Is Israel really Pakistan’s enemy?
Growing up in Peshawar, a slightly conservative city of Pakistan, my sentiments as a child were nothing different from those of others in most parts of the country. I had a slight disliking for India, and sheer hatred for Israel. Words such as ‘Jewish lobby’, ‘Zionists’, ‘Freemasons’, and many others – whose meanings many of us did not even know – kept ringing in our ears through religious scholars, teachers, friends and peers, and we used to associate all of them directly with Jews, especially Jews of Israel and those having major shares in US corporations. The Indian intelligence agency Research and ...
Read Full PostIs Obama’s visit to Israel going to change history?
“Speaking as a politician, I can promise you this; political leaders will not take risks if the people do not demand that they do. You must create the change that you want to see.” This was one of the highlights of Obama’s speech, who was addressing Israeli students and youth in Jerusalem, during his three day trip to the holy-land, his first as a US president, where he tried to reach out to the people of the region, rather than giving the spotlight to political leadership. Although most parts of his speech came as expected, it also had chunks of surprises for the Israelis and ...
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Is war between Israel and Iran inevitable?
War drums are beating for Iran and once again, the drummer is Israel, joined by some occidental powers. The facade started last summer but was postponed due to the elections in the US and Israel. The burning question though remains ‘is war between Israel and Iran looming’? In an attempt to answer this question, we must look at a few different perspectives. Israel and Western points of view Israel sees Iran’s nuclear program as an existential threat that must be stopped by all means, including a military strike. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is convinced that Iran will be able to produce a nuclear bomb by summer ...
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US-Israel: The evils of exceptionalism
Many years back, a group of people — shunned by their homelands because of their religious beliefs — migrated thousands of kilometres to a foreign land. Once there, with the help of the superpowers of the day, they used coercion and violence to take over the entire territory. To rid their own populace of guilt for the millions of natives killed by the army of the newly-born country, religious-inspired concepts of exceptionalism and predestination were created. Religion was also used as a tool to justify the subjugation and decades-long abuse of their fellow men, as long as there were ethnic differences. Meanwhile, ...
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‘Objectivity’ the first casualty in the Gaza conflict
A fragile truce is in place in Gaza and now begins the battle of interpretation of who was to blame and who was hurt most. Israel’s eight day war on Gaza was accompanied by a war of words, with the Israeli Defence Force (IDF) sending out a barrage of propaganda that was uncritically picked up and repeated by most of the world’s media. Information from the communications branch of the IDF flooded the internet with the IDF’s own blog full of updates and infographics, also featured on their Twitter, Facebook, Instagram and Tumblr accounts. The infamous IDF video on YouTube ...
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Reporting on Gaza is about keeping the viewers at peace
“Follow the money…just follow the money.” The infamous dialogue said by Hal Holbrook playing ‘Deep Throat’ in the movie ‘All the President’s Men’ still holds a lot of wisdom today in understanding as to why the media behaves the way it does. So when I saw the onslaught of memes on Facebook and angry tweets crying foul on the biased coverage by the Western media on the Gaza issue, it made me think of old Deep Throat. News organisations worldwide claim to be bastions of objectivity, fairness, balance and accuracy; they have to. After all, who would watch a news channel that doesn’t ...
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Longing for an Arab-Israeli spring
Plato may have inadvertently summed up the Israeli-Palestinian conflict 2,500 years ago when he is thought to have declared: “We can easily forgive a child who is afraid of the dark; the real tragedy of life is when men are afraid of the light.” The cyclical bloodshed in the Arab-Israeli conflict is a direct consequence of the rigid postures of the jaded and faded leaders on both sides. On one end, we have the Palestinian codgers – with thick accents and thin visions – vowing for the annihilation of the Zionists. They know it’s impossible. And on the other are the ...
Read Full PostIt’s Israel who is the real super power, not the US
Within a few days of Israeli air strikes, 130 Palestinians including at least 11 civilians, among them, six children and a pregnant woman were killed. An 11-month-old child, who was the son of a BBC Arabic correspondent, was killed too. Five Israelis also have died since Israel killed Hamas’ military chief on Wednesday. Middle East peace envoy and former British prime minister Tony Blair, without wasting time, showed his allegiance to Israel and called on Hamas on Thursday to stop firing rockets from Gaza into Israel. He said that as long as it continued, the Jewish state would act to defend ...
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Gaza: Disgust and dismay
I am dismayed and disgusted by the biased, one-sided reporting about the Israeli strike in Gaza; the mainstream media is making it out as if Gaza has instigated the violence when the truth is that Israel provoked the Gazans all through the month of October, killed a mentally disabled man, shot a young boy while he was playing soccer, and finally assassinated a Hamas leader who they had entrusted with the impossible task of maintaining the truce, all the while continuing its inhuman blockade of the occupied territories without remorse, continuing to build illegal settlements, continuing to force Palestinians ...
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Israeli persecution: History’s ironic repetition
A young man – a Palestinian national footballer – lay on a bed in hospital. His weak face partially hidden with an oxygen mask while the machine continues to beep every second, matching the thumping of this heart beat; zigzag lines on the screen drawing each second of life left within him. He is critically ill and fighting for his life. His diagnosis? A serious illness caused due to a prolonged hunger strike. Why was this hunger strike more important than his own health, you ask. The hunger strike was carried out as a form of protest against his detention at the brutal ...
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