There is no situation, however tragic, that Harper and his regime won’t exploit for political advantage. I guess that comes as no surprise to anyone: Be sure to check out the Conservative Party website for more evidence, as well as Alison’s caricature at Creekside. Recommend this Post
Continue readingTag: Israeli-Palestinian conflict
Politics and its Discontents: When Israel Says It Isn’t Out To Punish Innocent Palestinians, It’s Lying – And We Don’t Care
Actions speak so much louder than words, especially when it comes to Israel attacking Palestinians. The current invasion of Gaza demonstrates that Israel’s claims to be targeting Hamas but not the Gaza Palestinian population is an outright lie. That much is blatant from the weapons used. What weapons? Try water.
Continue readingPolitics and its Discontents: Holding Our ‘Leaders’ To Account
It is almost impossible, I think, to feel anything but a dark impotence when it comes to world events today. Wherever we look, be it the Ukraine, Africa, the Middle East or our own backyards, death, despoliation and injustice prevail. At times, it seems assuming the fetal position is the
Continue readingPolitics and its Discontents: About That Invasion Of Gaza
To hear our political leaders tell it – the sorry lot of them – Israel is right to yet again invade Gaza. The Palestinians have it coming. It’s all the doing of Hamas. It’s a convenient and cowardly political posture. Harper probably believes it. Trudeau and Mulcair? Expedience, sheer craven
Continue readingSong of the Watermelon: National Post Letter
Should any readers take a look inside today’s National Post, they might find a letter of mine defending Canada’s United Church and its boycott of goods from Israeli settlements on occupied Palestinian land. Click here to read my letter and scroll down to the heading “… or is it just?”
Continue readingSong of the Watermelon: Vancouver Sun Letter
A letter of mine in the Vancouver Sun today, this one about the “Disappearing Palestine” ads on public transit here in the city. I try to defend the ads against the absurd charge that they target Jews. Click here to read it. Filed under: Ethnicity, Letters to the Editor, Middle
Continue readingSong of the Watermelon: An Open Letter to TransLink Regarding the “Disappearing Palestine” Ads
Dear TransLink: I am writing to express my wholehearted support for your decision to display the pro-Palestinian transit ads recently unveiled at the Vancouver City Centre Skytrain station and on several buses. The ads offer an important perspective that needs to be heard as part of any informed debate on
Continue readingSong of the Watermelon: Thoughts on the New Israeli Government
On the same day that the world erupted in joyous, teary-eyed celebration following the selection of a new pope, a slightly less climactic breakthrough was reached thousands of kilometres away as four Israeli political parties, nearly two months after elections, quietly decided to form a coalition government. Right away, the
Continue readingSong of the Watermelon: Israel’s Election Results and the Prospects for Peace
Yair Lapid Well, that wasn’t quite as bad as I thought. Sadly, Benjamin Netanyahu will almost certainly remain prime minister of Israel after his Likud party and its electoral partner Yisrael Beiteinu won a plurality of seats in Knesset elections today. But their share has gone down sharply since the
Continue readingSong of the Watermelon: Fanatics, Zealots, Warmongers, and Peaceniks: Israel’s Crowded Electoral Landscape
Haneen Zoabi Due perhaps to my Jewish identity and my family’s history, Israel tends to be the country whose politics I follow most closely apart from Canada’s and the United States’. Nevertheless, there is a giant gulf separating numbers one and two from number three. My understanding of Israeli parties,
Continue readingSong of the Watermelon: Two-State Twilight
For many years, I have felt that, to paraphrase Mark Twain, reports of the death of the two-state solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict were an exaggeration. Yes, Israel has been unyielding in its expansion of settlements in the West Bank in clear violation of international law, effectively dividing the already-slight
Continue readingSong of the Watermelon: Montreal Gazette Letter
Joel Lion, Israel’s Consul-General in Montreal, wrote an op-ed in the Montreal Gazette detailing the virtuous lengths Israel goes to in order to avoid civilian casualties in its unrelenting bombardment of the Gaza Strip. At the urging of Canadians for … Continue reading →
Continue readingSong of the Watermelon: Live From Gaza
Nothing cuts through the bullshit quite like live footage.
The following comes inadvertently from a CNN interview conducted with a Palestinian in Gaza and an Israeli in Ashkelon. I will let the video speak for itself:
Song of the Watermelon: An Open Letter to Israeli and Palestinian Hawks
Dear Israeli hawks: What are you thinking? I realize that you consider every destructive, civilian killing, infrastructure shattering air raid you launch on the impoverished people of the Gaza Strip to be an act of self-defence against the terrorism of … Continue reading →
Continue readingSong of the Watermelon: Israeli Settlements and the United Church Boycott: Three Common Distortions
*** Note: An unfinished draft version of this post mistakenly went out to e-mail and feed subscribers yesterday. Please do your best to scrub it from your memory and enjoy the updated post — as its author intended — below. Many thanks and apologies. *** After months of controversy and
Continue readingSong of the Watermelon: Israel, the Settlements, and the United Church: Three Common Distortions
– proposed United Church boycott of products from Israeli settlements Distortion #1: Why Israel? The world is full of tyranny and injustice. Of all the places and issues, why boycott the Middle East’s only democracy? Three assumptions are packed into this distortion: that the United Church is boycotting Israel, that
Continue readingSong of the Watermelon: On Israel and Apartheid
Message on a wall at the University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg Last month, university students and activists around the world marked Israeli Apartheid Week, an annual series of lectures and protests designed to bring attention to the plight of Palestinians, and as usual, the condemnations were heavy and hyperbolic. Canadian
Continue readingSong of the Watermelon: Pushing the Envelope on Palestinian Sovereignty
There has not been much movement of late on the Israeli-Palestinian front. This may partly be explained by the relative lack of violent activity by Palestinian groups. The conflict has dropped off the radar for most of the Israeli public, and the only constituency the government needs to worry about
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