Opinion and Analysis
Week ending 13 Feb

1.         Palestinian Authority human rights violations ignored by the media and the West
Khaled Abu Toameh, Gatestone Institute, 11 February 2013

Evidently, most Western governments, journalists and human rights organizations have chosen to endorse the Palestinian Authority’s stance that the only evil-doers are the Israelis. That is precisely why the ICHR report on the anarchy, lawlessness and human rights violations by the PA and Hamas will be completely ignored in the West. 

2.         The rising price of the status quo
Naomi Chazan, The Times of Israel, 10 February 2014

As the second decade of the 21st century progresses, Israel is becoming increasingly isolated from the western support base which safeguarded it in the past. The cost of maintaining the status quo is skyrocketing. This trend should provide the impetus for Israel’s current leadership to do what it (and its predecessors) has avoided for far too long: initiate a historic compromise with the Palestinian people.

3.         The Boycott Mirage
Prof Efraim Inbar, BESA, 9 February 2014

It is unlikely that a collapse in Israeli-Palestinian peace talks will lead to a comprehensive international boycott of Israel. This is a false threat advanced to pressure Israel. In truth, Israel enjoys robust bilateral trade relations with many countries around the world, relations that are not about to dissolve or go into a freeze because of an impasse in diplomatic negotiations

4.         The fabricated Palestinian history
Nadav Shragai, Israel Hayom, 7 February 2014

Chief Palestinian negotiator Saeb Erekat, who this past week claimed Palestinian lineage to the Canaanites, is not the first Palestinian to reinvent history. A study of history shows that the roots of present-day Palestinians lie far from here.

5.         Excluding Judaism from the Israeli discourse is not just academic
Daniel Statman, Jerusalem Post, 6 February 2014

Jewish tradition has been held captive in the hands of chauvinists, nationalists and other extremists.

6.         Assad’s low-tech WMD: Starvation
Anne Appelbaum, Washington Post, 5 February 2014

Starvation, unlike chemical weaponry, is useful in this war because it does not rise to the highest levels of international concern.

7.         Holocaust inversion
Lesley Klaff, Fathom, 3 February 2014

In a UK parliamentary debate on Gaza on 5 February, Labour MP Yasmin Qureshi compared the situation of the Palestinians in Gaza to that of Jews during the Holocaust. ‘Many millions perished. It is quite strange that some of the people who are running the state of Israel seem to be quite complacent and happy to allow the same to happen in Gaza.’ (Qureshi has since apologised.) Here Lesley Klaff offers a sharp critique of the phenomenon of ‘Holocaust Inversion’  – an inversion of reality in which Israelis are cast as the ‘new’ Nazis, and an inversion of morality in which the Holocaust is presented as a moral lesson for, or even a moral indictment of, Israelis.

 8.         Julie Bishop’s stance on the legality of Israeli settlements might be right
Daniel Mandel, Canberra Times, 3 February 2014

The West Bank, illegally seized by Jordan in 1948, captured by Israel following Jordanian attack in 1967, is unallocated territory under international law. Only Israeli annexation or an Arab/Israeli agreement could alter its status – neither of which have occurred. In short, Article 49 has no bearing on the situation, as it deals solely with sovereign territories.

9.         Open letter to John Kerry
Paula Stern, PaulaSays.com, 2 February 2014

Greater men than you have tried to make, to force, peace on the Middle East. I promise you, you will fail too. You will fail because you are not addressing the root cause of the problem. You, like so many before you, take the easy way out. Blame Israel. It is so easy to do, and so stupid.