Author Archives: James North

Moral dilemmas in everyday life in Egypt

Greatest danger to Egypt’s future is not politically-sophisticated Muslim Brotherhood but military/industrial elite– called “felool”, or “remnants”

Posted in Arab Spring, Egypt, On the ground reports | Tagged | 6 Comments

Egypt’s history through British-colored glasses

Muslim Brotherhood began as anticolonial movement. And Nasser had audacity to demand nationalization of canal Egyptians died to build

Posted in Arab Spring, Egypt | 16 Comments

Learning from Egypt: the case of the criminal billionaire Ahmed Ezz

Prison sentence for corrupt billionaire Ahmed Ezz is yet another way the Arab spring can school American progressive movement

Posted in Arab Spring, Egypt | 4 Comments

Bias in the Great Library at Alexandria?

The Bibliotheca Alexandrina, in Alexandria, Egypt, was blasted for having the ‘Protocols of Elders of Zion’ in an exhibit. A reporter visits and finds a very different scene.

Posted in Egypt, Israel/Palestine, Middle East | Tagged | 66 Comments

Terrific young Israeli journalists are indispensable

Some of the young Israeli journalists who started the vital web-based magazine 972mag.com are in the United States to promote their new venture, and I was lucky enough to meet them here in New York City, at the premises of … Continue reading

Posted in Israel/Palestine | 15 Comments

Two strikes for Ethan Bronner; does he get a third?

Once again, the New York Times’s public editor has taken the paper’s Jerusalem bureau chief, Ethan Bronner, to the woodshed for conflict of interest. This time, Bronner was caught (by the tireless Max Blumenthal) getting paid to give speeches by … Continue reading

Posted in Israel/Palestine | 16 Comments

‘Liberal Orientalism’ is also misleading

Liberal Orientalism can be just as misguided as the more conservative variety. One recent example, a book by a young American journalist/poet named Eliza Griswold, sold briskly in hardcover and is just now appearing in paperback. The title summarizes the … Continue reading

Posted in Israel/Palestine | 29 Comments

Shamai Leibowitz, a moral giant

Daily newspapers are supposed to put the most important news right at the top.  But today’s New York Times article about Shamai Leibowitz leaking documents to blogger Richard Silverstein waits until the 6th paragraph, on an inside page, to tell us … Continue reading

Posted in Israel/Palestine | 42 Comments

Bad interventions, and a few good ones– which was Libya?

The Qaddafi family is apparently about to fall in Libya, and I am still not sure exactly what I think about the Western military intervention to support the rebels. What does it matter what I, an American citizen with no … Continue reading

Posted in Israel/Palestine | 42 Comments

‘NYT’ ‘analysis’ buries connection between protests and settlement project

Did you see Ethan Bronner’s analysis of the tent protests in the New York Times today? It’s not what it says, it’s what it doesn’t say. Not until the last paragraph does he tentatively raise the connection between Israel’s construction … Continue reading

Posted in Israel/Palestine | 17 Comments

Richard Achi should not exist (but he does, in Cote d’Ivoire)

When you see a picture of an African man in the news, he is often carrying an automatic rifle. So the remarkable life story of my friend Richard Achi, a social worker in his mid-30s who guided me around during … Continue reading

Posted in Israel/Palestine, Middle East | 1 Comment

Central Africa’s horrors, without the Orientalism

One of the most powerful scenes in Jason K. Stearns’s outstanding new book about the Great War in central Africa takes place in eastern Congo, where the violence was the most horrible. Stearns makes his way to the village of … Continue reading

Posted in Israel/Palestine, Middle East, US Politics | 6 Comments

A question for our pro-Israel visitors . . .

. . . Do you really think, if a 2-state solution is agreed on, that the Israeli military will do whatever it takes to move the 500,000 Israeli settlers/colonists from the West Bank back behind the green line, to the … Continue reading

Posted in Israel/Palestine, One state/Two states | 664 Comments

Orientalism in sub-Saharan Africa

One of our regular targets here at the site is Orientalism — the misguided and dangerous outlook that the great Palestinian-American scholar Edward Said dissected so persuasively during his distinguished career.  Said concentrated on exposing Orientalism in the Middle East.  He made … Continue reading

Posted in Israel/Palestine, Middle East | 23 Comments

Without Goldstone, Israel would have done a complete whitewash

The Haaretz journalist Aluf Benn is somewhere in the middle of the Israeli road — nowhere near his outspoken fellow reporters like Amira Hass and Gideon Levy.  Which makes his recent observations in the Guardian about Judge Goldstone’s alleged regrets … Continue reading

Posted in Israel/Palestine | 4 Comments

What is Mohammed’s last name?

The NYT published a gripping story by Anthony Shadid, Tyler Hicks, Steven Farrell and Lynsey Addario describing their captivity in Libya. They were seized by Qaddafy forces at a checkpoint as they fled the city of Ajdabiya on March 15, … Continue reading

Posted in Israel/Palestine | 11 Comments

Who built the Suez Canal?

My old history books gave the credit for constructing the Suez Canal to Ferdinand de Lesseps, a French developer.  But he had help. The excavation took some 10 years using forced labour (Corvée) of Egyptian workers during a certain period. … Continue reading

Posted in Egypt, Israel/Palestine | 10 Comments

President Jimmy Carter vs. President Barack Obama

In the very first days of Jimmy Carter’s presidential administration, back in January 1977, a black American friend approached me with heartfelt enthusiasm.  “For the first time in years I’m proud of my country,” he said.  “Our president is speaking … Continue reading

Posted in Egypt, Israel/Palestine | 36 Comments

Egypt’s Muslim Brotherhood vs. Al-Qaeda

All of a sudden, middle-aged American men in suits who couldn’t find their way, unaided, from Cairo’s Ramses Station down Talaat Harb to Midan Tahrir, are posing as experts, appearing on U.S. television to insinuate that the Muslim Brotherhood is … Continue reading

Posted in Egypt, Israel/Palestine, Middle East | 60 Comments

Correcting a slur against Egypt’s Muslim Brotherhood

This site has already effectively dismissed the long Goldberg/Ibish op-ed article in yesterday’s New York Times.  But one line in that tortured piece does deserve more scrutiny, especially with the uprising in Egypt.  Goldberg and Ibish contend that “. . . Gaza, … Continue reading

Posted in Egypt, Israel/Palestine | 10 Comments

The latest from Haiti

I’m just back from Port-au-Prince, where, as always, I met people with extraordinary courage.  Here is my up-to-date report in The Nation, in which I present one of them — Pierre France, a 35-year-old electrician who, along with his friends, … Continue reading

Posted in Beyondoweiss, Israel/Palestine, US Politics | 6 Comments

Hasan’s dilemma

Despite the efficiency of crime labs in TV dramas, or the storied deductions of Sherlock Holmes, law enforcement officials will tell you that most criminals are caught by informants. This truth extends to international terrorism. The recent effort to place … Continue reading

Posted in Israel/Palestine, Middle East, US Policy in the Middle East | 5 Comments

NYT implies Muslims are the hostile ‘other’

The New York Times is at it again.  In an article about President Obama’s mild criticism of Israel’s plans to build more settlements in occupied Palestine, the newspaper said: Despite their efforts to build mutual trust, Mr. Obama and Mr. … Continue reading

Posted in Beyondoweiss, Israel/Palestine, Middle East | Tagged , , , , , | 3 Comments

Memo to NYT: fix your boilerplate

Journalists use the term “boilerplate” for brief standard explanations.  Here, for instance, is how the BBC describes the West Bank settlements: “All the settlements on occupied territory are considered illegal under international law, although Israel disputes this.” Simple.  Truthful.  Unbiased.  … Continue reading

Posted in Beyondoweiss, Israel/Palestine | 12 Comments

An appeal to Arabic-speakers

To my great surprise I just discovered that the Egyptian Muslim Brotherhood has its own web site — in English.  The Brotherhood is committted to nonviolence, and would probably be the largest single political force in Egypt were the U.S.-backed … Continue reading

Posted in Beyondoweiss, Israel/Palestine, Middle East | 37 Comments