We are at a critical historical juncture in which it is becoming increasingly difficult to criticize Israel without being branded an anti-Semite. You are an anti-Semite if you support the International Criminal Court’s recent ruling that it has jurisdiction to open a...
Redefining Anti-Semitism on Facebook
Given that Facebook has 2.7 billion users and is the world’s largest and arguably most influential media platform, it comes as no surprise that right-wing Zionist organizations have identified it as a site to promote their agenda. Several years ago, for example, the...
The Human Rights Crisis: A Problem Of Perception?
When Israel is criticized about its rights-abusive policies in the West Bank and Gaza Strip, the refrain most often heard among local politicians is that the government’s hasbara – the Israeli propaganda machine – is inadequate. The problem, in other words, is not...
Time To Erase Israel’s Green Line
About fifty students sat on the concrete floor of a makeshift shack, absorbing the desert heat as they listened to Salim talk about the imminent destruction of Umm al Hiran and Atir, two unrecognized Bedouin villages located twenty minutes from my apartment in...
Israel’s Dissenting Voices Get Lost in the War Echo Chamber
For several days now, some of my neighbours have suggested that the time has come to "destroy them"- meaning either Hamas or Palestinians – "once and for all". The rockets being fired from Gaza clearly do have the effect of raising the level of hysteria within...
Perpetual Peace
Last year I gave the Israeli artist Amir Nave an old Hebrew copy of Immanuel Kant’s Perpetual Peace, which I teach every so often in my Introduction to Political Theory class. He took the book, flipped through it, ripped out the title page, turned it upside down,...
Israel’s Crackdown Grows with Boycott Bill
Political change is slow. One doesn't go to sleep in a democracy and wake up in a fascist regime. The citizens of Egypt and Tunisia can attest to the fact that the opposite is also true: dictatorship does not become democracy overnight. Any political change of such...
Netanyahu and the One-State Solution
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu will address U.S. legislators today. He will, no doubt, tell members of Congress that he supports a two-state solution, but his support will be predicated on four negative principles: no to Israel's full withdrawal to the 1967...
Israeli Media ‘Fears’ the New Egypt
Over the past three weeks the Israeli media has been extremely interested in Egypt. During the climatic days of the unprecedented demonstrations, television news programs spent most of their airtime covering the protests, while the daily papers dedicated half the news...
And the State, Is It Loyal?
Several weeks ago, hundreds of students demonstrated in front of Ben-Gurion University's administration building. About a third of the protestors were expressing their opposition to the government's decision to attack the relief flotilla, while the remaining two...