The Roots of Anti-Israel Attitudes
Israel is demonized and singled out by the media and international bodies. Israel is accused of excessive use of force, despite its great efforts to minimize collateral damage, while the massacres by the Assad regime or the heavy collateral damage resulting from Saudi attacks in Yemen are hardly mentioned. The EU decided to mark the […]
The Great Failure of the Anti-Racist Intellectual Community: Downplaying Contemporary Antisemitism
In 2003, a survey of the main sociological and psychological research databases returned no published studies focusing on antisemitism in the Muslim world.[i] Last year, I repeated the study to see whether there had been an upsurge in mainstream social scientific research on the topic. Although a small cadre of writers during the past fifteen […]
Journalistic Ethics and Mideast Reporting
In a world at once increasingly chaotic and interconnected, the news media have come to play unprecedented roles both in covering and influencing fast-moving events. The current violence in Israel is all the more disturbing because of the morally ambiguous coverage it receives in the worldwide press. Although this phenomenon is not new – the […]
Arab Minority in Israel: Denouncing the idea of a Jewish State?
On October 15, the eve of the 98th anniversary of Lord Balfour’s Declaration, Sheikh Kamal Khatib of the Islamic Movement in Israel wrote: If Balfour had promised the Jews a state and fulfilled his promise, then Allah praised his name had promised us to shed his light on the entire universe and make Islam victorious […]
The Paris Attacks, Antisemitism and the Elections
The mass terror attacks which took place in Paris and the nearby town of Saint-Denis on the evening of November 13 did not specifically target Jewish individuals, property or events (in fact, the attacks occurred on the Jewish Sabbath in the French capital). Although at least two Jews were killed at the Bataclan concert hall, […]
Ending a Century of Palestinian Rejectionism
Palestinians are on the wrong track and will not get off it until the outside world demands better of them. News comes every year or two of a campaign of violence spurred by Palestinian political and religious leaders spreading wild-eyed conspiracy theories (the favorite: Al-Aqsa mosque in Jerusalem is under threat). A spasm of unprovoked […]
How Not to Grieve for Victims of Terrorism: Judith Butler’s Hypocritical Response to the Paris Attacks
Three days after the obscene terror attacks of November 13, 2015, in Paris, Judith Butler—a leading BDS philosopher, who has called for an end to Jewish sovereignty and self-determination in Israel[1]—had this to say. Quit whining, Paris. It’s not all just about you. Consider the Palestinians. I am paraphrasing, of course. Here are Butler’s original […]
Antisemitism, Made in France (2000-2015)
(English translation) For several years within the contentious field of antisemitism, we have seen a routine emerge of obscene words, selective outrage and blatant antisemitic assaults. But this violence forms part of a more general pattern, starting from the time of the second Intifada (2000) when anti-Jewish violence swept almost simultaneously across France and throughout […]
Escalation of Palestinian violence
The recent escalation in Palestinian violence was brought about by events in early September 2015, when tensions regarding the Temple Mount (Al-Aqsa Mosque) rose between Israelis and Palestinians. Violence broke out during the Jewish High Holidays, that saw an increase in Jewish worshippers to the Western Wall and the Temple Mount, as well as an […]
Palestinian Violence and Failure of Leadership
I am disheartened and worried about the violence being perpetrated in Israel by my fellow Palestinians. This recent wave of violence started at the Al-Aqsa mosque, in East Jerusalem, and extended to the rest of East Jerusalem, to the West Bank, and then to all of Israel does not seem to have any positive consequences […]