Leah Levane
“History proves that, unfortunately and unhappily, Jesus Christ has no advantage over Genghis Khan,” the prime minister asserted …“(b)ecause if you are strong enough, ruthless enough, powerful enough, evil will overcome good. Aggression will overcome moderation.” This was Netanyahu, making it clear that his model is Genghis Khan who “killed more people in twenty-five years than the Romans managed to do in four hundred years”.
By Leah Levane
Too often the genocide in Gaza, the ethnic cleansing in the West Bank, the closure of East Jerusalem are treated as aberrations but this author argues that the violence by Israel, the occupying nation, is built into the whole project; what is abnormal is our “adaptation”, our “getting used to it”.
This opinion piece in Haaretz is from the off-the-wall, messianic right – a view you might think so awful it couldn’t possibly have any purchase in today’s world.
You’d be wrong…
Sometimes Israeli authorities are sticklers for “legality”.
You can’t build a house or dig a well in the West Bank without permission and permission is rarely granted to Palestinians. So most building is perforce illegal.
But, as this case study of house demolitions in East Jerusalem shows, the implementation of law is driven by selective discrimination on ethnic grounds…