Hussein Ibish: one-state ‘outcome’ is not a one-state ’solution’

Is Hussein Ibish a level-headed pragmatist key to Palestine’s future, or a Washington socialite unwittingly co-opted by an intellectually bankrupt mainstream? I don’t know…it’s a loaded question, but it got you reading. In any case, he does a impressive job of distinguishing bewteen a one-state ’solution’ (potentially desirable) and one-state ‘outcome’ (unthinkably disastrous). From Jeffrey [...]

Lessons for a new Israel-Palestine?

Apropo the previous post, there are precedents for fully administering contested areas via multilateral UN institutions. The crucial precedent that hasn’t yet been broken is establishing a permanent UN arbiter in a contested zone.
For inspiration to be drawn and, perhaps more importantly, lessons to be learned, see East Timor.

Outside the nation-state tinderbox

Here’s a copy of ‘How about, let’s stop deifying the nation-state‘ … Phil Weiss’ post of my own answer to his question: how to offer readers a forward-looking solution in Israel-Palestine…
Life in fortress-Israel can be a comfortable buffer to reality. But reality has an awkward habit of crashing the party. Reports from places like Gaza [...]

Zizek on Israel-Palestine

…from The Guardian.
Quiet slicing of the West Bank makes abstract prayers for peace obscene
Condemnation of ‘illegal’ settlements and violence only blurs the reality of what the Israeli state is sanctioning, day by day.

On 2 August 2009, after cordoning off part of the Arab neighborhood of Sheikh Jarrah in east Jerusalem, Israeli police evicted two Palestinian [...]

The new Zionist myth?

Following up from a previous post, one of many interviews with a solider who participated in Operation Cast Lead:

What does it mean when the state itself sanctions this kind of cosmic-scale, theological rationale for destruction? Is this the 21st century? If so, maybe it’s time for some new mythologies, some new [...]

LA Times prints Neve Gordon: “Boycott Israel”

Israeli newspapers this summer are filled with angry articles about the push for an international boycott of Israel. Films have been withdrawn from Israeli film festivals, Leonard Cohen is under fire around the world for his decision to perform in Tel Aviv, and Oxfam has severed ties with a celebrity spokesperson, a British actress who [...]

Recent wanderings

Iranian Kordestan

TTBOOK Radio: Iran After the Revolution

A well-assembled podcast on post-Revolutionary Iran.
Juan Cole (of Informed Comment) makes some fairly astute observations, beginning about 42:25 mins in:
Iran After the Revolution (2009-04-17).

The Chickpea

The Chickpea
- by Mowlana Jalaluddin Muhammad Balkhi (Rumi)

A chickpea in a pot leaps from the flame,
out from the boiling water,
Crying, “Why do you set fire to me?
You chose me, bought me, brought me home for this?”
The cook hits it with her spoon into the pot.
“No! Boil nicely, don’t jump away from the one who makes [...]

BBC 4: Science and Islam

As both a child of the globalized era, and someone involved in education, i’m continually irked by the myopic (judeo)-christian-centred narratives on the history of global ‘progress’ presented to students here in the west (and probably elsewhere, although i can’t speak to that).
Here’s a doc by BBC 4 that tries to remedy this. It’s not [...]