By Lisa Goldman
The story on page one of Israel’s largest daily formed a graphic that was a conversation stopper: columns of print that looked like a series of vertical piano keyboards with thick, irregularly spaced black keys, and a large headline that read, “Israel’s Censorship Scandal.”
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By Lisa Goldman
An hour into Mahmoud Abbas’s address to the 2,000-odd delegates at the Sixth Fatah Congress in Bethlehem, the Palestinian Authority president showed no sign of wrapping things up. The audience, chain-smoking, chatting and occasionally applauding with dubious enthusiasm, seemed to be channeling elements of a Soviet Congress and a Che Guevara fan club reunion. A smiling woman moved around the auditorium, reaching into a huge plastic bag to hand out kaffiyehs decorated with the colors of the Palestinian flag. They bore a label that read, in Hebrew, “Made in China, imported by the Palestinian Authority.”
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By Lisa Goldman
It was during a midnight repast of shrimp couscous at a gay bar in Tel Aviv that I discovered Israel’s Foreign Ministry does not reimburse diplomatic staff for non-kosher, work-related meals in Israel. But that was just the beginning of my problems.
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By Lisa Goldman
Every few weeks, gay Arab men from all over Israel gather for a party at a rented nightclub on Tel Aviv’s Herzl Street. The highlight of the evening is a drag show, with heavily made-up amateur performers dressed as sexy, pouting Arab pop stars. They are followed by Raafat, a performance artist from Jaffa, who lip-syncs old-fashioned Palestinian nationalist songs. Nearly all these men lead double lives; if they were to reveal their sexual orientation in their conservative communities, they would risk ostracism or even death. But in Tel Aviv they are free to celebrate their Palestinian, gay identity — at a club located on a street named after the founder of modern Zionism.
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By Lisa Goldman
Since the start of the current Gaza campaign, the Israeli government and army have repeatedly said that they learned many lessons from the Second Lebanon War. Ostensibly, they are referring to the tactical and political breakdown outlined in the devastating postwar report issued by the Winograd Commission. But it seems that the government also learned a powerful lesson from Hezbollah — i.e., whoever controls the media wins the war.Read More
