Jonathan Cook

If there were any remaining illusions about the purpose of Israel’s war against Lebanon, the draft United Nations Security Council resolution calling for a "cessation of major hostilities" published over the weekend should finally dispel them. This entirely one-sided document was drafted, noted the Hebrew-language media, with close Israeli involvement. The top adviser to Israeli … Continue reading “The End of Illusions”

Here are some interesting points raised this week by a leading commentator and published in a respected daily newspaper: "The Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert embeds his soldiers in Israeli communities, next to schools, beside hospitals, close to welfare centers, ensuring that any Israeli target is also a civilian target. This is the practice the … Continue reading “Winning the Propaganda War”

The crowds in Beirut last year demanding a Cedar Revolution, “the first shoots of democracy” supposedly planted by the United States, are a distant memory. Yesterday we saw in their place the fury of Lebanon directed against the capital’s United Nations building – an early “birth pang” in Condoleezza Rice’s new Middle East. If Israel … Continue reading “Why Do They Hate Us?
Listen to Qana (Again)”

When journalists use the word "apparently," or another favorite "reportedly," they are usually distancing themselves from an event or an interpretation in the supposed interests of balance. But I think we should read the "apparently" contained in a statement from the head of the United Nations, Kofi Annan, relating to the killing this week of … Continue reading “The Lies Israel Tells Itself (and We Tell on Its Behalf)”

This week I had the pleasure to appear on American radio, on the Laura Ingraham show, pitted against David Horowitz, who most recently made his name under the banner of Campus Watch, leading McCarthyite witch-hunts against American professors who have the impertinence to suggest that maybe, just maybe, Arabs have minds and feelings like the … Continue reading “Five Myths That Sanction Israel’s War Crimes”

The general surprise that Lebanese civilians are taking the brunt of Israel’s onslaught – and the unwillingness in some quarters of the media to report the fact – reflects a poor understanding of Israel’s historical use of violence. Since its birth six decades ago, Israel has always been officially “going after the terrorists,” but its … Continue reading “Israel’s Disproportionate Violence No Surprise”

Nazareth hit the international headlines for the first time in this vicious war being waged by Israel mostly on Lebanese civilians. Reporter Matthew Price, corseted in a blue flak jacket in Haifa, told BBC viewers that for the first time Hezbollah had targeted Nazareth late on Sunday. "Nazareth is a mostly Christian town," he added, … Continue reading “The Human Shields of Nazareth”

Here we go again – another “serious escalation” has begun in the Middle East, or so BBC World was telling audiences throughout Sunday. So what prompted the BBC’s judgment that the crisis was escalating once more? You can be sure it had nothing to do with the more than 130 Lebanese dead after five days … Continue reading “Israelis Are Dying:
It Must Be an Escalation”

With his coalition partners on board, Israel’s Prime Minister Ehud Olmert is plotting his next move: a partial withdrawal from the West Bank over the next few years that he and his government will declare as the end of the occupation and therefore also any legitimate grounds for Palestinian grievance. From hereon in, Israel will … Continue reading “Israel’s Road to ‘Convergence’ Began With Rabin”