On the Home Front

Two weeks ago, my friend Gary and I were headed to Tooting to have Pakistani food. Sitting next to us on the train was a British soldier in desert camouflage, with two pieces of luggage: a backpack and a duffle bag. It was hard to tell whether he was going home, on leave, or returning to the United Kingdom after a tour of duty in Iraq or Afghanistan. His face looked tired. The soldier looked like he had been traveling for a while.

Signs of Britain’s current military engagements are scant here, save for the typical wartime posters one sees in tube stations, like this Sky News advert above, or warnings to commuters to report any unattended baggage. Veterans of recent or ongoing conflicts are not as conspicuous or stigmatized as they are in the United States. Enlisted men, in uniform, unlike in Israel, still catch your eye because they are so rare to see.

His Halo is Gone

If you happen to have read any of Obama’s policy statements on central Asia during the election campaign, the post-inauguration US missile strikes on Pakistan’s tribal areas ought to come as no surprise.

It was equally inevitable that such actions would be accompanied by a metaphorical loss of innocence, especially considering the immense hopes that progressives have held for Obama in Europe.

To that end, today, in Comment is Free, Richard Seymour does as good a job as anyone could in expressing exactly how disappointed progressives will be with the new US president’s foreign policy.

It’ll be interesting to see whether Obama can develop a consistent approach to greater west Asia. Perhaps Pakistan and Afghanistan will become of equal concern to the peace community as Palestine.

Photo: Clapham garage, January 20th.

Never Heard of Them

For those familiar with the history of American Jewish magazines, my former employer, Tikkun, was not the first periodical of its kind to break with community publishing conventions. Starting in the 1970s, there were numerous such attempts, of which, until the early 00s, Tikkun was the most visible.

One such upstart periodical was  New York’s New Jewish Times, which ceased publication in 1981, five years before the launch of Tikkun. Remembered by journalist Samuel G. Freedman in Friday’s New York Times, my present editorial abode, Zeek, gets the descendents’ high five, together with our friends at Heeb.

Somebody ought to shine a similar spotlight on the late Davka.

No Child Left Behind

America’s presidents wind up in the most unlikely of places. An anti-Bush sticker, affixed to a child-conscious pedestrian crossing sign in downtown Stuttgart, Germany.

Trampled Under Foot

Bill Clinton graces the cover of The Lives of the Presidents, a special supplement to the January 15th edition of The Independent. Captured yesterday on a Circle Line train, in between the Victoria and Sloane Square tube stations.

Everyone’s President

Obama and child, and then some. Acre Lane, Clapham, the day after inauguration.

The first candidate for cover of the year. The lightbulb montage is priceless.

Brixton Goes Gaza

You don’t need to know all of the elements that make up this poster to be moved by it.  However, if you do, it gets even heavier. Anti-Zionist sticker affixed to an already tagged Department for Work and Pensions anti-benefits abuse poster, Brixton Market, 1/17/09.

The Politics of Ambiguity

Not long after Israel began its military offensive in Gaza last month, a senior Bush administration official told the Washington Post that the Jewish state had embarked on its campaign in order to create ‘facts on the ground’ before the Obama administration assumes office on January 20th.

In our first collaboration together, Arthur Neslen and I push the envelope, discussing how this ‘leak’ has helped frame an otherwise confusing and brutal military operation, and illuminates the unfortunate tensions that exist between America’s president-elect, and the present Israeli government.

If you haven’t read Arthur’s work before, now is as good a time to start as any. For those Tikkun readers among you, I interviewed Art about his fabulous book, Occupied Minds, in the January/February 2007 edition of the magazine. A PDF copy of our convo can be downloaded from the Clips section of this site.

Bring the Noise

Hip-hop shop sign, Brixton Market. Lunch break, last Thursday.

No More Mr Bling Bling

The essay on Israel in his 2007 book, Testimony, is absolutely dreadful. In fact, it is so bad that one could never imagine the French leader engaging in any remotely positive diplomacy in the Middle East.

Nevertheless, President Nicolas Sarkozy’s current efforts to broker a ceasefire in Gaza have been quite fascinating to follow. My new piece on the subject was published on Thursday by France 24.