The inimitable Bob Marley said it best: “We don’t need trouble, what we need is love.” This week’s “Say It In Song” pick feels appropriate in light of recent news about chemical weapons in Syria and threats from North Korea directed towards military bases. At least there was some talk of peace this week, even it was purely symbolic.… [Read more]
How many times must the GOP and its laughable public relations firm, Fox News, be wrong before they realise that it’s a good idea to remain silent?
When an announcement came from the office of the Israeli President, Shimon Peres, on Monday that President Obama will receive the Presidential Medal of Distinction – the first time ever that Israel has given this honour to a sitting US president – I wondered just what will it take?… [Read more]
When is a Jew not a Jew? Apparently, when she’s a Black, Ethopian Jew, or Falasha. Originally, “Falasha” was a derogatory term — meaning “sojourner” in Amharic, an ancient language related to Hebrew — but adopted by the Jews who settled in what is now Ethiopia in ancient times. These people now generally refer to themselves as Beta Israel, or “Community of Israel.”In 1950, shortly after the foundation of the modern State of Israel in 1948 the Israeli Knesset, or Parliament, passed the so-called “Law of Return” which made it simple for any Jew to emigrate to Israeli and declared that such immigrants would be granted Israeli citizenship.… [Read more]
It seems the Jews in the Holy Land have definitely forgotten their past. They have forgotten what things were like for them prior to the 1948 UN resolution establishing the State of Israel. They have forgotten the pogroms in Europe, the Spanish Inquisition and when they were a wandering people, a people without a homeland.
KKKHanukkah Protest In Israel
It is always baffling to me to see the victim become a perpetrator of the very injustice they once cried out against.… [Read more]
If what all those unscrupulous “new age” authors and their acid-casualty devotees say is true, we are only a week away from the end of the world as we know it. As much as I want to believe that this nightmare known as civilization is about to get put out if its misery, I can’t quite convince myself of it.… [Read more]
Simple. It has nothing to do with the color of skin. It’s nothing that simple. In fact, most right wingers don’t know WHY they are Islamophobic. They just know they “support Israel” because their leaders “support Israel” and they must do as their leaders tell them because that’s why we have leaders because they know better than we do.… [Read more]
On September 23, 2011 Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas presented UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon an application for full membership. In the application President Abbas wrote, “the State of Palestine affirms its commitment to the achievement of a just, lasting and comprehensive resolution of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict based on the vision of two states living side by side in peace and security.”
On cue, the Israeli Prime Minister retorted stating the bid would not succeed and called on leaders throughout the international community to oppose the effort.… [Read more]
Just last week, on November 29th, 2012, the General Assembly of the United Nations voted overwhelmingly to recognize a Palestinian state and grant it non-member observer UN status.
This, of course, is not the first time that a Palestinian Arab state has been proposed and it probably won’t be the last, for the UN vote was largely symbolic, at least as things stand today.… [Read more]
Israel has always been a big question mark for me. My understanding was that it is a sacred land with a profound history and about three hundred perfect beach days a year. Candles burn for seven days past their expiration date here, and Christians, Muslims, and Jews alike have a founded history in Jerusalem.… [Read more]
The picture below illustrates exactly why as long as we as a country continue on the current trajectory will never realize peace. It is the pervasive mentality that guides the Israeli conscious and defines our culture. Us against them, a narrative that leaves no room for consensus.
But what I find even more disturbing than the obvious implications of this picture is the glaring paradox.… [Read more]
Islamist Egypt wipes Israel off the face of earth. Now that’s a headline one would be expecting to see around this time if one bought into all the conservative hyperbolic theories that surrounded the Arab Spring (for example). Conservative pundits argued that regimes in Egypt, Tunisia, Libya and even Turkey (which technically was not part of the Arab Spring but experienced a more Islam-oriented political revival in recent years in contrast to its secular, Kemalist past) would soon unite in a frenzy of Islamist passions to seek the utter destruction of the Jewish state.… [Read more]
Once again the Israeli government under the misleadership of Benjamin Netanyahu has shown it has no desire or intention on establishing any semblance of peace between its Arab neighbors. In a move that has received sharp criticism from the international community, Israel snubs its nose in the face of its “closest” ally as well as the rest of the world.… [Read more]
With the leading CNN, Newsweek and primetime headlines about Israel many would be surprised to learn Israel is one of the world’s leading metropolitan and technologically advanced countries. Israel has the second largest number of startup companies in the world and the largest number of NASDAQ listed companies outside of North America. In 2010 it ranked 17th among the world’s most economically developed nations according to the International Institute for Management and Development’s World Competitiveness Yearbook.… [Read more]
It is not spoken of much today but I vividly remember the Summer of 2005; Israeli soldiers physically removed Jewish settlers from the Gaza territory. The settlers, resisting with screams and kicks, cursing the IDF (Israeli Defense Force) soldiers. One memory will never escape my mind; it is that of a settler holding his infant out of the window from the top floor of his home threatening to drop the baby if the soldiers took another step towards his home.… [Read more]
This year’s presidential election between incumbent Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez and contender Henrique Capriles was one of the most intensely watched and anticipated political races throughout the world for a number of reasons. Chavez, who has long been a thorn in the side of the West, was facing what many considered defeat. Had the naysayers gotten their wishes Venezuela would be headed in a very different direction, specifically as it relates to its foreign relations with the U.S.… [Read more]
Electoral politics generally involves promising the impossible. During the 2008 election, Obama promised stabilization of Afghanistan, improved relations with Iran, and justice for the people of Darfur, Sudan. And before him, numerous other presidential candidates and politicians have promised results that were, by most measures, highly unlikely to be reached. It’s the nature of beast.
However, we may have reached a new high in outlandish foreign policy promises with Mitt Romney’s latest speech at the Virginia Military Institute.… [Read more]
In an ongoing effort to bring a semblance of armistice in the region the United Nations is sponsoring a conference to establish a nuclear-free Middle East. The conference which is scheduled to take place the end of this year or beginning of 2013 in Finland is to be attended by all states in the region. All states, except for Israel of course.… [Read more]
All over the world, from Morocco to Indonesia, the Muslim world is protesting and rioting in the wake of a disturbing anti-Muslim film, produced by the misguided, for who knows what reason. When you look at the problem it sounds so simple, so unbelievable to the average American: people rioting, killing and storming American embassies because someone disrespected the prophet Muhammad.… [Read more]
It seems Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu won’t be content until F-16 bombers are flying over Tehran and U.S. navy ships are storming the Strait of Hormuz. In a recent interview on NBC’s Meet the Press, when asked of the idea of a “containment strategy” in response to Iran’s alleged pursuit of nuclear weapons Netanyahu retorted “I think Iran is very different (from the Soviet Union).… [Read more]
Let’s start with defining Zionism; Zionism is a nationalist call to establish a Jewish state, which is defined by a nation of mostly individuals of Jewish descent. But, you may ask, isn’t that what Israel is? And you would be correct. Zionism was founded due to Jewish disbursement under Roman rule in 70 AD. It was given its name and officially recognized as a movement in 1897 by Theodor Herzl.… [Read more]
