The 'clash of civilizations'

According to a poll released earlier this year, Hizbullah leader Hassan Nasrallah is the most admired leader in the Arab world. The second most popular Arab leader is Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, and the third most popular leader among Arabs is, surprisingly, no Arab - it is Iran's President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad. Given this line-up, one thing is obvious: an Arab leader who wants to win the hearts and minds of his (no need for /her) fellow Arabs doesn't have to govern well and doesn't have worry about the economy, jobs, health care, education, civil liberties or human rights - instead, what counts is that an Arab leader is perceived as standing up to the West, in particular the US and Israel.

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Mohammed Omer's 'truth'

How does it feel for a young Palestinian journalist from Gaza to accept an award named after the legendary journalist Martha Gellhorn? Gellhorn is widely regarded as one of the most outstanding war correspondents of the 20th century, but it has been said about her that "she switched off her sympathy when it came to the sufferings of Arabs. She was entirely committed to the cause of Israel [...and] remained deaf to the Palestinian case."

That is perhaps not an entirely fair characterization, because in her famous 1961 report on "The Arabs of Palestine"  Gellhorn was by no means "deaf" to the plight of Palestinian refugees - indeed, she left no doubt that she wanted to see their problems addressed and solved as quickly as possible. But as a reporter in Europe during and after World War II, Gellhorn had seen refugees before, and she did not hesitate to point out the "unique care and concern" and "the unique publicity" reserved for Palestinian refugees. She also did not hesitate to argue that the "unique misfortune of the Palestinian refugees is that they are a weapon in what seems to be a permanent war [...] Their function is to hang around and be constantly useful as a goad."

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The inevitable reaction

"What, exactly, is a decent person supposed to think?" That was Bradley Burston's question in an emotional piece published on the website of Ha'aretz shortly after an Arab resident from the southeast Jerusalem neighborhood of Sur Baher killed three and injured dozens in a bulldozer rampage on Jaffa Road last Wednesday. A day later, a Jerusalem Post editorial critically reviewed what the international media were suggesting their readers should think about this terrible attack.

Among the reports and commentaries highlighted in the editorial was a piece that had been published just a few hours after the attack on the Guardian's website under the title "The inevitable overreaction." Once you start to read this piece, you quickly realize that, just a few hours after the carnage, the verdict was already clear: any Israeli reaction to the attack would be an "overreaction", because if Israelis found themselves "targeted by terrorist killers", there was an obvious reason: "Occupation breeds terror" - and if this was not a good enough explanation for terrorist attacks, there was still another one on offer: "the relentless oppressive tactics employed by successive Israeli governments since the very foundation of the state." As the first comment posted in response to this article aptly noted: "Before the dead are cold and buried their murder is 'explained' away. How sad."

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Selective sympathy

It was hard to overlook the ambivalence in some of the media reports and the commentary that covered the inaugural congress held by the group Justice for Jews from Arab Countries (JJAC) in London last week. The BBC's coverage was rightly criticized on "Z Word" and the excellent blog "Point of No Return" because of the apparent eagerness to provide "balance", which meant that much of the reporting was devoted to casting doubt upon the legitimacy of the issues raised by JJAC. 

Given this coverage, it is hardly surprising that the reactions in cyberspace illustrated that it was news for some, and unwelcome news at that, to learn that the implacable hostility with which the Arab world reacted to the establishment of Israel in 1948 not only resulted in a war that turned some 700 000 Palestinian Arabs into refugees, but also led to the expulsion and dispossession of some 850 000 Jews from Arab countries.

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The 'anti-lobby' nominee

When an award-winning journalist writes an article about Barack Obama's speech to AIPAC, it is quite shocking to find some themes resembling anti-Semitism and gross distortions of facts.

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The British debate on Israel

It was too straightforward to qualify as "diplomatic" when Ron Prosor, Israel's ambassador to the UK, argued in an article published last week that "Britain is a hotbed of anti-Israeli sentiment". Prosor noted that in the British media, "coverage of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict is routinely tainted with bias and a surprising lack of context". Emphasizing that "Israel is a democracy under fire", Prosor argued that "when this context is neglected, it clears a path for the unhealthy, unacceptable demonisation of Israel", and he expressed concern that "the most extreme elements of the debate have been allowed to hijack the mainstream."

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The question of Iran's intentions

The question what Iran is really up to has been passionately debated for quite some time and there is still much resistance against the conclusion that Iran's nuclear program has clear military purposes. Most people who debate this question have of course no access to classified information, and even most pundits who write about the subject ultimately form their opinions based on "common sense" - and what passes as "common sense" inevitably depends heavily on political views. There is also the very fundamental question of how well Western commentators really understand the Middle East, because even knowledgeable analysts may be tempted to look for developments that fit their broader world view. Arguably, there are two main tendencies to look at the world: one is to look for differences in foreign lands, the other is to look for similarities.

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'Boycott Israel' bigotry

It may seem quite unusual that union members would want to boycott their colleagues in another country, but some members of Britain's largest academic trade union, the University and College Union (UCU), are apparently resolved to make it something of a venerable tradition to call for a boycott of their colleagues in Israel at their annual conference. As The Jerusalem Post reported last week, the UCU once again presented and passed a motion that urges union members "to consider the moral and political implications of educational links with Israeli institutions, and to discuss the occupation with individuals and institutions concerned, including Israeli colleagues with whom they are collaborating." Since it is "Israeli colleagues" who will have to prove to their British counterparts that they are "morally kosher", presumably British academics will be equally suspicious about Israeli Jewish academics and Israeli Arab academics - perhaps the whole exercise is about something like "non-discriminatory discrimination"?

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Keeping the oldest hatred young

Anti-Semitism may be "the oldest hatred", but there is absolutely nothing old-fashioned about the way it is 'marketed' to appeal to the youngsters of today. The Hamas-version, or rather perversion, of "Sesame Street"  - a children's program entitled "Tomorrow's Pioneers" - made international headlines last year and even "earned" a lengthy Wikipedia entry when a Mickey Mouse look-alike named Farfour glorified "resistance", "jihad", and the killing of Jews. It was probably the unexpected international outcry that got Farfour "martyred" after just two months on the screen, but in the show he is beaten to death by a cruel and greedy Israeli official who wanted to "steal" Tel Aviv from the hapless Hamas mouse.

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Rewriting history for the "nakba"

"I wish Israel the very best on its 60th . . . And to be fair to the Palestinians, I wish them a very happy Nakba day." This sarcastic comment (#1356747) by a reader of the Guardian's "Comment is Free" site was clearly meant to mock the all-out media effort to provide an "even-handed" coverage of Israel's 60th anniversary celebrations by adopting the "nakba" narrative that postulates that the establishment of Israel was inevitably a "catastrophe" for the Palestinians.

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