I still cannot quite believe this is happening to my country. It feels like a bad dream. But it is happening, and we must stop it. Now. By Timothy Garton Ash For thirty years I have been travelling to unfree places, from East Germany to Burma, and writing about them in the belief that I was [...]
Category Archives: Human rights
Mission accomplished as Israel announces truce in Gaza
January 18, 2009 – 1:47 am
Having reached all ‘the goals of the war, and beyond’ Israeli President Olmert trumpeted a unilateral truce to commence at 00.00 am today, having been told to stop killing so many civilians by the US on Friday, ahead of Obama’s inauguration and with enough dead and wounded Palestinians to ensure election victory. The calculation [...]
Blair, Howard and – er – Ulribe honoured in Bush medal ceremony
January 15, 2009 – 9:28 am
“The president is honoring these leaders for their work to improve the lives of their citizens and for their efforts to promote democracy, human rights and peace abroad“ White House spokeswoman… By John J Kelly On the day when UK Foreign Secretary David Miliband opined that the War on Terror had been a mistake, the Financial Times published conjecture [...]
So, where are the poor in the Brave New World?
January 13, 2009 – 3:03 pm
Authors and filmmakers can answer this question but policy makers and pundits seem not to have a clue. Perhaps it’s because they see them as statistics, not people. By Daniel Taghioff, India. Aravind Adiga’s Booker winner White Tiger and Danny Boyle’s Golden-Globe-harvesting film Slumdog Millionaire (based on Indian Diplomat Vikas Swarup’s novel Q and A) [...]
Europe is failing two life-and-death tests. We must act together, now
January 9, 2009 – 12:44 pm
Weak, divided, incoherent, hypocritical and infuriating – that’s how you hear the EU described privately in Beijing and Washington. The events of this first week of 2009 suggest that its critics are right. By Timothy Garton Ash. Look at the mess we’re in. Europe faces two acute crises that threaten both our interests and our values. [...]
I know nothing at first hand about Gaza so I should stop commenting . . . . . . .
January 8, 2009 – 9:56 am
. . .and it would be a good idea if other people did the same. However, I do know a bit about media. It is pointless of Israel to complain about the possible bias of quoted ‘sources in Gaza’ from the world’s news gatherers if they employ totalitarian tactics (selectively used by the US in [...]
Once in Royal David's City
January 1, 2009 – 3:55 pm
By Daniel Taghioff In the season of goodwill, I am reminded of the story of Jesus’s birth by the nativity plays in my daughter’s deeply Christian School. He was born in a stable because all of those that would now be termed “Palestinian” were called home to be counted. So the ironies, as ever, pile [...]
Jerusalem Post reports 'no international pressure to end op' (Gaza ethnic cleansing)
December 29, 2008 – 5:21 pm
“After all, who remembers the Armenians?” (Adolph Hitler). By John J Kelly. Israel is feeling “no real pressure” from the world to end the operation in the Gaza Strip, and the amount of time the international community will sit relatively quietly on the sidelines depends on how things develop, senior diplomatic officials said Sunday. According [...]
UN Resolution 446 revisited and another Neo-coincidence
December 29, 2008 – 12:05 pm
The US and its ‘allies’ pursued an aggressive ‘war’ counter to the 4th Geneva Convention against Iraq on the spurious justification that Iraq had ignored a UN resolution. Israel is in breach of more than 65 UN Resolutions, but the most significant, Resolution 446, passed in 1979 with abstensions from the UK, Norway and the [...]
Israel delivers a housewarming present to Obama – Armageddon
December 28, 2008 – 7:18 pm
Remember the PFLP? Well, they’re back, thanks to helicopter gunship diplomacy. By John J Kelly from sources in Gaza There is still time for Israel to pull back from the endgame, but we are being told that the wanton slaughter of the past two days has met with ‘widespread public approval on all sides [...]