My following essay appears in the current edition of Jewish, American magazine Tikkun: IMPOSSIBLE PEACE: ISRAEL/PALESTINE SINCE 1989 by Mark LeVine Zed Books, 2009 THE MAKING OF MODERN ISRAEL, 1948–1967 by Leslie Stein Polity, 2009 POLITICS AND VIOLENCE IN ISRAEL/PALESTINE: DEMOCRACY VERSUS MILITARY RULE by Lev Luis Grinberg Routledge, 2009 ISRAEL AND PALESTINE: REAPPRAISALS, REVISIONS,…
Showing all posts tagged Iraq
Isolating Iran is part of the “great energy game”
Here’s my interview with Foreign Policy Journal by Kourosh Ziabari: The Middle East is witness to continuous developments these days, such as Iran’s active diplomacy to attract the indispensable 118-member bloc of non-aligned countries to support its nuclear program, the growing isolation of Israel in European countries and within academic circles in the U.S., Arabs’…
Hizbollah rearms and accused of terrorism and Israel just continually rearms
Remind me who is the neighbourhood bully in the Middle East? It certainly isn’t Hizbollah or Lebanon: Hezbollah on Wednesday shot back at US charges it was stockpiling sophisticated weapons, accusing Washington of destabilising the Middle East and vowing to continue to build its artillery. “The resistance has the right to use all legitimate means…
Abu Ghraib was only the beginning
This is what the Western allies have given the Iraqi people; a land destroyed by war that still tortures citizens on a daily basis. NPR reports on a Human Rights Watch investigation that details shocking tales of abuse at a secret Iraqi prison:
MIA uses her Tamil heritage to make a point
A very strong new video by Tamil MIA, Born Free, shocks the senses. And rightly so: If singer/rapper M.I.A.’s purpose was to get people talking about her new single “Born Free,” she succeeded. The Sri Lankan-born artist debuted the graphic video on Monday. Immediately, fans took to social media to debate its scenes of military…
Miliband deserves more than political punishment over Iraq
Britain’s Foreign Secretary David Miliband, in an interview with the Guardian, doesn’t seem to get it. Voters are angry with the major parties because of years of arrogance. And comments like these simply add insult to injury: I met some guy in Soho yesterday, when we were launching the Labour lesbian and gay manifesto. And…
Spending billions on a cause that remains unclear
The price of an endless “war on terror”: Over the past five years, the U.S. government has spent a combined $80 billion on contractors to support its operations in Iraq and Afghanistan. And that has U.S. military leaders concerned: On Friday, the top U.S. general in Afghanistan suggested that the coalition had become too dependent…
We are truly sorry, say US troops from Iraq
Following the recent Wikileaks revelation of a video that showed the cold-blooded murder by American forces of Iraq civilians, now this: Two former soldiers from the Army unit responsible for the Wikileaks “Collateral Murder” incident have written an open-letter of “Reconciliation and Responsibility” to those injured in the July 2007 attack, in which U.S. forces…
The “idealism” of Iraq and Afghanistan
New York Times columnist Thomas Friedman reminds his readers what the “war on terror” is all about: Unlike Afghanistan, the war in Iraq was, at its core, always driven more by idealism than realism.
Noble wars of liberation cost a fortune
How many in the US know this? If you’re an average American taxpayer, the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan have, since 2001, cost you personally $7,334, according to the… “cost of war” counter created by the… National Priorities Project (NPP).… They have cost all Americans collectively more than $980,000,000,000.… As a country, we’ll pass the trillion dollar…