Nonviolence Finally Gets Some Action on American TV

The most important interview on any global affairs issue the Daily Show has ever had happened last night with the appearance of Mustafa Barghouti and Anna Beltzer, both advocates for a nonviolent solution in the Israel Palestine conflict. There are so many great sound bytes in the unedited version that appears on the Daily Show [...]

Children of Monsters

For those of you who keep track of my discussions on the Arab-Israeli conflict both in and out of the blogosphere, you’ll note that I tend to bring up famous Israeli author Amos Oz. A lot. A whole lot. And I’m about to do it again.
Prime Minister of Israel Binyamin Netanyahu’s speech to the UN [...]

Demilitarize This!

Obama’s speech in Cairo threw down the gauntlet for Israeli leaders to respond.  The New York Times observed that Prime Minister Netanyahu’s speech was as much done for the Israeli evening news as it was for the Obama administration.  I found it boring, infuriating, and tend to agree with Aliyana Traison of Haaretz that it [...]

Obama Talks the Right Talk

Cairo is an ancient city that has become a modern urban hub of the Arab world. It is the primary place to produce Arabic pop music, the favored study abroad location for Americans looking to study the Arab world, and the birth place of Pan Arabism and the Muslim Brotherhood. Ponder all those contradictions for [...]

Zionism and Racism Make For Fun Times in Durban

I’ve gotten some great feedback from my question to y’all about the US boycott of the UN sponsored conference on racism. I’m still welcoming more opinions, but I’m going to go ahead and get started in crafting my own. First, I think we all need a little background information.
The Failed 2001 Conference
This conference was designed [...]

Fight Racism, Boycott the UN?

When people decide to take regional conflicts and play them on the world stage, things can get pretty messy.
Case in point, the US’ recent decision to boycott a UN sponsored conference on racism because of its controversial statements that could be applied to Israel.
” Washington has confirmed it will boycott a UN forum [...]

Change Results By Changing Tactics: A Moral Dilemma

This same reader keeps pushing me towards creating more meaningful and well rounded answers to many of his questions and you know…I’m kind of starting to resent him. =-P
The Problem
What if attacks are launched from mosques, universities, and other civilan locations? What if munitions are stored there? What if your enemy purposely sets up in [...]

Rounding Up Israeli Opinions on Israeli Actions

A very dedicated reader of my blog responded to a post, appropriately urging me to answer my own original question:
I just noticed the original question was, “What should Israel do?”  Yet, all that’s written here is what Israel shouldn’t do.  I think the origingal question still stands.  What, if anything, should Israel do in response [...]

Haaretz Writer: We’re All Just Kindergarteners

In an effort to do a better job of listening to the Israeli debate over the current offense on Gaza, I bring you an incredibly thought-provoking opinion piece from Aluf Benn of the Israeli newspaper, Haaretz.
On the false sense of security that has resulted:
“We so badly wanted to hope that the replacement of the failed [...]

Gaza Offensive: What Would You Do?

I’ve talked about what I think Israel should, or at least shouldn’t, do with respect to Hamas rockets being fired across their borders from Gaza. But I haven’t really spoken about what I think the Palestinians should do.
The Power of Protesting
I was reading articles about the various protests that have taken place all over the [...]