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Trump: End the Syria war now
Middle EastPresident Trump, according to numerous reliable Washington sources, has decided to end US arms supplies and logistics support to Syria’s jihadist rebels that have fuelled the bloody six-year conflict. Washington, and its allies Britain and France, have persistently denied arming Syria’s jihadist rebels fighting to bring down the Russian and Iranian-backed government of President Bashar Assad.
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The Qatar Crisis
Middle EastIt would be utterly foolish to consider Qatar, Turkey, or Iran as representative of some progressive realignment just because they happen to be – at least for the moment – on the wrong side of Saudi Arabia, the UAE, and Israel. Jostling for regional power sparked these tensions and produced all sorts of contradictory and shaky political alliances, but none of the states involved represent any kind of political alternative worthy of the Left’s support.
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Hersh’s New Syria Revelations Buried From View
Middle EastThe corporate media has grown ever more fearful of a truly independent figure like Hersh. The potential reach of his stories could now be enormously magnified by social media. As a result, he has been increasingly marginalised. By denying him the credibility of a “respectable” mainstream platform, he can be dismissed as a crank and charlatan. A purveyor of fake news.
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Was Israel Under Existential Threat in June 1967?
Middle EastIsraeli planning and preparations paid off during the war. The victory, though, proved to be a devastating one. Israel has never recuperated from it. Fifty years after, much of the Jewish state’s energies are devoted to maintaining the brutal occupation of the West Bank and Gaza. And the protracted debate about whether to continue and hold these territories tears Israel’s society apart.
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Canada’s Effort to suppress “Popular Protests” against Israeli Occupation
Canadian PoliticsAround 1,000 Palestinians held in Israeli prisons have been on hunger strike since April 17. In the occupied West Bank thousands of protesters have taken to the streets and gone on strike in solidarity with the 6,500 Palestinians currently imprisoned by Israel. The Canadian media should cover the prisoners’ hunger strike and its challenge to PA security cooperation with Israel. Even better, it ought to report on Canada’s role in entrenching Israel’s 50-year-old occupation.
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Zionist Colonization is Not ‘Exceptional’: A Marxist Viewpoint
Middle EastThe colonial project in the state of Israel seeks to dispossess and subdue the indigenous people, and whenever needed, exploit their cheap labour for the benefit of capital. Capitalist class interests dominate the colonial states’ “peaceful resolution” of the conflicts with the colonized, aiming to retain the rule of capital and, in the globalized era, to enable economic neoliberalism.
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Cui bono? Uri Avnery on the Syrian poison gas controversy
Middle EastCui bono – “who benefits” – is the first question an experienced detective asks when investigating a crime. Since I was a detective myself for a short time in my youth, I know the meaning. Often, the first and obvious suspicion is false. You ask yourself “cui bono”, and another suspect, who you did not think about, appears.
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Trump, Syria, and Chemical Weapons: What We Know, What We Don’t, and the Dangers Ahead
Middle EastUS military escalation against Syria (because we must not forget that US Special Forces and US bombers are already fighting there) will not help the victims of this heinous chemical attack, it will not bring the devastating war in Syria to a quicker end, it will not bring back the dead children. It will not defeat ISIS or end terrorism, it will create more terrorists.
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Sen. Lindsey Graham calls for up to 7,000 American troops in Syria to take down Assad
Middle EastWhile the United States struck a Syrian airforce base on Thursday, the attack was, according to Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.), a one-off in response to an illegal use of chemical weapons earlier this week. But Graham warned that if Assad remains in power it “will ensure the war never ends,” reported Paul McLeod of BuzzFeed News.
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EKOS poll: Canada should support Israeli sanctions, not demonize them
Canadian PoliticsWhat could possibly justify Trudeau’s irrational stance when it comes to promoting peace between Israel and the Palestinians? In determining its policy towards Israel the Trudeau government has three apparent motivations at play: defending Israel’s right to exist, tending to Canada’s specific national interests and reflecting Canadian values.
