Members of the pro-Israel left have churned out an impressive number of books and journals addressing traditionally taboo topics on the left, with critiques of subjects ranging from political Islam to “respectable,” liberal anti-Semitism. This curious development is not an expression of philo-Semitism; rather, it grounds its critique of social structures in the critical theory writings of the philosophers Theodor W. Adorno and Max Horkheimer, as well as a flexible Marxist philosophy and Freudian psychoanalysis.

Haaretz: Letter from Berlin: The anti-anti-Zionists

(via planethop)

Seumas Milne continues to project his romantic dreams of a glorious resistance breaking the back of the imperialists in his Guardian article today and argues for a “surge” in the resistance movement. He concludes with:

The history of anti-colonial and anti-occupation resistance campaigns shows that success has almost always depended on broad-based national movements. But the embryonic resistance front has got to be a positive development if it holds together. Not only could the creation of an alliance with a common programme help open up cooperation with Shia anti-occupation forces now, but if there is going to be a stable post-occupation settlement in Iraq, that will have to include all those with genuine support on the ground. Sooner or later, the Americans are going to have to negotiate with these groups.

What Milne fails to demonstrate is why his military option is better than the peaceful option of the same Iraqi groups working together in a UN-supported government. Which is strange, given he is speaking from an allegedly “anti-war” position, or would be if we didn’t already know that the “anti-war” movement has been hijacked by a bunch of anti-Western warmongers.

Protests against the jailing of Iranian trade union leader Mansour Osanloo will be held today at Iranian embassies in Algeria, Australia, Austria, Belarus, Belgium, Canada, Egypt, France, Germany, Great Britain, Iran, Indonesia, Finland, Japan, Jordan, Malaysia, Morocco, Nepal, Netherlands, Norway, Pakistan, Palestine, Panama, Romania, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, Thailand, Tunisia, Trinidad, the USA and Yemen.

Just yesterday the regime shut down the daily newspaper Shargh for having published an interview with the Canadian poet Saghi Ghahraman, who made the mistake of being lesbian. Last month, the regime shuttered the Ham Mihan newspaper and also closed down the Iranian Labour News Agency.

Curiously, today is also “Journalist’s Day” in Iran, where reporter Soheil Assefi just joined ten other journalists and “cyber dissidents” behind bars in what Reporters Without Borders calls “the Middle East’s biggest prison for the press.”

How fortunate we all are that Yvonne is still at large.