Pluralism has deep roots amongst Jews. The Talmud, the basis of rabbinic law and primary object of Jewish study for 1500 years, is not dogma. It is sixty-three books of debate and disputation, commentaries upon commentaries upon commentaries, whose study consists of yet more debate and disputation. And yet, the evidence is that “dissenting” Jews […]
Posts Tagged ‘Israel/Palestine’
Palestine Government may seek sacking of Tony Blair
Oct 3rd, 2011 by Newsdesk.The Palestinian Government will soon consider whether it should ask the International Quartet Committee for peace in the Middle East to fire its envoy Tony Blair, the former prime minister of Britain, a well-informed Palestinian source said on Sunday. A senior well-informed Palestinian source, speaking to Xinhua on condition of anonymity, said that several Palestinian […]
Britain must support Palestinian demand for statehood
Sep 20th, 2011 by Michael Meacher.Mahmoud Abbas is right to go ahead with his application for Palestinian statehood at the UN later this week. If there were any doubts about it, the facrt that the US and its protege Israel are so frantically trying to block it suggests it must be the right move. The fact that the US is […]
Israel/Palestine. Two states? Forget it, says Obama
Sep 18th, 2011 by Mark Seddon.Even President George Bush played lip service to the idea of a ‘two state’ solution for Israel/Palestine. That, after all, is the default position of the international community. It is also the position of the Obama administration, which has nonetheless allowed the Israeli government of Benjamin Netanyahu to run rings around it. So if the […]
Now Iran is in his sights. Why does anyone still take Tony Blair seriously?
Sep 12th, 2011 by Mark Seddon.It simply beggars belief that there are some in the British media who still take Tony Blair even vaguely seriously. On Friday, we were treated to two ‘exclusives’ featuring Blair on the front pages of The Times and the the Daily Mirror. All this in the same week that we learned that Blair had agreed […]
It is time to end arms sales to Israel
Aug 5th, 2011 by Darrell Goodliffe.Israel’s reaction to rocket’s fired from the Gaza Strip has been, as is usual, totally disproportionate and counter-productive. Unfortunately, the Israeli state seems to imagine itself totally above international law and reproach, and the silence of it’s Western allies means that, to all intents and purposes, it is. Firing rockets at Israeli towns is unacceptable […]
Bin Laden’s death – no cause for jubilation
May 2nd, 2011 by Jon Lansman.Celebrations at the killing of Osama bin Laden in the streets of New York are as unjustified as they were in East Jerusalem and Nablus following the 9/11 attack on the twin towers. Vengeance does not bring peace or justice. Though the details of the US operation which resulted in Bin Laden’s death are not […]
The epicentre of the Arab spring isn’t Libya or Syria; it’s Palestine
Apr 30th, 2011 by Michael Meacher.Bahrain, Yemen, Libya, Syria, rumblings in Morocco and Algeria (and eventually Saudi?) even spreading south into sub-Saharan Africa such as Uganda, but the centre of this upturning of the old despotic order is Palestine. The tectonic shift in the latter has been little noticed, but is more momentous than any of the others. Palestine for […]
The West’s Faustian deal with Arab tyranny unravels
Mar 7th, 2011 by Michael Meacher.As Gadaffi totters and Saudi Arabia, the Big One, comes into the Arab revolution’s sights, the hypocrisy that has long held the Arab states in bondage is coming home to roost. The West’s deal with the Arab dictators is coming unstuck, big time. Despite all the Western pretensions about democracy, women’s rights, cracking down on […]