I’ve blogged before about the New York Times’ coverage of Israel, so I thought I’d point out a piece in the Columbia Journalism Review by former Times reporter Neil Lewis on that precise topic. Unfortunately, it’s trite, largely repeating what any fair-minded observer already knows: first, that the Times is not hostile to Israel, per […]
Archive | Israel
Thugs in Jerusalem
Jerusalem Post: After 20 months of attacks and a quarter million shekels in damage, a religious bookstore in the ultra-Orthodox Mea She’arim neighborhood of Jerusalem decided on Monday to accede to the demands of extremists responsible for the violence. Under the terms of the compromise, Ohr Hachaim/Manny’s put up a large sign requesting that all […]
Undemocratic?
It turns out that various politically active, generally far left-wing Israeli NGOs, some of which deny the very legitimacy of the Israeli government, get funding from various European governments (see, e.g., this detailed NGO Monitor Report, which focuses only on funding through the EU itself; member states provide substantial additional funding). Some of these organizations, […]
Israelis Debate the Shalit Exchange
Majority public opinion in Israel continues to support the recent deal in which the Israeli government traded over 1000 terrorist prisoners for kidnapped soldier Gilad Shalit, which I criticized here. But as this interesting CNN article explains, there is growing dissent: While the deal to free Shalit was backed by a commanding Cabinet majority of […]
Incentivizing Terrorism
I was not planning to write a post on the Israeli government’s recent deal exchanging over 1000 Hamas prisoners for kidnapped Israeli soldier Gilad Shalit. I was certain that someone more prominent would write a column explaining why this was a terrible decision. But even conservative commentators like Jennifer Rubin are praising it as a […]
Krauthammer versus Kristof
Their recent columns on Israel provide about as clear and succinct examples of diametrically opposed views on who is to blame for the current Israeli-Palestinian impasse as you are likely to find. Here’s Krauthammer, blaming the Palestinians. Here’s Kristof, blaming the Israelis. You won’t be surprised to learn that I think Krauthammer is much closer […]
N.Y. Magazine on Obama and Israel
This is an interesting piece defending the Obama Administration’s record on Israel. For what it’s worth, I don’t think Obama is “anti-Israel.” But I think the NY Mag piece misses some significant elements of the puzzle. Obama made it clear during the 2008 campaign that he was anti-Likud. Likud happened to be the Israeli party […]
I Wonder How the Pro-Pal Activists Who Accuse Israel of “Apartheid” will React to This?
Ha’aretz: The future independent Palestinian state will not include a Jewish minority, a top Palestinian official told USA Today on Wednesday, adding that it was in the best interest of both peoples to “be separated.” I think we all know the answer, which is that it will (a) have no effect on their political views […]
Noah Pollak on Foreign-Funded Israeli NGOs
Pollak: During the past decade, as the New Israel Fund and European governments have funded and fueled the delegitimization war on Israel, critics have argued the NGOs they support have no real constituency in Israel; that they represent foreign interests; that they are funded — all told, the sum is around $100 million per year […]
Juan Cole, 2010, on the Mavi Marmara
For those of you who still take Juan Cole’s views on Israel seriously, a reminder: “There are two possible reasons for the violence. One is that the Israeli troops boarding the vessels met some sort of resistance and over-reacted. Aid volunteers are unlikely, however, to have posed much real challenge to trained special forces operatives.” […]
“Plausibility” and Legal Claims about the Gaza Blockade
By David Bernstein on September 3, 2011 2:07 pm in Gaza Ship Incident, International Human Rights Law, International Law, Israel
Kevin Jon Heller of University of Melbourne and Opinio Juris: “Insofar as Israel insists that it is not currently occupying Gaza, it cannot plausibly claim that it is involved in an IAC [International Armed Conflict] with Hamas” (and thus the blockade of Gaza is unlawful). U.N.’s Palmer Committee Report on the Mavi Marmara incident (and […]
Sarah Leah Whitson of Human Rights Watch and the Arab Spring
It’s fascinating to listen again to this talk by HRW Middle East and North Africa director Sarah Leah Whitson (starting at 16:53) from the Summer of 2009. The topic was “Human Rights in the Middle East.” Syria and Libya get barely a mention. Yemen isn’t mentioned at all. Israel gets by far the most negative […]
Israeli Protests
As you may have noticed from the news, Israel has been experiencing large civil protests/demonstrations, primarily over the price of housing, but generally over “cost of living issues.” Given that Israel currently has the best-performing economy in the OECD, with over 5% annual GDP growth and 6% unemployment, you may be wondering “what the heck […]
Enemies
I’ve been thinking for some time about blogging about the concept of “enemies”, and how modern universalist liberalism has trouble dealing with the possibility that in some conflicts there is no mutually acceptable solution (at least not from the subjective perspective of the participants in the conflict), and thus one really has a conflict among […]
Egypt Opens Border with Gaza
I’m not going to discuss the moral, legal, or diplomatic implications of this move. But I do recall (though I don’t have links handy) that various “human rights” activists have been claiming since Israel’s withdrawal from Gaza that Israel was nevertheless “occupying” it via a blockade. Moreover, even if the blockade didn’t amount to an […]