Last week I wrote an article for the New Statesman about Stephen Hawking’s boycott of a conference in Israel, called ‘Sorry, Stephen, but a boycott of Israel isn’t the answer’. Unsurprisingly, since I took the unusual position of opposing the boycott on pragmatic grounds, my article came under attack both from supporters of the Palestinians [...]
From the New Statesman If the aim was to hit Israel where it hurts, Stephen Hawking’s withdrawal from the Israeli Presidential Conference couldn’t have been better planned. Hawking had accepted an invitation to the gathering of world leaders and scholars in June, but announced yesterday he was dropping out in solidarity with Palestinian academics who [...]
From The Independent If you found yourself skipping reports from Israel-Palestine this week to read about something less wearying (and who could blame you?), here’s a roundup: the fatal stabbing of an Israeli in the West Bank, a wave of settler reprisal attacks, the assassination of a militant in Gaza. The usual, in other words. [...]
From The Telegraph Is there another issue that generates as much sound and fury as the Israel-Palestine conflict? Last month George Galloway attracted derision for storming out of an Oxford University debate when he discovered one of his opponents was an Israeli. The fallout continued into last week, with students at the university voting on [...]
From Liberal Conspiracy I’m not sure there’s an awful lot to say about George Galloway’s astonishingly stupid decision to storm out of a debate at Oxford University when he discovered his opponent was an Israeli. Not an Israeli government official, mind you. Not a spokesperson for the regime or a paid functionary of the occupation. [...]
This one is from The Independent Surprising as it may sound, William Hague is turning out to be the most vocally pro-Palestinian British foreign secretary of recent times. Speaking in Washington this week before a dinner for Hillary Clinton, Hague warned that as a result of Israeli West Bank settlement growth the two-state solution was [...]
This one’s from The Telegraph International Holocaust Memorial Day, which fell yesterday on the 68th anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz, is an opportunity to remember the victims of the most horrific mass murder in history. Its other main purpose is to provide an annual occasion for witless public figures to score moral own goals [...]
When the debate around the Israel-Palestine conflict begins to weary me with its vitriol and polarisation, I sometimes restore myself to sanity by re-reading a beautiful essay by the great Israeli author Amos Oz. It’s called ‘Between Right and Right’, and it appears in a little booklet which was republished last year as How to [...]
(from The Telegraph) When you hit 25, it may be high time to start facing certain facts. What you see as staying true to the ideals of your youth, others may view as simply callow and reckless. Now is a good time to take responsibility for the consequences of your actions – to start, in [...]
(from The Telegraph) In no other part of the world does town planning lead to talk of ambassadors being recalled. But Israel’s plans to build thousands of homes in the area around Jerusalem known as East-1, or E1, has caused a diplomatic firestorm, with envoys in London, Paris and Madrid being “summoned” for the ritual [...]