The Wire interview on Gaza death toll and US role in the Middle East

I was interviewed by The Wire news radio program yesterday: The already fragile stability in the Middle East has been further affected in recent weeks, with the US Embassy move to Jerusalem and President Donald Trump’s withdrawal from the Iran nuclear deal. Overnight 55 Palestinian protesters were killed by Israeli forces in Gaza, coinciding with…

Growing ties between Israel and the global far-right

My investigation, for MidEastWire publication, researched over many months: The global sound of fury and shock heralded by the win of Donald Trump as the new U.S. President wasn’t heard in Israel. A poll, released in early December by the firm Dialog, found that 83 percent of Israelis viewed Trump as “pro-Israel” and hoped he…

On the importance of hearing critical views in our time

I was pleased to be asked to sign the following statement in support of free speech and against blacklisting for “unpopular” views on Syria (though it’s equally relevant for Palestine, the “war on terror” etc). I sign alongside Noam Chomsky, Glenn Greenwald, Reza Aslan and many others: The cancellation of a lecture by journalist Rania…

Arms dealers making a killing from the European refugee crisis

My essay in UAE newspaper The National: The defence industry has never been happier. With sales at unprecedented levels – US$65 billion (Dh 238bn) in 2015, according to the… Global Defence Trade Report… – France, the United States, Canada and Britain have become global leaders in arms exports. The Middle East is the largest importing region and…

Al Jazeera English's The Stream on disaster capitalism and the Syrian war

Yesterday I appeared on the Al Jazeera English program, The Stream, talking about people and corporations making money from the Syrian war (eg. the new… report, Border Wars, from The Transnational Institute on arms dealers finding huge profits from the European refugee crisis). My segment starts at 1:32: The holy month in Aleppo What has Ramadan…

How drugs have always perverted human wars

My Guardian book review appears this weekend: In October 2015 a Saudi prince was arrested at Beirut international airport accused of trying to smuggle… nearly two tonnes… of the… amphetamine drug Captagon… through the country. Two months later, Lebanese officials claimed to have confiscated 12 million Captagon pills heading to the Gulf. The synthetic drug, invented in 1961, has…

How little we know about the Western war against ISIS

My story in the Guardian: We don’t know whether the Australian military has killed or injured civilians in Iraq, and if so, how many. Since Canberra joined the US-led mission against the… Islamic State (Isis) on 8 October 2014, the Australian Defence Force (ADF) has provided barely any information about its operations. So the new report…

Too little to celebrate in South Sudan

My article in Le Monde Diplomatique English: The UN Security Council recently imposed new sanctions on South Sudan including travel bans on six South Sudanese citizens. Samantha Power, US ambassador to the UN, praised the move saying: “The Security Council took strong action in support of a peaceful end to the conflict in South Sudan…

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