A little taste of what kind of democracy Egypt deserves

My following analysis appears on ABC Unleashed/The Drum today: An Egyptian blogger displayed characteristic humour when news broke overnight that president Hosni Mubarak would not be stepping down: Mubarak (n.): a psychotic ex-girlfriend who fails 2 understand it’s over. If Mubarak and his new deputy Omar Suleiman thought their speeches would placate the protesters, they…

Galle Literary Festival appeal to not ignore human rights

I was recently asked to sign the following statement about the upcoming Galle Literary Festival in Sri Lanka. I am honoured to appear in such company to highlight the ongoing abuses taking place in a supposedly terror-free country: Reporters Without Borders and Journalists for Democracy in Sri Lanka (JDS), a network of exiled Sri Lankan…

Chomsky: who says Israeli apartheid can’t last forever?

Noam Chomsky on the internal logic of empire: It’s pretty common now for supporters of the Palestinians and Palestinian leaders themselves to say, “Well, we have to abandon hope in the two-state solution.” As one of the Palestinian leaders said, “We should give Israel the key and let them take over the entire West Bank.…

Chomsky on the need for effective BDS

Noam Chomsky wonders when the US will ditch its Zionist ally. Only when US businesses think a true anti-apartheid struggle catches on. It’s coming: While intensively engaged in illegal settlement expansion, the government of Israel is also seeking to deal with two problems: a global campaign of what it perceives as “delegitimation” – that is,…

Chomsky: Wikileaks cable show US contempt for world

Noam Chomsky on the Wikileaks cables: One of the major reasons for government secrecy is to protect the government from its own population. … So Hillary Clinton and Benjamin Netanyahu surely know of the careful polls of Arab public opinion. The Brookings Institute just a few months ago released extensive polls of what Arabs think…

Chomsky on the justification for arming

Talk at UC Berkeley on U.S. foreign policy in Central America, May 14, 1984: We have a big argument here about whether Nicaragua and Cuba are sending arms to El Salvador. Well, I don’t know, so far there’s no evidence that they are, but that’s not really the interesting question. I mean, you gotta watch…

Chomsky on the invisible Iranian nuclear ghost

Noam Chomsky on a nation that threatens something other than Israel: Such harrowing pronouncements aside, what exactly is the Iranian threat? An authoritative answer is provided in the April 2010 study of the International Institute of Strategic Studies, Military Balance 2010. The brutal clerical regime is doubtless a threat to its own people, though it…

Paying compensation to all Afghans

Democracy Now! interviews three US soldiers who have fought in Iraq and Afghanistan and now returned to be campaigning vigorously against them. The interview takes place at the US Social Forum, an event that received very little mainstream coverage: VICTOR AGOSTO: Well, I think General Petraeus will be less critical of the Obama administration’s plan…

Atwood wants to be on the right side of history in Palestine

Many pro-Palestinian activists criticised author Margaret Atwood in May for accepting a very large literary prize in Israel. She clearly came under a great deal of pressure and flak for doing so and perhaps this essay in Haaretz is a way to show she really cares about what happens to Palestinians under Zionist rule: …The…

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