Yitzhak Laor
Yitzhak Laor is a distinguished Israeli poet, novelist and veteran political activist. A longtime editor and writer for the daily newspaper Haaretz, he now also edits an independent journal of literature and political thought, Mita'am.Blog
"Let two become one"—Slavoj Zizek argues for a one-state solution for Israel and Palestine
Slavoj Žižek argues in the New Statesman for a binational state in Israel & Palestine - the "simplest and most obvious solution" to the conflict.
Highlighting some disturbing instances of racism (and sexism) in Israeli society (such as the 2007 poll that showed that over half of Israeli Jews believe intermarriage is akin to "national treason"), Žižek makes the key point that:
What makes these campaigns so depressing is that they are flourishing at a time of relative calm, at least in the West Bank. Any party interested in peace should welcome the socialising of Palestinian and Jewish youth.
The Palestine Papers—comment and historical context
Al Jazeera and the Guardian and Al Quds (Arabic) newspapers yesterday released over 1600 confidential documents laying open the last decade of Israeli-Palestinian peace negotiations. The papers go well beyond refuting the threadbare myth that the Israelis have had no 'partner for peace', and show rather how weak and incompetent officials betrayed Palestinians by offering to surrender "virtually everything except their salaries", as Tariq Ali puts it on the London Review of Books blog. As Ali notes, it is well worth revisiting Edward Said's prophetic 1994 article for the LRB in which he described the Oslo accords as a "Palestinian Versailles" in the light of these revelations.
“Europe's pathetic clown” — Yitzhak Laor on Berlusconi's anti-semitism
Yitzhak Laor's latest article for Ha'aretz takes aim at Berlusconi's anti-semitism and Italy's racism, and argues that Israel should look to Spain and Germany for a model of how to embrace heterogeneity.
Once again, Europe's pathetic clown, Silvio Berlusconi, has delivered a tasteless joke, proving how little dignity is left in Italian politics. This time, the joke involved anti-Semitic motifs and made light of Holocaust victims.
But as far as Israel's government is concerned, Berlusconi can rest easy with his orgies and his demagogic speeches. And he can always be counted on to supply the latter, as he did on Europe's Holocaust Day in 2009, when he stated: "Anti-Semitic laws [instituted under Mussolini] are still perceived as a deep wound inflicted not only on the Jewish community, but on Italy's entire society, which suddenly lost part of its history" (La Stampa, January 29, 2009 ).
Visit Ha'aretz to read the article in full.
Books
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The Myths of Liberal Zionism
One of Israel's most independent writers demystifies the "peace camp" liberals.