The presidency
January 19th, 20180 By Lee H. Hamilton Because we live in such tumultuous political times, it's easy to believe that today's intense public focus on the Trump presidency is something new — an obsession like none we've ever seen before. Yet to one degree or another, the president has always been at the center of the public's attention. This is...
In words and deeds: The genesis of Israeli violence
January 19th, 20181 By Ramzy Baroud Not a day passes without a prominent Israeli politician or intellectual making an outrageous statement against Palestinians. Many of these statements tend to garner little attention or evoke rightly deserved outrage. Just recently, Israel's minister of agriculture, Uri Ariel, called for more death and injuries on...
Trump’s ‘shithole’ remarks and America’s history of immigration
January 19th, 20180 By Amer Zahr It's quite popular these days to declare that Donald Trump's racist views on immigration are "un-American." He only wants White people coming here. "Why can't we have more people from Norway?" He wants to get rid of Latinos and Black people. "Do we really need more Haitians?" He devalues, denigrates and...
Shadow armies: The unseen, but real U.S. war in Africa
January 12th, 20180 By Ramzy Baroud There is a real — but largely concealed — war which is taking place throughout the African continent. It involves the United States, an invigorated Russia and a rising China. The outcome of the war is likely to define the future of the continent and its global outlook. It is easy to pin the blame on President...
Ahed Tamimi offers Israelis a lesson worthy of Gandhi
January 12th, 20181 By Jonathan Cook Sixteen-year-old Ahed Tamimi may not be what Israelis had in mind when, over many years, they criticized Palestinians for not producing a Mahatma Gandhi or Nelson Mandela. Eventually, colonized peoples bring to the fore a figure best suited to challenge the rotten values at the core of the society oppressing them....
Damn it! This is cultural genocide, Tabouli is ours!
January 12th, 20180 By James Zogby Between Christmas and New Year's Day, I became embroiled in what The Jerusalem Post termed a "Twitter war", which it claimed "raised eyebrows on both sides of the Atlantic." What started the heated exchange was my response to a tweet by celebrity chef Rachael Ray in which she called "Israeli"—"meze, stuffed grape...
Will 2018 usher in a new Palestinian strategy?
January 5th, 20180 By Ramzy Baroud 2017 will be remembered as the year that the so-called "peace process", at least in its American formulation, ended. And with its demise, a political framework that has served as the foundation for U.S. foreign policy in the Middle East has also collapsed. The Palestinian leadership and its Arab and international...
Taking stock as we begin a new year
January 5th, 20180 By Lee H. Hamilton This may seem odd, but as I look ahead to a year we all know will be momentous, you want to know what I feel most strongly? Gratitude. I'll tell you in a moment how much work we have ahead of us to strengthen our country. But I'm mindful of just how strong we already are. A resilient economy has been performing...
Everything wrong with the reaction to Ahed Tamimi’s prosecution
January 5th, 20181 Where were the international calls for compassion, the reminders that this was a potentially traumatized child? By Hiba Khan Everyone now knows that 16-year-old Ahed Tamimi slapped an Israeli soldier. How many of us know about the events that led up to this? Telling half of a story can be more of an injustice than fabricating the...
What happens if Trump does stop aid to Palestinians?
January 5th, 20180 By Ali Abunimah A million Palestinians in Gaza depend on UNRWA emergency food rations. That number soared from just 80,000 in 2000, after years of Israeli siege and military assaults on the territory. What would happen if Donald Trump carries out his threats to stop U.S. aid to Palestinians? If he means a cutoff of U.S. funding...
What to Look For in 2018
December 22nd, 20170 By Lee H. Hamilton This was an interesting year that's just passed, wasn't it? And here's the thing: I suspect 2018 will be just as intriguing. Let's start with some good news. The economy had a good year in 2017, seeing overall growth, subdued inflation, progress on wages and even some signs that economic growth is reaching the...
Whitewashing: The media’s two narratives on terrorism
December 22nd, 20170 By Ramzy Baroud Within hours after Akayed Ullah, a Bangladeshi immigrant, allegedly detonated a pipe bomb in New York City on December 11, severely injuring himself and wounding four others, a most comprehensive official and media narrative emerged. The formulation of the narrative concerning Ullah's motives, radicalization and...
Both parties pushed Trump toward reckless action on Jerusalem
December 22nd, 20170 By Stephen Zunes President Trump announced on Wednesday, Dec. 6 that the United States will formally recognize Jerusalem as the capital of Israel and that the U.S. embassy would be moved to that multi-ethnic and multi-faith city. No other government in the world formally recognizes Jerusalem as Israel's capital or has its embassy...
Trump deepens America’s isolation
December 22nd, 20170 By Rashid Khalidi The brilliant diplomacy over Jerusalem of the self-proclaimed master deal-maker has produced a situation where it is now D. Trump vs. almost the entire world. And in the face of what is likely to be a sweeping defeat for the U.S., Trump and his minions are not taking the reluctance of the world to go along with his...
Trump’s decision crystallizes Palestinians predicament of entrenched American bias
December 15th, 20170 By Mary Turfah Last Wednesday, Donald Trump announced his plans to move the American embassy in Israel from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem as recognition, against that of the world, of Israel's right to Jerusalem as its capital. But the idea that Trump has "endangered" the peace process is misleading because it presupposes the existence of......
What Trump has done: The entire U.S.-Middle East political framework just collapsed
December 15th, 20170 By Ramzy Baroud Now that President Trump has fully adopted the Israeli right wing political discourse on Palestine, the Palestinian Authority is in a very tough spot. "I have determined that it is time to officially recognize Jerusalem as the capital of Israel," Trump said in Washington last Wednesday. The embattled president has...
Trump’s Jerusalem decision: A fatal and fateful blow
December 15th, 20170 By Dr. James J. Zogby President Trump's decision to formally recognize Jerusalem as Israel's capital was irresponsible and dangerous for more reasons than I can count. Let me outline just a few of the principal concerns: While we have all grown weary of hearing the over-used mantra "this is the end of the peace process", Trump's...
On Jerusalem, Obama was no better than Trump
December 15th, 20170 By Khelil Bouarrouj President Trump's decision to recognize Jerusalem as the Israeli capital has simply exposed the grim reality of American peace mediation between the Israelis and Palestinians. Under Trump's predecessors, America's "special relationship" with Israel was headed to the same denouement of embracing Israeli occupation...
Why is Trump undoing decades of U.S. policy on Jerusalem?
December 8th, 20170 By Shibley Telhami It is almost impossible to see the logic of the Trump administration's recognition of Jerusalem as Israel's capital, and possibly moving the U.S. embassy to Israel there—before it even unveils what's certain to be a controversial plan for Middle East peace, which will be tough enough to sell. The White House is......
Trump’s Jerusalem decision is reckless and dangerous
December 8th, 20170 President Trump's decision this week to recognize Jerusalem as Israel's capital was reckless, misguided and dangerous. He has legitimized the illegal occupation of East Jerusalem. Let us not forget that the occupation of the West Bank and Gaza, along with the occupation and annexation of East Jerusalem, have been condemned by numerous...
It’s time for Detroit to stand up to racial and religious bias in public services
December 8th, 20170 By Amy V. Doukoure The city of Detroit has had a sordid history with race relations, and it is true that many of the issues present in the 1960's remain relevant in the city today. People living in the communities of Detroit, many of them minorities, immigrants and Muslims, feel as though they are forgotten while the Downtown areas......
Tom Friedman’s paean to a Saudi tyrant ignites NYT comments-storm
December 2nd, 20170 By Mike Whitney "I've never thought much of Friedman's work, but this is the work of a complete toady." Jim, New York Times comments section "What a nauseating exercise in a…-kissing!" Karim Pakravan, NYT comments section NEW YORK — Why did Tom Friedman write such a gushing tribute to the Saudi tyrant, Mohammed bin Salman?...
Palestinians: Victims of an unjust U.S. law
December 2nd, 20170 Imagine that you are a victim of a violent crime or theft but are forbidden from reporting it because Congress has passed a law that not only prohibits you from reporting the crime, but threatens punishment if you dare to do it. This is the situation in which the Palestinians find themselves today. The Palestinians have been told that......
