“Israel has always sought a peace settlement.” Really?

Harry Shannon I keep hearing people saying that Israel has always been ready to reach a peace settlement with Palestinians, but there’s no “Partner for Peace.” This argument is best exemplified by former Israeli Foreign Minister Abba Eban’s sly and often-repeated saying that the Palestinians “never miss an opportunity to miss an oppor…

Responsibility for the war is not one-sided

Harry Shannon An Opinion article I wrote, published in the Hamilton Spectator. On October 7, I nearly lost my brother and sister. My brother lives with his wife on Kibbutz Saad, near the Gaza border. That weekend, my sister was visiting from Jerusalem. Saad is right in the middle of some 20 or so villages and kibbutzim which were attacked…

BDS is not antisemitic

There was an OpEd in the Hamilton Spectator recently on BDS (the Boycott, Divestment, and Sanctions movement against Israel). There’s been a campaign attacking Sara Jama, an MPP (member of the Ontario legislature) who is black and wheelchair-bound. She’s a supporter of BDS (the Boycott, Divestment, and Sanctions movement against Israel), hence…

Simplistic propaganda

Harry Shannon My latest letter in the Hamilton Spectator. It's pretty much self-explanatory, though see below for some background as well as the paragraph that the newspaper edited out. Simplistic propaganda The letter writer (Death toll is ‘window dressing,’ February 27) claims that the sole cause of violence on the West Bank is Pale…

My letter in the Hamilton Spectator, May 14

Background: This letter responded to one a few days earlier in the Hamilton Spectator.  That letter in turn was commenting on the story in the paper about Rabbi David Mivasair, who went to the West Bank to help repair a road used by Palestinian villagers to access health care, etc.  He was arrested by Israeli forces. RE: RABBI’S VIEWS CLASH…