Tonycurzonprice's Favorite Links on israel from Diigo

BBC NEWS | World | Middle East | Israeli 'neo-Nazi gang' arrested

Sun, 09 Sep 2007 06:05:11 -0000

Highlights and Sticky Notes:

"It is difficult to believe that Nazi ideology sympathisers can exist in Israel, but it is a fact," Revital Almog, the police official who led the investigation, told Israeli public radio.

The suspects all migrated to Israel under the Law of Return which allows anyone with at least one Jewish grandparent to become a citizen.

Tags: identity israel

Posted by: tonycurzonprice

In time of war: reason amid rockets Fred Halliday - openDemocracy

Mon, 13 Nov 2006 13:11:49 -0000

Highlights and Sticky Notes:

Deutscher's approach rested on three clear and courageous premises:

that both leaderships, Arab and Israeli, were guilty of demagogy and misleading their own people, above all by promising a victory that was unattainable and by stoking hatred of other peoples and religions
that the antecedent histories of both peoples (genocide in Europe for the Jews, and denial of national rights for the Palestinians) could not be deployed to legitimate the maximal current claims of either side
that – a principle Deutscher resolutely adhered to – the Israelis and Palestinians were peoples with legitimate claims, which should be recognised on a sensible, and lasting, territorial and political basis.

And this ethnicisation of the victims was, at the same time, deemed to convey a particular right, if not responsibility, on the state that lay claim to representing those victims, namely Israel. This was what Hannah Arendt identified.

Tags: arab israel

Posted by: tonycurzonprice

The New York Review of Books: The Attack on Human Rights Watch

Mon, 30 Oct 2006 10:18:38 -0000

Highlights and Sticky Notes:

As often seems to be the case, it is far easier to discuss such matters rationally in Israel than in the United States. Here, time and again, rational discussion is precluded by charges of anti-Semitism against anyone with the temerity to criticize Israeli policy or practice.

Tags: criticism insider israel

Posted by: tonycurzonprice

Lebanon: the war after the war Paul Rogers - openDemocracy

Sun, 22 Oct 2006 13:53:38 -0000

Highlights and Sticky Notes:

Further missile-launchers were destroyed on numerous occasions throughout the war, with much of this due to the use of reconnaissance drones.

They were used to detect the launches of medium-range missiles and the data could be processed and communicated to strike aircraft within a minute, making it possible to destroy the launchers and their crews before they could go back undercover.

The Hizbollah leadership did not anticipate the scale of the attack, nor did they expect the Israelis to strike at so many economic and logistical targets across Lebanon, many of them bearing little relationship to the capabilities or support networks of Hizbollah

The far more numerous short-range missiles could be brought from cover and fired from very simple launchers, with the launchers and their crews back under cover before there could be any retaliation. The Israelis had no realistic answer to this, which explains why they belatedly tried to move substantial ground forces into the main missile launch areas near the border.

It is therefore useful to this wider community if the Israeli air force can convince that it secured many successes in southern Lebanon as a result of this "value-added capability", even if the achievement was minimal in the context of the overall war.

The end result, though, was that the Hizbollah forces were sufficiently robust and motivated to be able to respond in a manner that caused surprise verging on amazement among the more careful Israeli analysts.

Israel failed in its core war aim of defeating Hizbollah, despite the element of surprise and the long period of preparation.

stories now coming through to the defence media about Israeli technical advances probably has more to do with the air force seeking to guard its back

Tags: israel

Posted by: tonycurzonprice