Attacking Libya isn’t about making us feel good

Bombing Libya is welcomed across the world from so many supposedly well-meaning types who haven’t a clue about what the country is like or what they’re really backing. But hey, Gaddafi is a bad man! This Haaretz editorial weighs the risks: While the joint Western and Arab action against Libya’s dictatorial regime has widespread support,…

The “we must do something in Libya” brigade too keen to launch war

They’re everywhere at the moment. Hawks and so-called doves eager to show that butcher Gaddafi a lesson. How dare you massacre your own people (er, with Western-supplied weapons, but let’s not focus on such details)? Tonight’s ABC TV Q & A program featured five guests who all backed war against Libya. They all spoke in…

Bibi isn’t capable of vision except settlements, colonies and apartheid

And Jerusalem Post editor David Horowitz seems to agree: Netanyahu may argue that the last thing Israel dares do today is take significant “risks for peace” in the unpredictable Middle East, with the further private concern that American support is less reliable than it has been for years, as underlined by the rapid abandonment of…

Libya would not be “assisted” if major export was lettuce

Here’s how the New York Times explains the role of the White House in backing a no-fly zone over Libya. Cute how the paper completely ignores all wider context for intervention; energy resources and oil in the country. All completely irrelevant, of course: In a Paris hotel room on Tuesday night, Secretary of State Hillary…

Assange: internet can liberate and/or imprison

He’s right (though probably exaggerates the influence of Wikileaks in the Arab revolutions): The internet is the “greatest spying machine the world has ever seen” and is not a technology that necessarily favours the freedom of speech, the WikiLeaks co-founder, Julian Assange, has claimed in a rare public appearance. Assange acknowledged that the web could…

If only Israeli state really cared about stopping terrorism

The recent murder of Jewish settlers in the West Bank was an appalling act of terrorism. No ifs or buts. But watch the debased response of the Zionist state to this outrage. Haaretz editorial: The despicable murder of five members of the Fogel family on Saturday is a crime against every human being. But the…

Revolution in China? Not so fast

It may take a little bit longer to bring serious political reform to China, especially when the connected class is so comfortable. Barbara Pollock writes in Artnet: During a recent visit to Beijing, the conversation at a local restaurant on a Saturday night turned briefly, only briefly, to politics. The video artist Wang Gongxin spoke…

A message to sell to young Jews the world over

This is what Israel offers, according to Yoram Ettinger in Ynet: Moreover, unlike Obama, most [American] constituents regard President Reagan as a role model of values and view the Jewish State as the “Ronald Reagan of the Middle East,” representing their basic values: Respect toward religion and tradition, patriotism, security-oriented, anti-UN, anti-terrorism and suspicion toward…

Obama very happy to change little in the Middle East

The New York Times clarifies what the Obama administration is really thinking about the Arab world. “Pragmatism” is the key word. In other words, backing autocrats who do the dirty work of Israel and America. Anybody still in love with the supposedly grand visions of Barack Obama? In the Middle East crisis, as on other…

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