I do recall, lo, that here among us there were people who hoped that Canada would arrest George Bush or something. Well, not only did they not do that, but they've just prohibited another George from speaking in Toronto: maverick British MP George Galloway.

More specifically, Alykhan Velshi, an aide to the execrable minister Jason Kenney, quoth trollishly:

The recent outcome of the Israeli election following the Gaza war reflects an Israeli population increasingly frustrated with the inability of its leaders to make Israel into a "normal" state on the terms that Israelis felt were "promised" to them---in a metaphysical sort of way---by their early leaders. I recently read this op-ed piece in Ha'aretz which really puts the frustration into stark terms:

On the eve of an election in Israel where Kahane's ideological heirs have become legitimized, it doesn't appear that alternative political approaches to the one that brought Cast Lead to Gaza are really on the table. Nevertheless, there are occasional valiant and well-intentioned attempts in the Israeli press to determine a different course for the future. But some if not most of these are frustratingly misguided. For example, this Ha'aretz opinion article by Yehezkel Dror. Quoth the article:

TomDispatch is lucky enough to be able to print two long excerpts from the graphic novel, "Waltz with Bashir," from the movie of the same name. Part I is available now and Part II will be available next Saturday (I'll post that as well). Please read it and try to see the movie if you can.

Here's the trailer:  Read more…

It has come lately to my attention that the phrase "Israel has a right to exist" has come into use on this blog. Now, of course, we can take this two ways. One is that the people who live in the geographic area officially called Israel by various interested parties have a right to exist, live, whatever (even, astonishingly, if they don't accord this right to their neighbours/expellees). This is not controversial.

"I am a black South African, and if I were to change the names, a description of what is happening in the Gaza Strip and the West Bank could describe events in South Africa."
~Archbishop Desmond Tutu

Global Exchange has tons of info on what we can do, and a list of US Companies that operate there.

Money talks -- loudly. If we can't affect our government funding them, we can stop our own funding of it.

Steven D speaks for me. We don't do much Israel/Palestine posting here, not for lack of interest so much as the need to write about things happening right here and not enough time to cover all of it. Let this story be an example to all those who believe that walling up America will help anything or anyone other than the wall-builders.

I found the story of the "breakout" particularly tragic and heartbreaking. Women and children, desperate for food and water...a real "Wailing Wall," no? How they "deserved" this "collective punishment" is beyond the comprehension of decent people. I imagine good people in Israel are as ashamed of their government today as I have been of mine. But I will only reserve contempt and anger for American politicians too cowardly to stand up to the Likudnik lobby. Israel is our friend, and funding this kind of oppression to the tune of billions annually is not the act of a friend. There is no freedom for anyone, not on any side of any Ghetto wall.

Just got in from the Mesopotamian Archaeology section of this year's American Schools for Oriental Research (ASOR) conference. All the news isn't bad, I'm happy to report, when it comes to the area of study that has the most political significance: Iraqi archeology. I also got some notes on a panel discussing the state of Palestinian archaeology, which is actually more interesting than it may sound.