Intermission

This blog is now off to put its feet up for a while. I hope everyone enjoys the rest of the summer.

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The bitter fruits of appeasement

As we all know, because President Obama, UK Foreign Secretary Miliband and the serried ranks of the EU keep telling us, it is Israel’s obduracy which is holding up a resolution of the Middle East impasse. If only it dismantled its settlements in the ‘occupied’ territories and agreed to split Jerusalem there would be peace. Well, now those ‘moderate’ Palestinians who Obama, Miliband and the EU would have us believe only want to live peacefully alongside Israel have stated what they actually want. They don’t want half of Jerusalem. They want it all – and they want it ethnically cleansed of Jews altogether, every last Jewish man woman and child: gone, disappeared, airbrushed out of the picture, vanished altogether from Israel’s capital and Judaism’s foundational holy city. And they will continue to use violence to bring this about.  Ha’aretz...

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Truth is told to power in Sheikh Jarrah; but is power listening?

An important postscript to the misreported evictions in Sheikh Jarrah, which I commented on below. On the Guardian’s Comment is Free, Rafael Broch points out another detail that was, ahem, overlooked by all those screaming ‘ethnic cleansing’: the Arabs who were evicted had not paid the rent; those who had paid the rent were not evicted. Makes a bit of a difference, doesn’t it, in addition to all the background detail that was omitted about the Jewish ownership of these properties dating back to the last century. Broch writes:

It's all very well for the Guardian’s Middle East editor, Ian Black, to describe the evictions as ‘the ugly face of ethnic cleansing’ or for Cif contributor Matt Kennard to claim that they represent ‘a

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More of the same old, same old

Any hopes that Fatah – which compared with Hamas is the supposedly ‘moderate’ Palestinian faction – has actually moderated its own position were dashed this week with its general assembly meeting in Bethlehem, which descended into chaotic scenes and reported beatings yesterday. As Khaled abu Toameh wrote on the eve of the assembly, power was being concentrated in old-guard Arafat clones; Mahmoud Abbas’s likely successor, Mohammed Ghnaim, is a hard-liner who insists that the ‘armed struggle’ against Israel is the only way to ‘liberate Palestine’; and there were even

calls by top representatives for a ‘strategic alliance’ with Iran's dictatorial and fundamental regime.

Since President Obama has made it clear that he is applying the thumbscrews to Israel while he is applying no such pressure to the Palestinians and is on his knees in supplication to Iran, can anyone be surprised that Fatah is poised to fall in behind the strongest beast in the jungle as it readies itself for the kill?

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The British decide that Israeli law is 'unacceptable'

Reaction to the evictions of Arab families from where they were living in the Sheikh Jarrah district of east Jerusalem has universally given the impression that the Israelis threw out Palestinian families from their homes in order to colonise a traditionally Arab area for further ‘illegal’ Jewish ‘settlement’ (see for example reports by the BBC and the Times).

The response by the British government was particularly aggressive. The British consulate said:

We are appalled by the evictions in East Jerusalem. Israel’s claim that the imposition of extremist Jewish settlers into this ancient Arab neighbourhood is a matter for the courts or the municipality is unacceptable. Their actions are incompatible with Israel’s desire for peace. We urge Israel not to allow extremists to set the agenda.

The US and the UN also condemned the evictions:

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Britain rediscovers the delights of pre-modern bacchanalia

The Sunday Times reports:

A number of West End theatres are now employing bouncers to cope with intoxicated patrons who fight, fondle one another and even urinate in the auditorium... One production was interrupted after a woman was caught ‘pleasuring’ her partner in the stalls. And the cast of Stephen Sondheim’s A Little Night Music were stunned to see an audience member walk over to the side of the stage and relieve himself. Critics believe the vulgar antics have been fuelled by falling ticket prices designed to attract younger audiences and the ease with which theatregoers can take alcohol into the auditorium.

Great Britain: first into the Enlightenment, and now first out.

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