False Dichotomies

‘Goebbels Corner’ is the new name for a regular feature on Melanie Phillips’ website. Intended to show the propaganda disseminated by anti-Semites worldwide, it increasingly seems to be an opportunity for the author to try her hand at wilfully misrepresenting peoples’ positions. This time it’s Noam Chomsky. She states that he believes Hamas to be superior to Israel and the United States before quoting a recent interview with him in Lebanon: Continue Reading »

Haaretz reports that an entire family was killed in last weeks targeted killing of Mohammed Dahdouh. I hope Peretz sees how counter-productive the policy of targeted killings is - using the special forces is a much better route to go.

The Jews sans Frontieres folks have done a piece on my critique of Alan Dershowitz’s The Case for Israel. I’ve been misquoted as calling Dershowitz a racist, when in fact I argued that some of his stuff borders on racism. No doubt I will get criticised for having something of mine posted on such a virulently anti-Zionist site, but once something is out in the public sphere I have no problems with what people do with it, as long as they remain true to the material. You can read what he wrote here.

In the Shadow of the Palms is an Australian documentary that follows the life of ordinary Bagdadhis before, during and after the invasion, into the civil war period. The first half could easily be misconstrued as a more sophisticated version of Fahrenheit 9/11, primarily because of the lack of editorial explanation. Anyone with a rudimentary knowledge of Saddam’s Iraq would know that people would be too frightened to give anything other than standard anti-American rhetoric. The only intimations we get of the difficulties of filming in an authoritarian society come when the subtitle informs us that the filmmaker had been interrogated a number of times during the filming process. Continue Reading »

Today I went with Gid the Yid and the SB to see Niall Ferguson speak. I knew beforehand that Mr Ferguson had made quite a name for himself, particularly for his assertion that America needs to start acknowleding that it’s an empire, but none of his works had ever really grabbed me. However, I wanted to see what all the fuss was about. The audience was overflowing, and it was clear that his reputation preceded him. Unfortunately, however, his talk was like something out of a GCSE history lesson - banality after banality. Admittedly my judgement may be influenced by the fact that Gid the Yid was constantly critiquing in my ear - it was like watching a movie with the director’s commentary - but it really was at an extraordinarily dull level for someone of such high renown. He was revelling in the fact that his next project, entitled The War of the World, is simultaneously a book and a television programme for Channel 4. Continue Reading »

Today, the American House of Representatives passed H.R. 4681: “Palestinian Anti-Terrorism Act of 2006”. This bill would make it almost impossible for NGOs working in the Occupied Territories (excluding health programmes) to receive funding, denies visas to members of the Palestinian Authority, bans contacts with Hamas because of its designation as a terrorist organisation and limits the President’s ability to waive the aid bans. Thankfully, it is far from the statute book. It still has to pass the Senate, where a similar but less restrictive bill is currently doing the rounds. Either way, it marks the latest manifestation of one of the most preposterous policies of recent times. Continue Reading »

Melanie Phillips has finally issued a partial retraction regarding the Iranian clothing issue, although she has muddied the waters a little. You can read more here. Juan Cole points out that Amir Taheri, the pro regime-change source of the story, simply needs to provide a URL for the Persian text. If not, it must be bogus. At Jews Sans Frontieresthe debate about the land issue goes on, and now we are dealing with the right of return. Yep, that old chestnut. Kabobfest has a funny picture of Ehud Olmert - worth checking out.

After watching Pulp Fiction and Mulholland Drive in one night last week, I invited the Highbury Gaon to take part in a little comparative discussion. The Higbury Gaon argues that Mulholland Drive is possibly the greatest film he’s seen, principally because it has more ideas in it than any other film. I responded as follows: Continue Reading »

DEPT OF TRANSPORT INITIATIVE - MAY 2006.

Information Release.

There is concern over the current driving standards in
England, so the
Department of Transport have devised a scheme to
identify poor and
dangerous drivers.

This system will allow all road users to recognise the
potentially
hazardous and dangerous ones, or those with limited
driving skills.

From the middle of May 2006 all those drivers who are
found to be a
potential hazard to all other road users will be
issued with a white
flag, bearing a red cross.

This flag clearly indicates their inability to drive
properly.

These flags must be clipped to a door of the car and
be visible to all
other drivers and pedestrians. Those drivers who have
shown particularly
poor driving skills will have to display two flags:

One on each side of the car to indicate an even
greater lack of skill
and limited driving intelligence.

Please circulate this to as many other motorists as
you can, in order
that drivers and pedestrians will be aware of the
meaning of these
flags.

Thank you for your co-operation.

Department of Transport.

Comes from the original Jewish dissident, Spinoza: “In order to preserve in political science the freedom of spirit to which we have been accustomed in mathetmatics, I have been careful not to ridicule human behaviour, neither to deplore nor condemn, but to understand.” Gilles Kepel uses it in The Roots of Radical Islam, a study of Egyptian Islamism.