For some of us the Saltwater Challenge is a stupid and dangerous teenager craze from about one year ago, something like the ALS Ice Bucket Challenge of 2014. For others it’s a series of videos about fishing on the ocean waves. There is a third option. In the last few …

With so much coverage of a Palestinian threat to sue the United Kingdom for the 1917 Balfour Declaration I was surprised to find no one had investigated if they actually make a go of it.  To my surprise, it’s a long, long shot but, yes, it’s a possibility.  They could …

All you need is a credit card I just joined Jewish Voice for Peace (JVP).  All I needed was a credit card – not even a real one.  They will probably catch on – eventually but I bet they will still number me among the members for a long time …

If you have recently visited a university, college or in not a few cases a church you have probably seen the latest Israeli Apartheid Week poster. You will find quite a change of public approach from the IAW Israel Haters. Yet as far as I am aware no one has …

Yolande Knell displays her ‘half a story’ cred. Fisking  Can Paris summit save fading two-state solution?  For many, the holy city of Jerusalem is meant to be a shared capital for Israel and the Palestinians – two peoples in two nations, living peacefully, side-by-side. At least that is the dream …

Déjà Versailles History repeats itself, first as tragedy, second as farce. Karl Marx Just in the interests of symmetry the Paris Peace Conference due to take place next week should have waited two more years. It won’t of course, not even four more months, because the organisers are aware that not …

The World against Israel or Israel against the World The question about whether Obama would deliver a last minute FU to Israel by abstaining on a United Nations Security Council vote has been answered. YES HE WILL That leads to two additional questions. The first is will he repeat the …

Gvirotai veRabotai – Mahapakh! Does anyone recall an election in a democracy which generated so many apocalyptic rants from the losers? I do. 1977’s Israel’s Mahapakh … and the more I think about it the more similarities I find. This follows from a brief conversation on Facebook (screen grab) with a Clinton …

Random thoughts loosely connected by the U.S. election. This week someone called me ‘White’ and clearly considered that to be an insult. Unless her Facebook profile picture was a lie or she was a black Rachel Dolezal, she was no less Caucasian than me. It did get me thinking. The conversation, minus …

Voting for Israel – a rough guide Like most of us, I guess, Five Minutes for Israel has been obsessing about the upcoming American Presidential election. I concede, something that partisans on both sides seem to find impossible, that there are genuine Israel advocates and it-is-politically-convenient-for-me-to-appear-to-support-Israel advocates on both sides. There …

Peter Stefanovic exposes what passes for Middle East journalism − and doesn’t acknowledge that he is doing it Aussie journalist Peter Stefanovic chases the bang-bang in a way that reminds me of a young Jeremy Bowen. That was not meant as a compliment. News is only the first rough draft of history. Alan …

What you should know about the Women’s Boat to Gaza A ‘single boat’ flotilla, passengered and probably skippered by women is currently on route in an attempt to breach the Israeli blockade of Gaza. Yes, I know that a single boat flotilla might be a contradiction in terms but no more …

Reply to Ruby Hamad’s Don’t ask athletes to set aside politics ‘in the spirit of the Olympics’ Is there even one Palestinian in the Lebanese Olympic team? There are few things more hypocritical than Lebanese claiming to snub Israel because of what we allegedly do to the Palestinians.  If there is …

If one judges by the continuing media reaction the one and only thing worth remembering from the Democratic National Convention was the mother and father of a deceased Muslim soldier coupled with Donald Trump’s tone-deaf, self-centred response. Did Hillary Clinton say anything, remotely memorable or even jeerable? The bottom line is …

If we can’t have France as a lover, can we at least have a genuine friend? French Prime Minister Manuel Valls says the decision to vote in favour of a UNESCO report that ignores any Jewish link to Jerusalem was a ‘mistake’. French President Francois Hollande says it was a …

To the Honourable Julie Bishop MP Minister for Foreign Affairs Deputy Leader of the Australian Liberal Party UNRWA is the problem not the solution Dear Minister, When Pierre Krähenbühl, UNRWA Commissioner General came around begging did you throw him out of your office? You should have. UNRWA is part of …

Stop calling Mohammad Kosba a kid. He was a 17 year old terrorist who attempted murder. It was just chance his intended victim was a soldier and not a civilian, the same age as he. To call him a teen on his way to pray, as did Mondoweiss is truly …

Why is Gaza reconstruction so slow? Let me count the ways. How many BBC foreign correspondents does it take to change a light-bulb? None. The light-bulb is only broken if their favoured sources tell them that it is. Five Minutes for Israel hasn’t awarded a red clown nose for quite some …

Self declared Five Minutes for Israel will try to to avoid using the descriptive name ‘Islamic State’ in favour of ‘DAESH’ or ‘self-declared Islamic State’. We suggest you do the same. There are several reasons to do this. While there is no doubt the bloodthirsty entity is Islamic it is hardly the only …

Roger Hearing‘s piece. The ice-cream maker of Gaza could be written off if it was only yet another BBC magazine colour piece designed to show spunky Gazans (aren’t they all?) creatively surviving. but does that excuse him and the BBC failing, yet again, as journalists? Is it possible the BBC adds the boilerplate and …