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…
Showing all posts tagged Lebanon
Rumblings of a third intifada?
Perhaps: Israeli forces fired two tank shells and several rounds from machine guns as Gazans approached the heavily fortified border with Israel on Sunday, wounding at least 15 youths, a Palestinian health official said. One of the wounded was in a critical condition. The march near the Gaza-Israel border was part of Palestinian commemorations of…
The risk of implosion of the Syrian state
Robert Fisk paints a troubling picture of a nation that needs fundamental reform: According to historian Farouk Mardam-Bey, for example, Syria is “a tribal regime, which by being a kind of mafia clan and by exercising the cult of personality, can be compared to the Libyan regime”, which can never reform itself because reform will…
Of course America killed Bin Laden in Israeli-style thuggery
Robert Fisk is right: Bin Laden got his just deserts – those who live by the sword tend to die by the sword – but did he get the “justice” that President Obama talked about? Many Arabs – and this theme was taken up by the Arab press, which spoke of his “execution” – thought…
Hizbollah ain’t a tumour for Arabs backing resistance
Lebanon is a fractured society partly controlled by Hizbollah. Many in the public back this reality and yet: Lebanon’s prime minister-designate Najib Mikati describes the powerful Hezbollah, whose backing was key to his nomination, as a “tumour,” in a 2008 US diplomatic cable revealed by a Lebanese daily on Tuesday. The billionaire businessman, who was…
John Pilger to Sydney’s Marrickville council; stand up for Palestine
John Pilger has sent the following message to Marrickville councillors: “Sometimes, looked at from the outside, Australia is a strange place. In other ‘western democracies’ the ‘debate’ about the enduring injustice dealt the Palestinians and Israel’s… lawlessness has moved forward to the point where the cynical campaign of… anti-Semitism smears is no longer effective — in…
How on earth would Zionism thrive without brutish mates?
Wikileaks shows us more: Mohammed Tantawi, the head of Egypt’s ruling generals, was an obstacle to Israeli efforts to stop arms smuggling within the Gaza strip, according to Israeli security forces. The assessment was privately delivered to US diplomats, alongside praise for former intelligence chief Omar Suleiman’s efforts to stop weapons trafficking, according to the…
Don’t think Goldstone’s “retraction” changes a damn thing about the report
There was an intentional Israeli policy of collective punishment against the Gazan people. Mondoweiss co-owner Adam Horowitz tells Democracy Now!: …The Dahiya Doctrine is the war doctrine that Israel first used in the 2006 attack on Lebanon, which basically said that any area that they were receiving fire from, they would consider the entire area…
“The Israel Lobby”, five years on
One of its authors, Steve Walt, reflects on a tumultuous period and his work’s undoubted influence. One of the great personal successes, in my view, has been the increasing number of Jews who recognise the devastating result of simply allowing the pro-settler, anti-Palestinian Zionists solely taking the floor. Judaism simply cannot be about backing never-ending…
Libya isn’t a Western plaything
While parts of Libya begin to imagine a life without Gaddafi – wonderful quote in this typically incisive Anthony Shadid piece in the New York Times: “There is no call for the overthrow of the government; only Colonel Qaddafi is mentioned, as lackey, tyrant and the man with really bad hair” – Western powers are…