Israel Lobby Watch

Israel recruited Dutch UN officers for espionage



Between 1956 and 2003, Israel has recruited Dutch UN officers to spy in Syria, Jordan and Lebanon. This happened during the peaks of the Dutch-Israeli friendship. In its recruitment of Dutch officers for intelligence gathering, Israel regularly used blackmail. Arthur ten Cate, a researcher affiliated with the Dutch Institute for Military History in The Hague, recently published a book, in which he named two Israeli crimps and Dutch officers who were involved in intelligence gathering for Israel. EI’s Arjan El Fassed scanned the publication. 

Hijacking the Palestinian narrative: Israel's friends in Congress



Israel’s hard-line supporters in the US Congress have fired the latest volley in their sustained campaign against the rights of Palestinian refugees and against the United Nations Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA) that provides for their basic needs. They have introduced a resolution accusing the UN agency that looks after refugees, and are trying to rewrite the history of the 1948 expulsion of the Palestinian people from its homeland. EI’s Ali Abunimah looks at the latest moves by pro-Israel organizations and their allies in the US Congress. 

EU poll: "Israel poses biggest threat to world peace"



Researchers have found that nearly 60 percent of European citizens believe Israel poses the biggest threat to world peace. Iran is considered the second biggest threat, North Korea the third and the United States the fourth. The European Commission survey asked the public in all 15 member states to look at a list of countries and say which they considered potential threats to peace. Israel was selected by a majority in almost all the EU member states. EI’s Arjan El Fassed takes a closer look. 

British Jews and Israel

The Board of Deputies was founded in 1760, and claims to be the national representative body of the British Jewish community. As such, it exists to defend the rights and interests of that community in the United Kingdom. Unfortunately, under the direction of its chief executive, Neville Nagler, those aims have been suborned to an agenda whereby it has become a political pressure group for the Israeli government, whose policies are anathema to a large section of British Jewry. Michael Halpern wrote this letter in the Daily Telegraph. 

Discrimination Down Under? Sydney gives Ashrawi the cold shoulder

“Dr. Hanan Mikhail Ashrawi is a woman, a professor of English, an international human rights activist, and a politician. A year ago she was chosen, unanimously, to receive the 2003 Sydney Peace Prize. The Premier, Bob Carr, will present Ashrawi with her award at State Parliament in 12 days. The first four recipients of the annual prize were honoured at functions in the Great Hall of Sydney University. However, for Ashrawi, the Great Hall is out of bounds.” Allan Ramsey of the Sydney Morning Herald asks why. 

Commission of Inquiry reveals US-Israeli cover-up of U.S.S. Liberty attack



A new report released on Capitol Hill today by former officials from the highest level of the American military and government reveals that Israel “committed acts of murder against American serviceman and an act of war against the United States” when it deliberately attacked the American Navy Ship USS Liberty in 1967, killing 34 and wounding 172 American crewmembers. Israel had alleged that the two-hour attack with napalm, missiles, and torpedoes was a mistake. After remaining silent for more than three decades, Captain Ward Boston, the Chief Attorney in the Navy’s original 1967 Court of Inquiry into the case, describes in a sworn affidavit how he and many others were ordered to never speak about the attack on the USS Liberty. 

The glove does fit: A reply to Alan Dershowitz

Alan Dershowitz either cannot or refuses to understand why there is a controversy surrounding The Case for Israel. Perhaps Norman Finkelstein can enlighten him. Quite simply, the book he claims to have written is a hoax: (1) substantial swatches are lifted from another notorious hoax on the Israel-Palestine conflict, (2) it is replete with egregious falsifications, and (3) the few scholarly sources actually cited are mangled beyond recognition. 

Norman Finkelstein calls professor Alan Dershowitz's new book on Israel a "hoax"

On MSNBC’s Scarborough Country on Sept. 8 2003, renowned appellate lawyer, Harvard Law professor and author Alan Dershowitz says: “I will give $10,000 to the PLO…if you can find a historical fact in my book that you can prove to be false.” The book Dershowitz refers to is his latest work The Case For Israel. Professor Norman Finkelstein takes him on by charging that Dershowitz makes numerous factual errors in his book. 

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