Links from my del.icio.us account for January 25th:
- Top Anglican priest raps BBC: Gaza appeal is not ‘Hamas asking for arms’ – Yet again confirming (and I am not religious at all) the Church of England is pretty much the pinnacle of human spiritual achievement. More tea, vicar!
- Israel minister warns Hamas PM over Shalit
(AFP) – Very interesting how the Israelis put Shalit back on the table immediately after the end of Cast Lead. Do they need a political asset for the upcoming elections since they've ended up with the strategic status quo in Gaza? - LRB · Henry Siegman: Israel’s Lies – Once again, LRB provides the definitive commentary on Gaza from the highbrow English mags.
- LRB · Paul Myerscough: Diary – A very nice article on poker. That's the LRB for you: great on the Middle East, great on poker. What else could you possibly want?
- TPMCafe | Talking Points Memo | What’s Love Got To Do With It (pt.1) – I have great respect for Josh Marshall of TalkingPointsMemo.com as a blogger, publisher and journalist. But his comment here that being in favor of suspending US military aid to Israel is tantamount to support the genocide of Israelis is not only ridiculous but deeply insulting. He owes an apology, and perhaps a rethink of his extremely tribalist (a word he likes to use often) view of the conflict as a Jewish-American. (The piece linked here is by Bernard Avishai, btw, read down the comments for Josh's incredible statement.)
- People: Mark Regev mauled on Channel 4 News again | News | The First Post – Israeli govt spokesman gets his comeuppance from the real TV journos in UK.
re: shalit, it’s more the opposite. The Israeli public perceives the Gaza campaign as a clear-cut “victory”, debateable as this may seem. This allows the government room for a prisoner exchange, which before the carnage would have been politically impossible. Whether this will actually happen remains to been seen.