‘Make Bono Pay Tax’

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The Solution to Ireland’s Austerity Plan by Eamonn McCann. I had attended a McCann talk once — the man is a real force of nature.

The most eye-catching placard on a 120,000-strong march in Dublin last Saturday against the Irish government’s austerity response to the tottering of the capitalist system was held aloft by a scrawny teenager with the look of a music-lover about him, reading “Make Bono Pay Tax.”

The march, organised by the Irish Congress of Trades Unions, was protesting against measures including a pay freeze plus a one percent wage levy on all public sector workers, education cut-backs which will mean, for example, the closure of special needs classes in primary schools, and much else along the same screw-the-workers, neo-liberal lines.

The cut-backs and attacks on public sector workers come against the background of a banking scandal which, proportionately, dwarfs the crimes of the bankster class in the US. Rummaging through the rubble of Anglo Irish Bank which collapsed at the end of 2008 and was nationalized in January, investigators discovered that the bank’s founder and boss Sean Fitzpatrick was secretly in hock to his own bank to the tune of €87 million, which he had shifted into Irish Life and Permanent on the day before the annual audit and shifted back again the day afterwards. Fitzpatrick—“Seanie” to both Taoiseach (Prime Minister) Brian Cowan and his predecessor Bertie Ahern—had performed this manoeuvre with sums of around €80 million every year for the past seven years.

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Empire – Israel and the US

You won’t see anything like this on the BBC. The Al Jazeera show Empire on the US relationship with Israel.  Interviewees include Stephen Walt, Jim Lobe, Avi Shlaim, Ilan Pappe, Anatol Lieven, Stephen Walt and Aaron David Miller. There is a hard hitting segment on AIPAC towards the end of the Part 1. However, despite the excellent contributions from interviewees, especially Lobe, Shlaim, Lieven and Stephen Walt, the host keeps imposing the tired old Leftist view of Israel as a ‘strategic asset’ to the US on the narrative. The program could have also done without the Egyptian idiot in the second part of the show.

In this episode of Empire, Marwan Bishara, Al Jazeera’s senior political analyst, and his guests zero in on the special relationship between the US and Israel.

They explore who benefits from the special relationship and whether the status quo will prevail.

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Interview with Morton Klein of the Zionist Organization of America

Morton Klein
Morton Klein

Warmongering president of the Zionist Organization of America (ZOA) Morton Klein believes that the ultimate goal of any Zionist is to live in Israel.  Except of course for Christian Zionists, they don’t need to go to Israel for fulfilment “but you’re not a 100% fulfilled Jewish Zionist unless you live in the Jewish state. ”

There are other exceptions, such as Klein himself who says “many people tell me, rightly or wrongly, that I can really do more as one human being fighting for Israel from America – with our lobbying in Washington, our campus work, our work in the courts and with my writings in America and throughout the world – than I could if I were in Israel.”

Klein also reveals that Israel requested US permission to bomb Iran and that the Zionists in America are beginning to move towards the Likudnik belief that there is no “partner for peace”.  One might wonder what his solution is then?  Another Gaza massacre?  Another ’48?  The problem is that the Palestinians want a just peace, Klein does not.

Zionist Organization of America (ZOA) national president Morton Klein is not known for his optimism in the face of the Middle East conflict. Nor does he mince words when being critical of the “peace process,” or of the response on the part of many of his fellow Jewish activists to violations on the part of the Palestinians.
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Focus on Gaza: A Crime of War?

A Crime of War? is the first episode in a new weekly Al Jazeera series titled Focus on Gaza.  I’m pleased to hear Al Jazeera are going to dedicate more time to Gaza, they have done outstanding work already and, if you missed it, I recommend you to watch their Gaza documentary Reflections of War.

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Perils of Criticising Israel

This week the British Medical Journal has a feature on criticising Israel:

bmjIn 2004, the BMJ published an article criticising Israel, which provoked hundreds of hostile emails. Karl Sabbagh analyses responses sent directly to the editor and takes a broader look at what journalists and editors face when covering controversial issues. Michael O’Donnell thinks that the best way to blunt the effectiveness of orchestrated email campaigns is to expose them to public scrutiny. Jonathan Freedland suggests growing a thicker skin. And Mark Clarfield, a doctor at Sokora Hospital in Israel, is surprised at some of the responses to his blog on bmj.com.

Avoiding topics where medicine and politics collide is not an option for the BMJ, nor is this what our readers want, write editors Tony Delamothe and Fiona Godlee in an accompanying editorial. They decide to follow the advice of O’Donnell and Freedland and ignore future orchestrated email campaigns. And they suggest authors, editors, publishers, advertisers, and shareholders do the same.

The Israeli paper the Jerusalem Post has a summary of the debate in an article titled ‘British Medical Journal’ complains of ‘obscene’ attacks by pro-Israel lobby.

The following is Karl Sabbagh’s analysis the Perils of Criticising Israel.  I’ll post a review of Jonathan Freedlands response soon.

The BMJ’s acting editor received 1000 emails after the journal published an article criticising Israel in 2004. Karl Sabbagh examined them and is reminded of what happened when the magazine World Medicine criticised Israel 27 years ago

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Ethnic Cleansing in East Jerusalem

Inside Story looks at the eviction of 1500 Palestinians from East Jerusalem and the prospect for peace under Netanyahu’s leadership.   Inside Story would have strengthend it’s argument had it mentioned that all Israeli settlements inside the West Bank were found illegal in 2004 by the Interntational Court of Justice.

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Gazan children psychologically damaged

Al Jazeera reports that Gazan children are psychologically damaged from the war.

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The Israel lobby and the fate of Palestine

alexander-cockburnAlexander Cockburn on the Israel lobby and the fate of Palestine recorded in San Francisco on September 29, 2002.

The Israel Lobby and the fate of Palestine (29:04): MP3

On May 2, 2002, barely two weeks after what has become widely described in the international press as a massacre in the Palestinian refugee camp at Jenin, the US Congress took an extraordinary vote.

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Arundhati Roy on Slumdog Millionaire

Danny Boyle and Loveleen Tandan’s Slumdog Millionaire was the big winner at the Oscars last night. Writer-activist Arundhati Roy was asked her opinion of the film’s global success about a week back, and here is what she had to say (see also this recent review):

People are selling India’s poverty big time both in literature and films. As they say, there is lots of money in poverty today. I am not against showing slums, but depicting them in a depoliticised manner, as has been done in the film, is quite unfortunate. Films do not show the real poor. Even if they are depicted, it’s not the true picture. The real poor are not shown in films because they are not attractive. Poverty sells but the poor do not. The film gives false hope to the poor that they too could become millionaires one day. Watching Slumdog Millionaire was like speeding on a highway with lots of potholes. The screenplay of the film is quite out of context and it feels as if a Harvard accent has been given to characters that are straight out of the Chicago black neighbourhood.

Palestinian NGO seeks UK human rights justice

Al-Haq, a Palestinian NGO  with the help of the Gaza Legal Aid Fund (facebook), is to take UK Government officials to court over policy that assists Israel in its illegal activities in Gaza.

Al-Haq, an independent Palestinian non-governmental organisation will tomorrow, Tuesday 24 February 2009 begin historical legal proceedings against the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs, David Milliband, Defence Secretary, John Hutton and Trade & Industry (now the Secretary of State for Business Enterprise, and Regulatory Reform), Peter Mandelson.

Al Haq are making an application for judicial review of a policy decision by the three Secretaries of State that they will not change their position with respect to the UK’s relations with Israel so that the UK Government is fully compliant with international law.
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