Palestinians suffer from the effects of Israel’s nuclear-weapons blackmail every day of their lives. In today’s world, nuclear weapons are an essential pillar of imperial control. If imperial control is to be dismantled, then so too must the nuclear arsenals that protect it.

Jesus of Nazareth, who would grow up to become an amazingly inspirational teacher, was a Jewish Palestinian who was born at a time when Palestine was under the brutal rule of a foreign military occupation. Helena Cobban tells the story of Christmas.

India’s Prime Minister Modi, his ruling BJP party, the RSS movement, and their intertwined actions can teach us all a lot about what Zionism is, how how both Zionism and Hindutva work to create and defend an exclusivist, ethno/sectarian-nationalist state.

Helena Cobban reviews, “The Movement and the Middle East,” Michael R. Fischbach’s look at the roots of the politically progressive Palestinian-rights activism we see in today’s United States.

The New York Times gives Paul Wolfowitz a platform to criticize Trump on the withdrawal from Syria, and the fight against ISIS, without saying a word about the roots of ISIS in the destruction that his project of invading Iraq wrought throughout the region. Wolfowitz should be on trial for major war crimes, Helena Cobban writes, not featured in the New York Times.

Rep. Mark Pocan (D-WI) revealed in late October that members of Congress are planning another delegation to Palestine and this time “the permission has to include Rashida Tlaib and Ilhan Omar.” Pocan’s remarks introducing Palestinian writer Yousef Aljamal show that support for the rights of all Palestinians is growing within the 98-member-strong Congressional Progressive Caucus.

In ’56 the British overreached tragically in Suez, the U.S. punished the pound, a Prime Minister fell, and an Empire ended. John Bolton is exhibiting the same hubris about regime change in Iran, and using economic leverage to do so, but the gambit may not work out well for the American empire, Helena Cobban writes.

Helena Cobban discusses the deep anti-Palestinian bias in the New York Times and Washington Post’s recent reporting, and what you can do about it.

If Washington continues to support the deadly campaign that Saudi Arabia and the UAE have waged against Yemen, then war and suffering are all that we can expect for Yemen’s people. Will Congress change that with a veto this week?

Robert Mueller’s investigation into the Trump administration was focused on Russian interference in U.S. politics, but his findings highlight some highly questionable contacts that people close to Trump’s transition team had with representatives of another government that has intervened massively in U.S. policymaking in recent years: the United Arab Emirates.