Tag Archives: West Bank

My visit to the so-called ‘occupied West Bank’ in November 2017 has taken me some time  to get ‘down on paper’.  I just haven’t managed to find the time to do it. I was staying with a with a friend in Jerusalem who, when I mentioned I’d be interested in …

 Has the IDF brass forgotten that they are soldiers, charged with providing military solutions to physical threats to the nation’s security; not sociologists, tasked with diagnosing the societal ailments of its enemies?  …the IDF General Staff has been insisting there is only one thing Israel can do about Gaza. According …

One of the most misrepresented and emotionally loaded issues about Israel – and there is a smorgasbord to choose from – is its security barrier.  This is one of the issues that featured prominently in a recent programme on Maori TV (One World – He Ao Kotahi) where the narrator …

29 July 2017 saw an anti-Israel rally in Auckland’s Aotea Square that had been billed as “Alaqsa solidarity rally” to protest against Israel’s “security measures that require Palestinians to enter through metal detectors to go pray” (sic). These measures were removed by Israel before the day of the rally, after …

Vastly outnumbered, outgunned, besieged on every front and overwhelmed by the wealth and diplomatic influence of the Arab States, Israel faced its hour of maximum danger 50 years ago. It did so alone: 100,000 Egyptian troops, armour and artillery had amassed on Israel’s southern border; the UN peace-keeping force along …

As Prime Minister Netanyahu said: “Wow!” What a fantastic week for Israel, Australia and the Jewish People!!! Kol Hakavod to Prime Ministers Malcolm Turnbull and Benjamin Netanyahu – and the entire delegations on both sides – on a historic occasion replete with warmth, great friendship, shared values, understanding, intersections of …

When an Islamist drove his truck into a crowd in Nice last July, New Zealand Prime Minister John Key spoke out against the terror attack.  When an Islamist drove his truck into a crowd in Berlin last December, New Zealand Prime Minister Bill English spoke out against the terror attack.  …

Hey, you didn’t forget about The Occupation for a minute did you? No silly, we are not talking about  Northern Cyprus, Tibet, Crimea, Balochistan, Western Sahara, or any of the other occupations around the world that you never hear about. We are talking, of course, about the Palestinians and their …

FirstOneThrough There were several terrorist attacks against Israeli Jews in early October 2015.  The US State Department gave very tepid comments about the murders, especially compared to how the US reacted to the arson attacks that claimed the lives of three Palestinian Arabs in July 2015.  When one considers that …

Oxfam is a household name which claims to be committed to ending poverty worldwide.  Oxfam is an international confederation of 17 organizations working together with partners and local communities in more than 90 countries. One person in three in the world lives in poverty. Oxfam is determined to change that …

A timely piece posted with the permission of Edgar Davidson from the Blog of the same name. Please check it out. I read it a few years back when it was first published and is recommended as an excellent advocacy piece. One of the most pernicious and common lies propagated …

Jewish Left-Dwelling Americans are probably among the most well-meaning people on the entire planet. I have never seen such unrequited niceness in my entire life, actually. I suppose that I am just a tad biased, but I am willing to bet good shekels that American Jews are over-represented in the …

Summary: The gap in resolving the long running Israel-Palestinian Question has to do with the goals of each party: the Israelis believe they have been engaged in a peace process between peoples while the Palestinians are negotiating a divorce settlement between countries. Politicians and the media – both well-meaning and …

Summary: Almost every major media outlet refers to the Gaza Strip and the west bank of the Jordan River as “Palestinian Territories”, when in fact, those areas are actually “Israeli territories” and “Palestinian Authority Territories.” Most places in the world are part-and-parcel of a country.  However, there are situations when a …

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu described Israel as “a small country, one of the smallest”. That is true, but only part of the story. As Bibi added “Israel is strong, but it’s much more vulnerable [than the US].” Size: Israel is about 20,000 square kilometers, using the 1949 Armistice Lines, or 22,000 …

Summary: Pundits parrot Palestinian propaganda and state that Jews living in homes on the west bank of the Jordan River (WBJR) threaten the viability of a Palestinian state, Jodi Roduren of the Times being the latest. As Shakespeare wrote “The lady doth protest too much, methinks.”  The New York Times’ …

The US State Department Bureau of Consular Affairs has featured a map on its website – which both rejects and corrects the misleading use of the terms “1967 boundaries” and “1967 borders” – which have never existed in relation to any territorial subdivision between Israel, the West Bank and Gaza. …

Tony Abbott’s recent reshuffle saw Sussan Ley promoted to the Cabinet, taking on the role of Minister for Health and Sport.  Let’s find out a bit more about her: Sussan Ley: From punk rocker to health minister As a high school student in Canberra in the 1970s, Ley walked around …

Writing in the Algemeiner, Moshe Phillips and Benyamin Korn tell us this: The Palestinian Center for Policy and Survey Research last week asked a sample of 1,270 Palestinian Arab adults in the territories what they thought of the recent wave of attacks in which Palestinians stabbed Israelis or ran them …

   This picture is of an avian specimen very common around here grabbed at random from Google however is identical to a creature that prances around the courtyard among the water dragons all day and peers through the glass door of my office most mornings as I type.  Quaint and …