Militarism
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Chief Rabbi Mirvis and the distorting mirrors
Chief Rabbi Ephraim Mirvis, in his Sunday Telegraph article, sought to give the impression that he was taking a dispassionate look as to the merits of the charge of genocide against the state of Israel, brought before the International Court of Justice by the South African government. In so doing, he pointed to the definition Continue reading
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Is it genocide that we see?
Israel’s justification for its murderous onslaught on Gaza is that Hamas must be destroyed since it represents an existential threat to Israel; this, from its perspective, bloodily demonstrated in the events of the 7th October. The current and continuing Israeli attacks on Gaza are justified in those terms: Israel’s objective is to seek out Hamas, Continue reading
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Can Israel change?
In a couple of earlier blog articles I wondered whether Israel has the internal resources – ethical, psychological, imaginative, political – to reflect upon itself critically; to shed its self-imposed, self-defeating burden of maintaining and justifying a state founded on Jewish Supremacism. All the indications are that it has not. This was the case Continue reading
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Israel’s democracy: strange fruit
Israel is a country in denial. That is to say, it is a country which has obscured from itself its own nature; and until now, it has been adept at that. But the protective carapace of self-delusion is now under considerable strain. Shattered. Perhaps beyond repair. But not admitted, faced-up to. Purportedly liberal, primarily Ashkenazi, Continue reading
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Just numbers?
Some numbers: 17, 15, 16, 14, 17, 17, 17, 16, 10, 16, 16, 14, 17, 16, 17, 15, 14, 14, 17, 15, 17,11, 8, 5, 17,10, 5, 16, 2. Twenty-nine numbers. Added together, they come to 401. Those numbers can be expressed as an average. Do that, and the answer is 13.8. In addition, when Continue reading
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Good riddance: two state ‘solution’ is dead
The two-state solution is dead, notwithstanding that various governments, the EU, the Palestinian Authority, along with sundry organisations, Jewish and not, tenaciously cling to what was always an ill-conceived, unjust idea. For many, the reasons for now proclaiming the ‘solution’ dead beyond the possibility of resurrection, tend to focus on what might be characterised as Continue reading
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Israel: Nurturing racism
It’s fair to say, isn’t it, that children are not born racist, but initiated into that particular mindset. This perhaps is particularly true of Israel. Therefore, where a state’s conception of itself rests on racist principles, on Zionist principles, one of its key objectives must be to shape minds at the earliest opportunity. This not Continue reading
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Israel: Nurturing racism
It’s fair to say, isn’t it, that children are not born racist, but initiated into that particular mindset. This perhaps is particularly true of Israel. Therefore, where a state’s conception of itself rests on racist principles, on Zionist principles, one of its key objectives must be to shape minds at the earliest opportunity. This not Continue reading
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Palestine, Israel and the Labour Party: Is it racism that I see?
Labour Party leader, Keir Starmer, struck the right tone in his tribute to Archbishop Desmond Tutu who died on the 26 December 2021. He described Tutu as: ‘a tower of a man and a leader of moral activism’ who ‘dedicated his life to tackling injustice and standing up for the oppressed…’His impact on the world Continue reading
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As Olive Harvest Begins, Israeli Soldiers Prevent Palestinians From Reaching Their Groves
I reproduce without comment an article in Haaretz by Amira Hass, dated 17 October 2021 When it isn’t the settlers who try to directly disrupt Palestinians’ olive picking, it’s the Israeli army that prevents it from taking place Mohammed al-Khatib from the village of Bil’in uses every opportunity he has to talk to soldiers, in Continue reading
About Me
This is Bernard Spiegal’s blog.
I write mainly about Palestine/Israel and related issues; sometimes other stuff too
Bernard Spiegal 