From the www.monabaker.com archive (legacy material) Neve Gordon | CounterPunch | 3 February 2004 JERUSALEM: Anyone who follows the news has no doubt come across the claim that "Israel is the only democracy in the Middle East." Usually, this claim is followed by its logical inference: "As an island of freedom located in a region controlled by military dictators, feudal kings and religious leaders, Israel should receive unreserved support from western liberal states interested in strengthening democratic values around the globe.
From the www.monabaker.com archive (legacy material) Paul de Rooij | www.dissidentvoice.org | February 12, 2004 At present, ethnic cleansing of Palestinians is ongoing and systematic, yet it is difficult to find any reference to this crime against humanity in most news media. The issue is not so much slanted coverage as scant or selective coverage of the misery Israel is inflicting on the Palestinians. Although the BBC has a reputation for fair and balanced reporting, when it comes to Israel-Palestine a different standard seems to be applied, as even gross violations of human rights are not reported.
From the www.monabaker.com archive (legacy material) Jonathan Cook | Al-Ahram Weekly | 5-11 February 2004 Europe betrays the Palestinians yet again, even as the on-going construction of Israel's Apartheid wall shatters Palestinian livelihoods and undermines the creation of a viable Palestinian state, writes Jonathan Cook Israel's furious diplomatic activity to sabotage a decision taken by the United Nations General Assembly last December to seek the opinion of its highest judicial body, the International Court of Justice, on the legality of Israel building its separation wall across large swaths of occupied Palestinian territory began to pay dividends at the weekend.
From the www.monabaker.com archive (legacy material) Ghada Karmi | Al-Ahram Weekly | 22-28 January 2004 Whatever the discursive niceties it is important to realise that Israel is Zionist, and that Zionism displaces and kills, writes Ghada Karmi* For those who have forgotten or never understood what Zionism is about two recently published pieces will make salutary reading. The first is an interview with the Israeli historian, Benny Morris, published in the Israeli daily Haaretz on 4 January.
From the www.monabaker.com archive (legacy material) Brian Whitaker | The Guardian | 19 January 2004 Jewish activists opposing the Israeli government's policies face intimidation and harassment via email and on the internet. Brian Whitaker reports Deborah Fink is a singer and music teacher living in London. She is also Jewish. Last month, out of the blue, she received a deluge of hateful emails - more than 150 in the space of a week.
From the www.monabaker.com archive (legacy material) Salman Abu Sitta | Al-Ahram Weekly | January 2004 The Geneva Accord was long ago scripted by Israeli Military Intelligence, writes Salman Abu Sitta* The orchestrated media blitz, replete with approving noises made by those European and Arab politicians eager to be rid of Palestinian refugees, conveniently ignored the fact that the understanding reached between some Palestinians and Israelis on the shores of the Dead Sea, later dignified with the name Geneva Accord, is in essence no more than the blueprint produced by the Israeli intelligence service to "
From the www.monabaker.com archive (legacy material) Asmi Bishara |Al-Ahram Weekly | 25-31 December 2003 From the soap opera trial of O J Simpson to Herzliya: Azmi Bishara traces the death of the liberal Jew When a liberal Harvard University law professor defended Orenthal James Simpson, commonly known as "OJ", on the grounds of "reasonable doubt," it must have reminded many of the line from Shakespeare's Henry VI (Part 2, IV, ii): "
From the www.monabaker.com archive (legacy material) Arthur Nelsen | Aljazeera.net | 9 January 2004 Shock waves from the continuing carnage in the Middle East are increasingly dividing the Jewish diaspora, and the rifts are becoming ugly. Aljazeera.net has uncovered evidence of an anti-Semitic hate mail campaign against Jewish peace activists in London, which involves rabbis and at least one respected Israeli literary figure. Diaspora Jewish communities have traditionally rallied round Israel in times of crisis.
From the www.monabaker.com archive (legacy material) Azmi Beshara | Al-Ahram Weekly | 8-14 January 2004 Land is at the heart of the drama unfolding in Palestine. But it is not the only thing, argues Azmi Beshara Rhetoric about demography so dominates Israel's political discourse that one might be tempted to assume that Israel has abandoned its preferred designation as the Jewish democratic state in favour of the Jewish demographic state. The condition has reached the stage where it might be diagnosed as an advanced case of demographomania.
From the www.monabaker.com archive (legacy material) Brian Klug | The Nation | February 2, 2004 In 1879 the German journalist Wilhelm Marr, a former socialist and anarchist, founded an organization that was novel in two ways. It was the first political party based on a platform of hostility to Jews. And it introduced the world to a new word: "anti-Semite." Marr was an atheist, and the Antisemiten-Liga (League of Anti-Semites) was hostile to Jews on the secular grounds that they are an alien "