Category Archives: Middle East

Video: Medea Benjamin interrupts Obama speech on US drone policy

Posted on May 23, 2013 by Adam Horowitz

Code Pink’s Medea Benjamin interrupted President Obama several times during a speech at National Defense University on the ongoing “war on terror,” including U.S. drone policy and the Guantanamo Bay detention facility.

Posted in Activism, Middle East, US Policy in the Middle East, US Politics, War on Terror | 21 Comments

Glenn Greenwald on the Woolwich attack and blowback from the ‘war on terror’

Posted on May 23, 2013 by Annie Robbins

Glenn Greenwald wrote another of his important blowback articles this morning in the Guardian; Was the London killing of a British soldier ‘terrorism’? He asks an essential question concerning the definition and use of the term “terrorism”. The media in western societies should be scrutinizing this definition and the hypocrisy with which the term is applied.

Posted in Media, US Policy in the Middle East, US Politics, War on Terror | 27 Comments

Both Massad, and ‘Open Zion’, ignore the experience of Middle Eastern Jews

Posted on May 21, 2013 by David Shasha

In the current media discourse the actual culture and history of the Arab Jews is completely ignored in favor of a bare-knuckles political approach that marks Jews and Arabs as separate categories. The narrative is one that has been constructed by the Zionists and leaves out the existential and cultural substance of the Sephardic community.

Posted in American Jewish Community, Israel/Palestine, Media, Middle East | 44 Comments

Turkish PM raises Mavi Marmara at White House press conf, calls grow for Obama to investigate killing of Furkan Doğan

Posted on May 17, 2013 by Adam Horowitz

Yesterday, President Obama held a joint press conference with Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan. Although the focus was on Syria, and the myriad scandals overtaking the White House in the past week, Israel/Palestine came up as well.

Posted in Activism, Israel/Palestine, Middle East, Turkey, US Policy in the Middle East, US Politics | 10 Comments

Glenn Greenwald brings facts and reason to ‘Real Time’, ruins Bill Maher’s night

Posted on May 11, 2013 by Scott Roth

Last night Bill Maher had Glenn Greenwald on his show. Maher, a self-professed atheist who thinks religion is poison but thinks Israel is wonderful got a big surprise.

Posted in Media, US Policy in the Middle East, US Politics, War on Terror | 88 Comments

US promotes regional states/Israeli alliance against Iran while leading provocative naval drills in the Gulf

Posted on May 9, 2013 by Ira Glunts

The U.S. is promoting a military alliance among Israel, Jordan, Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates (UAE) and Turkey in order to counter what they perceive as an Iranian threat.

Posted in Iran, Israel/Palestine, syria, US Policy in the Middle East, US Politics | Tagged , , , , | 38 Comments

Exile and the Prophetic: Triaging Palestine

Posted on May 8, 2013 by Marc H. Ellis

I have argued for years that Israel’s only route for integration into the Middle East is through Palestinians. Without a just resolution of the Palestinian issue, Israel will forever be isolated, turning to the West for support and living in its “dangerous neighborhood” as a militarized pariah. Contra my argument, what if Israel’s way into the Middle East is through its military dominance and becoming a significant cooperative player in the “stabilization” of the Middle East – without a real Palestinian state?

Posted in Israel/Palestine, Middle East, syria, Turkey | 3 Comments

Exile and the Prophetic: Getting Israel ‘right’

Posted on May 7, 2013 by Marc H. Ellis

I love it when American pundits talk about American intervention just shy of American boots on the ground – as if everyone else’s suffering is unimportant in comparison.

Posted in Israel/Palestine, Media, Middle East, syria, US Policy in the Middle East, US Politics | 4 Comments

New York mayoral candidates debate police spying on Muslims and Brooklyn College BDS panel

Posted on May 7, 2013 by Alex Kane

Seven candidates for New York City mayor gathered on Sunday at a one-of-a-kind forum devoted to Muslim community issues. The debate focused on a range of issues, from police surveillance of Muslims to school holidays to the Brooklyn College BDS panel. While most candidates spoke out against police surveillance of Muslims, only two said the program was unconstitutional. And the front-runners in the race–Christine Quinn and Bill de Blasio–did not denounce the expansive surveillance program. Above, from the left, is Public Advocate Bill de Blasio; Comptroller John Liu; City Council Speaker Christine Quinn; and Rev. Erick Salgado.

Posted in Israel/Palestine, US Politics, War on Terror | Tagged | 3 Comments

Arab League slights boycott of Israel by backing ‘land swaps’

Posted on May 6, 2013 by Allison Deger

Until last week the Arab world’s position on Israeli borders was firm. Then Secretary of State John Kerry visited the Middle East and the Arab League reversed its stance on settlements, backing “land swaps” between Israel and the occupied Palestinian territories.

Posted in Egypt, Israel/Palestine, Israeli Government, Middle East, Occupation, Settlers/Colonists, US Policy in the Middle East | 13 Comments

Exile and the Prophetic: Vultures over Syria

Posted on May 6, 2013 by Marc H. Ellis

As Israel strikes Syria from the air, Prime Minister Netanyahu is affirming that discussions about the Arab League’s proposal aren’t about so much about land swaps. The recognition of Israel as a Jewish state is more important. Of course, it helps that Israel already has a solid lock on the land it wants. Now it’s time to wrap up the Jewish state idea.

Posted in Israel/Palestine, syria | 9 Comments

Syria wrap: Grumbling This won’t be easy, NYT’s Bill Keller suits up for another Mid-East war

Posted on May 6, 2013 by Philip Weiss
F-16-1

US has accused Syrian regime of using chemical weapons, but UN investigator says rebels have used them. At the New York Times, Bill Keller, who pushed the Iraq war, advises, “Syria Is Not Iraq,” and that “getting Syria right starts with getting over Iraq.” The columnist ascribes great power to the U.S. to be able to fix things over there– on what basis?

Posted in Israel/Palestine, Media, syria, US Policy in the Middle East, US Politics | 38 Comments

Islamophobic ‘Foreign Policy’ article compares Boston bombing and Palestinian resistance to occupation

Posted on May 3, 2013 by Deanna Othman

Yair Shamir’s May 1, Foreign Policy article “Our Shared Islamist Enemy: From Boston to Israel, radicals are attempting to destroy Western culture” endeavors to draw baseless parallels between the Boston Marathon bombings and the resistance of Palestinians against the Israeli occupation, what he inaccurately portrays as an “aggressive and offensive jihad, unconnected to any particular conflict or borders, which conjoins Islamist terror groups around the world.” His unabashedly Zionist agenda rears its head through this opportunistic attempt to play into the media circus surrounding the Boston bombings.

Posted in Israel/Palestine, Media, US Politics, War on Terror | 16 Comments

Legal fight continues against NYPD spying on Muslims: an interview with civil rights lawyer Jethro Eisenstein

Posted on May 3, 2013 by Alex Kane

Jethro Eisenstein has battled the New York Police Department’s civil rights violations for 42 years. Now, the civil rights lawyer is taking the fight to the NYPD’s expansive program of spying on the Muslim community. Mondoweiss’ Alex Kane sat down with Eisenstein to discuss the lawsuit against the NYPD surveillance program, the police department’s history of spying on dissidents, the Boston bombings and proposals on the table to rein in the excesses of the NYPD.

Posted in US Politics, War on Terror | 9 Comments

Video: Palestinian refugees from Syria speak out

Posted on May 2, 2013 by Mosireen

Listen to these Palestinians, now yet again refugees in another land. First the Zionist armies exiled them from their villages in Palestine in 1948, now the armies of Bashar exiled them from Syria, which had became a temporary home.

Posted in Israel/Palestine, Middle East, Reports/Video, syria | 16 Comments

Close Guantanamo now

Posted on May 1, 2013 by Adam Horowitz

Morris Davis, the Chief Prosecutor for the Terrorism Trials at Guantanamo Bay for more than two years, has authored a petition at Change.org calling for President Obama to close the detention facility at Guantanamo Bay. He writes: “If any other country were treating prisoners the way we are treating those in Guantanamo we would roundly and rightly criticize that country. We can never retake the legal and moral high ground when we claim the right to do unto others that which we would vehemently condemn if done to one of us.”

Posted in Activism, US Policy in the Middle East, US Politics, War on Terror | 9 Comments

Terrorist bombing

Posted on April 30, 2013 by Katie Miranda
Posted in Middle East, US Policy in the Middle East, US Politics, War on Terror | 5 Comments

6 facts you should know about the Guantanamo Bay hunger strike

Posted on April 30, 2013 by Alex Kane

The situation at Guantanamo continues to deteriorate. Here’s 6 facts you should know about Guantanamo Bay and the ongoing act of protest most of the prisoners are participating in.

Posted in Middle East, US Politics, War on Terror | 5 Comments

Treatment of Boston suspect exposes ‘Muslim exception’ to Constitution

Posted on April 30, 2013 by Alex Kane

Islamophobia has reared its ugly head post-Boston bombings. This time, though, the major purveyors of it aren’t right-wing bigots. Instead, it’s the U.S. government and a general tolerance for the violation of Muslims’ civil rights. The treatment of Dzokhar Tsarnaev, the main suspect in the Boston bombings, is a case study in how there’s a “Muslim exception” to the U.S. Constitution. This “Muslim exception” is rooted in Islamophobia.

Posted in US Politics, War on Terror | Tagged | 24 Comments

Israel shoots down drone off the coast of Haifa

Posted on April 25, 2013 by Annie Robbins

The Israeli military shot down a drone today that invaded Israeli airspace. The military is now scouring the Mediteranean Sea off the coast of Haifa in search of wreckage from the drone. The incident comes about six months after the Lebanese militant group Hezbollah sent a drone that invaded Israeli airspace.

Posted in Israel/Palestine, Middle East | 43 Comments

Palestine and the Left

Posted on April 22, 2013 by Jacobin Magazine

Read the introduction to Jacobin magazine’s special section on Palestine and the Left.

Posted in Activism, BDS, Israel Lobby, Israel/Palestine, Israeli Government, Middle East, Occupation, One state/Two states, US Policy in the Middle East, US Politics | 17 Comments

Preparing for Iran?: US on verge of $10 billion arms deal with Israel, Saudi Arabia and UAE

Posted on April 19, 2013 by Adam Horowitz

New York Times: The Defense Department is expected to finalize a $10 billion arms deal with Israel, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates next week that will provide missiles, warplanes and troop transports to help them counter any future threat from Iran.

Posted in Iran, Israel/Palestine, Middle East, US Policy in the Middle East, US Politics | 34 Comments

Boston, Baghdad & Birmingham

Posted on April 17, 2013 by Shakeel Syed

Instead of feasting their feat, innocent men and women of all ages were limping and crying. In a matter of seconds, Boston became Baghdad on the tax day. Bodies, blood and broken limbs were on the streets of Boston and … Continue reading →

Posted in Iraq, US Politics | 10 Comments

Egypt: Same shit, different regime

Posted on April 17, 2013 by Katie Miranda

A cartoon by Katie Miranda illustrating the Morsi government’s approach to Gaza.

Posted in Egypt, Gaza, Israel/Palestine | 22 Comments

Reflecting on bombings in Boston and Iraq

Posted on April 16, 2013 by @WomanUnveiled

The takeaway: We see and hear of victims of terrorism in Syria, Libya, Iraq, Palestine, Pakistan, and Afghanistan every day. The death of an innocent, no matter where, is nothing short of horrifying.

Posted in Iraq, Middle East, syria, US Politics | 58 Comments