Witness the necessary passing of US power in Mid-East

The New York Times documents the shift in the Arab world at a time when Washington is largely viewed as siding with occupiers (Israel) and brutes (Saudi Arabia, Bahrain etc): A last-ditch American effort to head off a Palestinian bid for membership in the United Nations faltered. President Obamatried to qualify his own call, just…

Outsourcing death in war is the new American way

The “war on terror” has seen an explosion of private contractors making a killing from catching and killing all Arabs, I mean, terrorists, around the globe. Accountability is close to non-existent so we have no real idea which companies are involved, how many people are hired or what they’re actually doing. Remember, we’re told we…

Why Obama and America have lost the Arab world, and rightfully so

Barack Obama’s speech to the UN overnight was farcical in its ineptitude, showing once again how beholden America remains to a vision of apartheid Israel. Some “highlights”: We seek a future where Palestinians live in a sovereign state of their own, with no limit to what they can achieve. There is no question that the…

What is happening with Al-Jazeera?

The former head of the media company is stepping down, amidst allegations he was too close to the US as revealed by Wikileaks, but he denies this: The wider question, asked in Foreign Policy, is will the station retain its (mostly) aggressive style of insightful journalism?” In recent weeks, the details of conversations between U.S.…

Worry not, energy seekers, exploitation is never far away

This week’s New York Times featured an investigation about sourcing future energy needs. The world is open, so we’re told, and human beings, indigenous groups or the environment are ignored. That’s “business journalism” in a nut shell: Brazil has begun building its first nuclear submarine to protect its vast, new offshore oil discoveries. Colombia’s oil…

Get in line, blood suckers; much money to be made in Afghanistan

War! Money! Capitalism! Exploitation! Yes, as Salon’s Glenn Greenwald writes, privatisation is bringing goodness to the peaceful land of Afghanistan: As the Obama administration announced plans for hundreds of billions of dollars more in domestic budget cuts, it late last week solicited bids for the construction of a massive new prison in Bagram, Afghanistan.… … Posted on…

Tony Judt on the kind of Judaism we should admire

The death last year of British historian Tony Judt was a deep loss for those of us who crave intelligent debate of world affairs and especially the Middle East. The Atlantic has just published his last interview and Judt is shown, despite his last years being afflicted with a horrible disease, with a clarity of…

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