Howard Zinn on Obama’s peace prize: I was dismayed when I heard Obama was given the Nobel Peace Prize. A shock, really, to think that a president carrying on wars in two countries and launching military action in a third country (Pakistan), would be given a peace prize. But then I recalled that Woodrow Wilson,…
Showing all posts tagged United States
Not buying the Obama “dream” in Indonesia
The following article appears in Saturday’s Jakarta Post: A discussion about writers’ views on the United States President Barack Obama and on the Middle East peace process stole the show during the third day of the annual Ubud Writers and Readers Festival on Friday. Speaking at the discussion were Benazir Bhutto’s niece, Fatima Bhutto, Australian…
The Bhutto legacy in a younger generation
During my current visit to Indonesia, I’ve been spending time with Fatima Bhutto, the niece of assassinated Pakistani politician Benazir Bhutto. Fatima is a determined, passionate person, angry at her government’s complicity with the US and its war against supposed “terrorists”. Here’s a short extract from a 2008 Guardian profile: Fatima is at great pains…
Just how serious is the new Obama Nobel winner?
What is the role of dissent in the age of Barack Obama? Reflections on my talk today in Indonesia.
The Palestinian view of the other side
Poet Remi Kanazi, editor of Poets For Palestine, performs “Israel/America: A Rambling Poem”
Bomb, bomb, bomb, bomb, bomb Iran
God help us: Despite strong support for diplomatic engagement with Iran, most U.S. citizens believe such efforts will ultimately fail and that Washington should be prepared to use military force to prevent Tehran from obtaining a nuclear weapon, according to a new poll released here Tuesday by the Pew Research Centre for the People and…
Neither Sri Lanka nor Israel should have impunity in their ‘wars on terror’
My following article appears in today’s Lebanon Daily Star newspaper: Israel’s war against the Gazan people in December and January devastated the tiny Strip, killing over 1,400 people, a majority of whom were civilians. The Western powers, including America, England and Australia, backed Israel’s battle against Hamas and shared its belief that destruction of the…
The Middle East has moved on from 1979
With the recent news that Barack Obama has no issue whatsoever with Israel maintaining its unchecked nuclear arsenal, Ira Chernus, writing in TomDispatch, argues that America is stuck in a Cold War mindset: If Obama’s troubles keep him awake late at night, he may hear the ghostly voices of past presidents echoing down the White…
Will Israel be isolated as the US dollar flags?
More from Robert Fisk about the shifting plates of global oil markets: Such massive financial movements, encouraged by the de-dollarisation of oil, will have enormous political effects in the Middle East, especially if economic superpower rivalry between America and China comes to dominate the Arab world. Will American economic support for Israel remain as loyal…
Mahmoud Abbas and friends urge the killing of Gazans, on tape
Just the latest and perhaps most damning of evidence that the Palestinian Authority is a corrupt, utterly irrelevant yet highly useful tool of Israel and the Americans. How can any Palestinian treat these goons with respect? If true, these allegations are sadly predictable. The following is from Israeli paper Ma’ariv on 5 October (via Norman…