Ops & Blogs | The Times of Israel » Marc Goldberg

Verbal gymnastics

Marc Goldberg — Wed, 12 Jun 2013 10:16:29 +0000

It’s not easy to be Prime Minister of Israel at the best of times (when were they?) but when the country accidentally says something positive about moving forward with peace talks that the governing party’s faithful don’t want to see, the only way to proceed is through the contortionist’s art of verbal gymnastics. Now don’t [...]

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No Peace, No War

Marc Goldberg — Sat, 08 Jun 2013 00:25:31 +0000

Sometimes it takes someone blurting out an obvious truth to really make you sit back and take stock of the world around you. It was when I was reading through the Times of Israel’s interview with the Deputy Defence Minister and Likud Member of Knesset, Danny Danon that the reality that had been percolating in my mind [...]

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Apartheid Pool Not Apartheid State

Marc Goldberg — Sun, 02 Jun 2013 19:28:25 +0000

I only found out earlier today that 20 children with cancer were refused entry to a swimming pool for a day of fun when the managers of the pool realised that the children were Bedouin. I’m going to say that again because the fact that it happened is so utterly disgusting and unbelievable that you [...]

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The Russians are Coming

Marc Goldberg — Sat, 01 Jun 2013 14:51:08 +0000

On May 13th 1967 the USSR provided doctored satellite imagery showing a mobilisation of Israeli forces on the Syrian border. No one is quite sure why it was that they decided to do this but the end result was that a war that looked like it might happen on May 12th actually did happen on [...]

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Against Nathan Blanc

Marc Goldberg — Sun, 26 May 2013 21:17:36 +0000

I wouldn’t have thought it was necessary to write an article explaining why refusing to serve in the IDF isn’t commendable but I’ve just read Noah Efron’s article arguing that we should respect the stand taken by 19 year old Nathan Blanc who has consistently refused to serve in the army, despite having served roughly [...]

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Social (media) Control

Marc Goldberg — Thu, 23 May 2013 08:08:24 +0000

Living in Israel, fear comes, quite literally, with the territory. I was afraid when sitting eating hummus in a restaurant when I heard the sirens go off, followed by a rather loud explosion moments later. I was afraid when I was wearing green a couple of days later and waiting to be sent into Gaza. But this [...]

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The Syria Fact Sheet

Marc Goldberg — Wed, 22 May 2013 07:43:31 +0000

It occurred to me that although I have read a lot of the mountains of articles being written about the conflict in Syria I had no idea about some of the fundamentals of the conflict. For example I didn’t have a clue as to where the lines were between the Free Syrian Army (FSA) and [...]

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Saving Syria For Freedom

Marc Goldberg — Sat, 18 May 2013 00:11:38 +0000

The West did a really good job of watching the Spanish Civil War from the sidelines while making absolutely sure that those fighting for freedom couldn’t get their hands on any weapons. In Hungary in 1956 the people rose up and threw off the shackles of communist dictatorial rule and embraced freedom and from their [...]

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Dear Mr Lapid,

Marc Goldberg — Sun, 12 May 2013 17:18:23 +0000

I’m hoping you can answer a couple of finance related questions that I’ve had now for quite a while. I often go into a shop, and as you can see from the receipts, I am owed a few agarot in change. I never receive that change. My question is, where does it go? According to [...]

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Prof Hawking, BDS and a Helluva Shame

Marc Goldberg — Wed, 08 May 2013 20:39:29 +0000

I didn’t know Stephen Hawking was coming until I heard that he wasn’t. As soon as I heard that he wasn’t I was upset about it. To pretend otherwise is ludicrous and the more people shout about how little they care the more clear it becomes that the opposite is true. Economically there is no [...]

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The Church of Scotland and Hasbara

Marc Goldberg — Sat, 04 May 2013 10:00:22 +0000

Yesterday in the Times of Israel I read about a paper written by the Church of Scotland entitled The Inheritance of Abraham. This paper rejected the idea that “scripture offers any peoples a privileged claim for possession of a particular territory”. In other words, just cos you’re Jewish doesn’t mean that the Holy Land is yours. [...]

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President Obama, From Iraq to Syria

Marc Goldberg — Fri, 26 Apr 2013 20:14:22 +0000

It was weapons of mass destruction that got the United States (and others) bogged down in the Middle East and it seems that it will be weapons of mass destruction that suck the US military back in. The use of sarin gas by forces loyal to President Assad is quite likely to be the last [...]

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Strike capability just got real

Marc Goldberg — Sat, 20 Apr 2013 11:29:07 +0000

The importance of the new arms deal between Israel and the United States cannot be overstated. The arrival of an as yet undisclosed number of KC-135 aerial refuelling aircraft will give the Israeli Air Force (IAF) the range to attack any target in Iran that it deems necessary in order to suppress the Iranian nuclear program. This [...]

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From London to Iran: A Laptop’s Odyssey

Marc Goldberg — Thu, 11 Apr 2013 20:21:44 +0000

It seems that people should be careful what they steal, or what they buy. While checking my twitter feed something caught my eye, it was this re-tweet from good old Amir Mizroch: BRILLIANT RT @ali_gharib: This guy’s laptop was stolen from his flat in London. Now he watches its new owners in Iran laptopiniran.tumblr.com — [...]

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Israeli Jedi or Palestinian Sith?

Marc Goldberg — Wed, 10 Apr 2013 13:48:50 +0000

I’ve been thinking about Star Wars and damn I wannabe a Jedi! I think that having a lightsabre and the ability to deflect lasers (or bullets) right back at an enemy would be the coolest part, then again there’s also the mind control aspect, fantasies about how that power could best be used go on [...]

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