• The entitled people

    Souciant, June 8, 2011 Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu stood before a special joint session of the United States Congress. A foreign leader, he looked at home as he thumbed his nose at US President Barack Obama. Just days before, Obama had reaffirmed his administration’s commitment to two states—one for the Palestinians, the other for …

  • Anti-Zionism is not anti-Semitism

    Mondoweiss, May 24, 2011 I’m fed up with criticism of Israel being shouted down as anti-Semitic. Criticism of Israel is not anti-Semitic. Here’s one simple reason why: a majority of the Jewish people lives in the Diaspora. Just because this place, this strip of land, claims to represent us all doesn’t mean it does. And …

  • Imagining Israel’s future

    Souciant, May 18, 2011 In May of 2011, the Palestinians made a brave attempt to start the Third Intifada. On the northern borders, the grandsons and granddaughters of those who had been dispossessed during the nakba attempted to exercise their United Nations-acknowledged right of return. These were the grandsons of those who had been driven …

  • Bride of the Sea

    Souciant, April 6, 2011 Sometimes I’m not sure what to call her. Is it Yafo? Or Jaffa? Then there is the old Arabic nickname, Urs al-Bahr, Bride of the Sea. Each word has its history. And each has its fate. If things had gone according to plan—the UN’s 1947 Partition Plan that is—Jaffa would have …