By RFE/RL White House spokesman Josh Earnest said that the United States is “at war with ISIL” on September 12, after Secretary of State John Kerry refused to use the phrase. “The United States is at war with ISIL in the same way that we are at war with Al-Qaeda and its Al-Qaeda affiliates all […]
Archives for September 2014
The Plutocracy Strikes Back: The Pathologies of Rule by a Handful of Billionaires
By Steve Fraser via Tomdispatch.com George Baer was a railroad and coal mining magnate at the turn of the twentieth century. Amid a violent and protracted strike that shut down much of the country’s anthracite coal industry, Baer defied President Teddy Roosevelt’s appeal to arbitrate the issues at stake, saying, “The rights and interests of […]
The Death of Palestine: Israeli Ambition and Palestinian Weakness
By Tareq Ramadan Given the history of Israeli-Palestinian relations alongside the current policies of the Netanyahu administration, the recent Gaza episode can be viewed, in part, as one manifestation of a broader Israeli policy aimed at preventing Palestinian political unity and, by extension, preventing the materialization of an independent and sovereign Palestinian state. Before the […]
Middle East “Allies” decline to Commit Forces, Resources against ISIL
By Juan Cole US Secretary of State John Kerry’s meeting in Jedda with ten Middle Eastern foreign ministers produced a communique on Friday, but little more. The regional states promised to do more to stop the transit across their territory of volunteer vigilantes seeking to join the so-called “Islamic State” of Iraq and the Levant […]
President Erdoğan to participate in key TÜSİAD meeting
President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan will join a meeting hosted by Turkey’s top business group next week, in a possible sign of improved relations with the group
Arabs without God
By Brian Whitaker, author of Arabs without God In the midst of sectarian turmoil in the Middle East, one section of Arab society rarely gets much attention: those who reject religion entirely. And yet such people do exist, their numbers appear to be growing and they are beginning to find a voice. Social media have […]
The Israeli version of Steven Salaita: Occupation University fires Professor for Insufficient Zionism
By Amir Hetsroni This is how I became the Israeli version of Steven Salaita: I was teaching at Ariel University when administrators summoned me to a pre-dismissal disciplinary hearings claiming that my views on religion (too atheist), welfare (overly capitalist), gender (not enough feminist) and Zionism (not Zionist and willing to withdraw from practically all […]
How the Gaza War Backfired on Netanyahu
By Ramzy Baroud (Maan News Agency) Netanyahu’s war-turned-genocide in Gaza has backfired badly — his strategy has helped resurrect Hamas, the very movement he tried desperately to crush. Aside from being a major military setback, Israel’s war on Gaza has also disoriented the policies of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu like never before. Since the announcement […]
Russia denounces Obama Plan for Syria Air Strikes as Violation of Int’l Law
By Juan Cole Russia on Thursday pushed back against President Obama’s state plans for taking on the so-called Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant (ISIL or ISIS) in Syria. Russian Foreign Ministry spokesman Alexander Lukashevich remarked on television: “The US president has spoken directly about the possibility of strikes by the US armed forces […]
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