Showing all posts in June 2019
Fisk on why Arabs rightly only see bowing down to Zionism
Robert Fisk on the oh-so-predictable speech by Barack Obama to inject the US back into relevance in the Arab world. It should fail, as Muslims there know full well what America’s role has always been; repression: It was the same old story. Palestinians can have a “viable” state, Israel a “secure” one. Israel cannot be…
American media largely sees Muslim world as needing our help or a threat
A man who understands the Middle East, Nir Rosen, on how the corporate media sees the Middle East: I’ve spent most of the last eight years working in Iraq and also in Somalia, Afghanistan, Yemen, and other countries in the Muslim world. So all my work has taken place in the shadow of the war…
Obama’s grand Middle East vision shafts the Palestinians (as usual)
Gideon Levy in Haaretz gets it: Benjamin Netanyahu may as well have canceled his trip to Washington: Barack Obama did the work for him, or most of it. But the prime minister is already on his way, so he should at least send to the White House a big bouquet of flowers. Netanyahu can sit…
Fisk on what Obama should say about the Middle East (but won’t)
Spot on: OK, so here’s what President Barack Obama should say today about the Middle East. We will leave Afghanistan tomorrow. We will leave Iraq tomorrow. We will stop giving unconditional, craven support to Israel. Americans will force the Israelis – and the European Union – to end their siege of Gaza. We will withhold…
Private prisons only help the private companies
The reality, according to this piece in the New York Times, is that privatising prisons doesn’t save money or bring more accountability or make people’s lives any better. Politicians and commentators who say otherwise are obsessed with “market” solutions. Besides, who feels comfortable making money from the misery of others? The conviction that private prisons…
Of course there’s a powerful Zionist lobby in the US
The Mearsheimer/Walt thesis on America’s (worrying powerful) Israel lobby is proven right time and time again. Today’s Wall Street Journal: Jewish donors and fund-raisers are warning the Obama re-election campaign that the president is at risk of losing financial support because of concerns about his handling of Israel. The complaints began early in President Barack…
Serco wants to hide its behaviour from us all
This move has all the hallmarks of attempting to keep real people out of the media spotlight. Humanising refugees is the last thing this government and Serco wants: The company running the country’s immigration detention centres has upgraded how seriously it takes the unauthorised presence of media, putting it on par with a bomb threat…
Wikileaks reveals how US views anti-Americanism
Very narrowly: Discussing a draft declaration from South American and Arab State leaders, a United States government operative lists a series of “anti-American digs” against the US and Israel that were later excluded from the text. What is considered anti-American is stunning and revealing. This quiet, unassuming cable shows a bizarre and expansive US foreign…