This is a piece written specifically in response to a comment left on one of my previous articles. Hi, Firstly, thank you for your comment. You obviously invested time and effort in writing it and more importantly I always appreciate dialogue. Words, negotiation and an effort to understand are vital elements of any future settlement. I always try to respond to *everything* so my method … Continue reading A response on the Israel conflict
Rt Hon Theresa May MP I spent the weekend of the 17 and 18th October 2015 at the School for African and Oriental Studies (SOAS) to attend a conference. SOAS was one of the specific universities “named and shamed” as an institution that gives a platform to extremists. The conference was the 10th Annual Conference of the SOAS Palestine Society titled ‘Settler and Citizens: A … Continue reading An open letter to Theresa May, Home Secretary of the UK
I have just spent two days inside SOAS, at the Centre for Palestine Studies as a delegate at the 10th Annual Conference of the SOAS Palestine Society titled ‘Settler and Citizens: A Critical View of Israel’. In the 1920’s and 1930’s Zionist groups across the globe met in order to further the Zionist cause. The basic messages were simple; encourage, build, promote, purchase, financially assist … Continue reading From the university to an attack on the streets of Israel, the true cycle of violence.
During the height of the second Intifada, the media and politicians in general were adamant, only total desperation could cause one human being to walk onto a bus full of innocent civilians and blow himself up. This twisted logic unashamedly blames the victims for the act of violence that kills them and removes personal responsibility from the terrorist. It is also a logic that only … Continue reading The Arab with the knife and the murder of the Jew. Over 100 years of excuses
Gabriel, I was present at the conference at Exeter and have just read your piece in the Jewish Chronicle, in fact a cross post at the JLC website had ‘urged me to do so’. The piece is also reproduced on the Times of Israel website. I had been one of those critical of the initial agreement and had provided my account of my experience at … Continue reading An open letter to Professor Gabriel Brahm
I have just returned from Exeter, where the university held a 3-day conference discussing ‘Settler Colonialism in Palestine’. Far smaller and less organised than the conference that the University of Southampton cancelled, this collection of anti-Zionists ranged from well- known ‘academics’ from the US, Beirut and Australia to several ‘wannabees’ currently working on research at Exeter; these ‘wannabees’ are Ilan Pappe’s academic children. I always … Continue reading My weekend with the antisemites (and 2 Zionists) at Exeter
Over the last two days, it became abundantly clear exactly how far off base the JLC is, how removed they are from events on the ground, and how little they understand the anti-Zionist argument developing within the extreme left. I am now certain they are stuck in the 1980’s, when Europeans still went to the Kibbutz and people romanticised over Entebbe. The idea that the … Continue reading The anti-Zionist Exeter conference
Trouble on Mars (satire) Following the announcement that water has been found on Mars, the Palestinian delegation to the UN has asked for an emergency session of the General Assembly to discuss what they claim is a clear infringement of their basic human rights. The Palestinian spokesman has declared that the Palestinians were on Mars first, that the water is historically theirs and NASA are … Continue reading Trouble on Mars, urgent meeting of General Assembly
I personally dislike sweeping statements and generalisations. It is unfortunately true in a world in which you need to occupy someone’s attention with 140 characters of less, nobody has any time for clarification, but real world issues tend to be complex and nothing is ever absolute. An absolute statement I see repeated often in the I/P argument is that anti-Zionism is antisemitism; a theory born … Continue reading The festering swamp of anti-Zionism
Having spent a July evening listening to Max Blumenthal at his book launch for his written account of last year’s conflict between Gaza and Israel, it then became a struggle to find an opportunity to read the book itself. I engage anything and everything on the Israel / Arab conflict and usually it is critical to do so with internet access close at hand as … Continue reading My Yom Kippur with Max Blumenthal
