Posts with the tag Palestine

30-Minute Terrorism, Just Add Sprinkles

Ali M Latifi — Thu, 29 May 2008 10:56:37 EDT

Recently Rachael Ray and Dunkin' Donuts have both come under fire for an advertisement featuring the TV host in what is allegedly a keffiyeh.

To say that this argument is nothing more than nonsensical xenophobia and Arab mongering would be an understatement.

Just Another Day in Gaza

Nazik — Thu, 28 Feb 2008 16:37:56 EST

You won't see this on CNN:

"A string of Israeli air raids targeted Hamas militants in the Gaza Strip on Thursday.

In the afternoon, four boys reportedly aged between eight and 15 were killed whilst playing football near the al-Salam mosque in Jabaliya. Three of them were members of the same family, according to the Palestinian news agency Maan.

The interior ministry building in Gaza City, run by Hamas, was hit on Wednesday evening. The building was empty.

Nearby buildings were caught in the blast, killing a baby and wounding at about 30 other people, Palestinian medical officials said."

The raid was in "response" to the killing of an Israeli student by a Hamas rocket on Wednesday. I use the word "response" reluctantly and with hesitation, because it has the effect of equalizing the military might of the two parties. These raids on Gaza, which have killed at least 20 Palestinians (including at least 9 civilians) are no less morally unjust than the killing of the Israeli student in Sderot, yet Israel escapes condemnation by the international community by claiming the deaths were merely collateral damage. Dead civilians are dead civilians--no matter their nationality, skin color, religion, or sex; whether they are Palestinian, Israeli, Iraqi, Sudanese, Rwandan, or American. When will we begin to treat their deaths with an equal sense of moral outrage?

Also Not On The Agenda: Israel/Palestine

Justin Elliott — Sat, 19 Jan 2008 17:58:35 EST

I caught a bit of Anderson Cooper's show on CNN last night and was fairly shocked by the degree to which the campaigns and the media's coverage already lacks any kind of substance. Perhaps the most startingly vacuous analysis came from Candy Crowley.

CANDY CROWLEY, CNN SENIOR POLITICAL CORRESPONDENT: [...] John Edwards, Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton all came back to the original theme that has gone throughout this Democratic race. And that is one of change. You know, John Edwards fighting for his life at this point, says he can change because he's the toughest. Barack Obama, he's the newest. Hillary Clinton says, listen, I'm the one with the experience. So, we're back to the original arguments.

Kay noted the other day that the environment seems to simply not be on the agenda. Another important issue we've heard barely anything about is American policy on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. So I asked five expert-types what the media shouild be asking the candidates. Read their answers here.

Read Ken Silverstein

Justin Elliott — Tue, 18 Sep 2007 00:44:05 EDT

On Obama and Giuliani and Israel/Palestine.

Critical Thinking on Israel

Dana Goldstein — Mon, 23 Apr 2007 11:49:45 EDT

Even-tempered thinking on Israel/Palestine is in short supply. So that's why the story of what's happening to New Voices--a progressive Jewish magazine distributed on college campuses--is particularly sad. After publishing articles that criticized select elements of Israeli government policy and writing about alternative student tours of Israel that travel to the occupied territories, New Voices lost tens of thousands of dollars of funding and had to layoff a staff member. Now New Voices' funders are forcing them to publish rabid advertisements decrying the supposed "anti-Semitic climate" ravaging American college campuses.

That's just the kind of over-heated rhetoric that made Jewish students like me tune out. As New Voices editor Ilana Sichel tells The Nation, "To suddenly be told you have to toe this party line--it's contrary to what we stand for and it's contrary to what the Jewish intellectual tradition stands for."