Editorial

By Ludwig Watzal

The call for early elections brought Benyamin Netanyahu a Pyrrhic victory. The Israeli voters made it clear that his dreams are not up to the sky. Netanyahu and his right-wing partner Avigdor Lieberman scored a heavy defeat.  They lost 25 percent of their seats in the Knesset; they downsized from 41 to 31 seats. Both camps, the right-wingers and the so-called Zionist left, are in a dead heat. 

Read more: No War against Iran: The Israeli and American elections

By Ludwig Watzal

Neoconservatives, right-wing pro-Zionist defenders of Israel’s and of the US-Empire’s crimes against humanity do everything to immunize Israel’s occupation of Palestinian land, its violations of human rights and its distain for international law against criticism by labeling it “anti-Semitism”. Concerning Jewish critics, it’s called “Jewish self-Hatred”. Concerning Israel’s occupation policy towards the Palestinian people, both characterizations are misnomers. The German-Jewish polemicist Henryk M. Broder is a “specialist” in inciting smear campaigns against people who do not share his views on the Israeli occupation. For the foreign audiences, some traits of Broder could explain his odd character.

Read more: Anti-Semitism 'ridiculed' in Germany

By Bob Boldt

A Review of Zero Dark Thirty

Sometimes I think many of our most honored (not necessarily our best) filmmakers are under the direct employ of The Oceana Ministry of Truth. I have pointed out several examples of this in the past, most notably Ridley Scott’s Black Hawk Down (War as a male bonding experience), Hurt Locker (American adrenalin is the only valid kind), even Avatar (having people hating the virtual military/industrial complex is so much safer than having them hating the real one). Now we have Zero Dark Thirty by Kathryn (Hurt Locker) Bigelow. I had read so much pro and con about the film, I was curious to see if it is as outrageously inaccurate as some critics claim.

Read more: Emmanuel Goldstein is Dead. Long Live Emmanuel Goldstein!

By Lawrence Davidson

Does Torture Work?

Back in the fall of 2005 I wrote an essay, published in the journal Logos (issue 4.4), entitled “Torture in our Time.” In it I laid out the historical evidence for the conclusion that torture rarely works. This position goes back at least to the Enlightenment when Cesare Beccaria wrote a famous pamphlet, “On Crimes and Punishments” (1764) in which he observed the obvious:

Read more: Does Torture Work? Does It Matter?

By Marjorie Cohn

On January 11, eleven years to the day after George W. Bush sent the first detainees to Guantanamo, the Oscar-nominated film Zero Dark Thirty is making its national debut. Zero Dark Thirty is disturbing for two reasons. First and foremost, it leaves the viewer with the erroneous impression that torture helped the CIA find bin Laden’s hiding place in Pakistan. Secondarily, it ignores both the illegality and immorality of using torture as an interrogation tool.

Read more: Zero Dark Thirty: Torturing the Facts