Raheem Kassam: How Israel is winning the media war this time round - thanks to Twitter

Raheem Kassam is the Executive Editor of TheCommentator.com and tweets at @RaheemJKassam

As the recent conflict between Israel and terrorist organisations in Gaza escalated, I was sitting in a hotel in Jerusalem, keeping ears peeled for the next potential rocket siren.  I've continuously argued, publicly and privately, that the real tragedy of this conflict is that of the Palestinian people who are oppressed and used as human shields by Hamas, Islamic Jihad and others, and that of Israeli civilians who are equally targeted.

To look at the conflict from a different angle, though, it is understandable why Israel has thus far commanded the respect and support of Western leaders and indeed, broadly speaking, the international media. I don't mean to say that they media has been toeing Israel's line. I mean that this time, as opposed to 2008-9, major outlets have been more receptive to Israel's predicament, with a more balanced approach to reporting.

Raheem Kassam: Competition, not government bureaucrats should temper the media

Raheem Kassam is the Executive Editor of The Commentator. Follow him on Twitter.

There is a false dichotomy when discussing press regulation. Unfortunately Nadhim Zahawi MP has been the one espousing it.

Flatly, the banking scandal taught us one thing. Regulation cannot safeguard against everything. What's more is that regulation often creates oligopolies and further entrenches industry-wide problems, restricting competition and creating a hive-mentality.

Speaking of hive mentality, the 42 MPs who signed a letter in the Guardian (presumably the only paper that would run such a thing) are guilty of starring into the abyss that is their communal naval.

How else would individuals often on the receiving end of a free(r) media's sting come to the conclusion that the public somehow want another quango, presumably with another Old Etonian at the top of it, to watch over the watchers?

You know where the real regulation is? It's in my pocket. It's in yours too. It resides in the coins, notes and debit cards that we use to procure our preferred newspapers or magazines. It rests in our Sky subscriptions or Freeview box purchases. It doesn't rest in the hands of a politician and it most definitely cannot end up in the clutches of some quangocrat, no matter how many years he or she has been asleep in the House of Lords.

Raheem Kassam: The LSE was wrong to take Gaddafi’s money

Raheem Kassam is the director of the campus watchdog ‘Student Rights’ and Executive Editor at The Commentator. You can follow him on Twitter at @RaheemJKassam. Here he responds to Bruce Anderson's column from this morning.

Quidquid latine dictum sit, altum viditur. And that’s all the semi-relevant Latin you’ll hear from me. Frivolities like this lend little to an argument and there’s already far too much to say about the matter at hand. Let’s get down to business.

Lord Woolf’s report about the London School of Economics’ ties to Libya is a scathing and enlightening view behind the scenes of a British university gone rogue.

The 185-page document underlines a catalogue of errors beginning with Saif’s admission to the LSE, despite being under-qualified and rejected from various departments, to the fact that in the face of warnings by academics and management about the reputational risk to the university, due diligence was simply not applied on this matter. It’s quite frightening when you think about it. 

Raheem Kassam: If you want to see what a Conservative conference should really look like, you should have been in Washington last week

Raheem Kassam is the Campaigns Director for The Henry Jackson Society.

Ronald Reagan, George W. Bush and the most recent idol of the masses - Senator Congressman Ron Paul.  Long bygone and more recent speakers you could expect to find at the Conservative Political Action Conference in Washington, DC.  It took place last week, with 11,000+ delegates - and I was there for my second experience.

There are hundreds of top level speakers, back to back - inspiring, drumming up support for their campaigns and even taking some jeering on the chin when they step out of line with what is a split American conservative/libertarian audience.  If this just sounds like the Conservative Party Conference to you, then I'm not doing a good enough job yet.

I know we conduct our politics differently, but there are so many tips and tricks that we can learn from our counterparts overseas and plenty that small delegations of Brits have taught them over the past few years also.  Activism shouldn't stop at blogging or leafleting.  In fact, those are just the foundation.  Things like straw polls, webinars (online seminars) and sponsored sessions could do more to inform the droves of activists to which the Conservative Party here already has access.