(Image: a Jewish settler in Hebron throws wine on a Palestinian woman) The election of Benjamin Netanyahu to his fourth term as prime minister of Israel has solidified what many have already known about the state of Israel: it is a racist, colonial state that cannot be ...read more
Benjamin Netanyahu will speak before a joint session of Congress next week after being invited by House Speaker John Boehner. Netanyahu will use the occasion to bang the drums for a confrontation with Iran over its nuclear program and shame the Obama administration for ...read more
The yet-to-go-through-puberty editor at Breitbart and generally annoying douchebag Ben Shapiro is making quite the name for himself working as an unpaid spokeschild of the Israeli government, and CNN is doing its best to help him. After absurdly criticizing CNN (on CNN) for ...read more
On Monday's CNN Tonight hosted by Alisyn Camerota, Ben Shapiro of Breitbart"News" launched an outrageous attack on the network's coverage of the the latest flare up in the Israel-Hamas conflict. As wayward as the critique was, there was something weirdly admirable about the ...read more
Liberals, including myself and Daily Banter editor Michael Luciano, were taken slightly aback last month by a temporary moment of clarity in which Glenn Beck admitted he was wrong about the Iraq war. Don't worry, though. Whatever produced that fleeting epiphany has since ...read more
Jon Snow of Channel 4 News in Britain recently returned from Gaza, which remains under siege by the Israel Defense Forces. In this latest operation, more than 1,000 Palestinians have been killed, including at least 166 children. And those numbers are increasing by the hour. ...read more
On Thursday night, the U.S. Senate passed a resolution by unanimous consent supporting Israel around the same time the Israel Defense Forces launched a major ground offensive into Gaza. The latest flare up in violence has killed 274 Palestinians and one Israeli so far, but it's ...read more
One of these days someone will learn that unless you're a universally beloved figure, like a nun who saved a bus load of drowning orphaned harp seals or maybe Bryan Cranston, it's probably best to stay the hell away from volunteering to do a Twitter Q&A. Israeli Ambassador to ...read more
Pointing out the obvious won't get you far in American politics. If you say that economic inequality in a country with the greatest wealth divide in human history is the 'defining challenge of our times' you get labeled a socialist and accused of instigating class warfare. If ...read more
Weighing in on the Israeli-Palestinian crisis is a sure fire way to alienate lots of your politically minded friends. Like abortion, it's an issue that demands loyalty to one side without concession. If you don't have a particularly strong opinion about both issues either way, ...read more
Breitbart News editor Ben Shapiro got some mild pushback from Fox News' Megyn Kelly when he called the Obama White House a "borderline Jew-hating administration" for urging Israel to show restraint in responding to Hamas rocket attacks, but as criticism of Israel goes, Obama's ...read more
A favorite pastime of American politicians of both parties is grandstanding on behalf of Israel to appease their pro-Israel benefactors. Republican pols, however, have an added incentive to support the Jewish state because a good chunk of their voting base is composed of ...read more
There has been a great deal of political grandstanding in America over the Russian invasion of Crimea - the Obama administration and virtually every visible politician has come out against the blatant act of aggression by Putin. There is an argument to be made that America isn't ...read more
Max Blumenthal goes for the jugular on the recently deceased former Israeli prime minister, Ariel Sharon: A central player in Israeli affairs since the state’s inception, Ariel Sharon molded history according to his own stark vision. He won consent for his plans through ...read more
A United Nations human rights body accused the Israeli military of mistreating Palestinian children. The report stated children were tortured in custody and used as human shields during military conflicts. From Reuters: Palestinian children in the Gaza and the West Bank, ...read more
Last Friday, the Guardian's Glenn Greenwald took on Bill Maher over the supposedly 'unique' danger of Islam on Maher's show 'Real Time' on HBO. Maher has long contended that Islam is an inherently violent religion that poses a greater threat than all other religions. ...read more
Despite the United States and Israel's insistence that Palestinians are not entitled to their own country, the internet giant has decided that it is time to officially recognize Palestine as a legitimate entity. From the Palestinian News Network: The International web search ...read more
Hamas leader Khaled Mashaal, speaking with journalists in 2009. (Photo credit: Trango) By Paul R. Pillar: What is one of the first things Hamas does when it is fresh off standing up against an Israeli assault and widely perceived to have gained ground politically at the ...read more
The Daily Banter Headline Grab. From Reuters: The 193-nation U.N. General Assembly on Thursday overwhelmingly approved the de facto recognition of the sovereign state of Palestine after Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas called on the world body to issue its long overdue ...read more
This could turn out to be an incredibly important vote that legitimizes Palestine as an official state. The vote is an explicit endorsement from the international community for the establishment of a Palestinian state in the West Bank, Gaza Strip and east Jerusalem, and regaining ...read more
The Daily Banter Headline Grab. From AP: JERUSALEM (AP) — Israeli authorities arrested an Arab Israeli on Thursday on accusations he planted a bomb on a bus in Tel Aviv that wounded 27 people and threatened to sabotage efforts to broker a cease-fire to end the fighting in ...read more
The Daily Banter Headline Grab. From TPM: Hamas political leader Khaled Meshaal on Wednesday praised Egypt for its role in brokering a cease-fire with Israel and thanked Iran for supplying his organization's militants with arms during the eight-day conflict. Meshaal asserted ...read more
By Lawrence Davidson: On Aug. 1, I posted a piece entitled History on a Billboard, reporting on the placement, in the northern suburbs of New York City, of informational billboards with maps of Palestine showing the steady growth of Israeli confiscated territory and the ...read more
By Paul R. Pillar: What Mitt Romney said about the Middle East at that $50,000-a-plate fundraiser at the home of a fellow private-equity tycoon is not what is getting the most attention and what Democrats are most energetically spotlighting. That distinction, of course, goes ...read more
Andrew Sullivan dismantles Newt Gingrich's incredibly offensive and racist remarks that Palestinians are an 'invented' people: It's worth noting that one of the most authoritative geneticists in studying the people of the Mediterranean, Antonio Arnaiz-Villena, has found no ...read more
Image via Wikipedia More on this tomorrow, but my first reaction to Obama's speech from the White House on America's policy towards the Middle East was one of cautious optimism. Ignoring the usual pledges to support democracy in the region (countered by the United States lengthy ...read more
By Chalan Moon DAM (Arabic: دام; Hebrew: דם) is the first Palestinian hip hop group. Based out of Israel, their music is highly political, voicing their opinions on the Israeli/Palestinian Conflict and the oppression of the Palestinian people. The name is both an Arabic ...read more