Abu-Manneh: The Question of Palestine10 Jan 2008New Politics: The year 2008 is the sixtieth anniversary of the founding of Israel and of the Nakba, the Palestinian catastrophe. What do you see as the Israeli goal and has it changed over the years? Bashir Abu-Manneh: Israel’s goal has been a constant: Jewish sovereignty in Palestine.
Engelhardt: The $100 Barrel of Oil vs. the Global War on Terror10 Jan 2008Consider the debate among four Democratic presidential candidates on ABC News last Saturday night. In the previous week, the price of a barrel of oil briefly touched $100, unemployment hit 5%, the stock market had the worst three-day start since the Great Depression, and the word “recession” was in the headlines and in the air.
Riddell: People’s Power in Venezuela10 Jan 2008“If we want to talk of socialism,” says Argenis Loreto, “we must first resolve the people’s most urgent needs: water in their homes, accessible health care, easy access to housing.” In the Venezuelan municipality of Libertador (state of Carabobo), of which Argenis is mayor, “we have 90% poverty.
Susskind: Who is Killing the Women of Basra?10 Jan 2008In Basra, Iraq’s second largest city, 2008 was ushered in with an announcement of the 2007 death toll of women targeted by Islamist militias. City officials reported on December 31 that 133 women were killed and mutilated last year, their bodies dumped in trash bins with notes warning others against “violating Islamic teachings…” But ambulance drivers who are hired to troll the city streets in the early mornings to collect the bodies confirm what most residents believe: the actual numbers are much higher.
Ford: Barack, Hillary, and the Sinister Nothingness of “Change”10 Jan 2008“Although ‘change’ may come, it will be at the direction of the rich.” The scam of this still-new century enthralls and envelopes the nation, a narrowly-packaged farce in which political twins Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama pretend they are not joined at the hip on every public policy issue that has been allowed to enter the corporate media-vetted discourse: health care, Iraq, trade.
Young: The Effects of the US Occupation9 Jan 2008A primary stated justification for continuing the US-led military occupation of Iraq is that a withdrawal of Western forces would result in a “bloodbath.” Without the responsible, benevolent oversight of the US-led forces, the rhetoric goes, Islamo-fascists in Iraq would simply slaughter each other.
Chatterji: Riots in Orissa9 Jan 2008December 25 2007: Seven churches, Catholic, Protestant, Pentacostal, Independent . burned in Barakhama village, Kandhamal district, central Orissa.
Haque: The Tragedy of a Tortured Land9 Jan 2008The land of the Indus, the crossing of the Himalayas, Karakorum and the Hindukush, the land of the Pathans, the Hazaras, the Saraiki speaking plains, the prosperous central Punjab, the rugged Baluchistan and the dominating urban landscapes of tens of million souls comprise the complex diversity of this nation. Pakistani identity distraught with mistrust between the Muslim & the non, the Punjabi & the other and the religious & the secular.
Baker: Insurers Whack Elderly to Celebrate New Year9 Jan 2008What better way to start the new year than to sock it to grandma and grandpa with big price increases? That may not have been the exact nature of the conversation at the insurance companies that participate in the Medicare prescription drug plan, but it sure was the outcome, as premiums are scheduled to rise by an average of almost 25 percent in 2008. The sharp price hikes for 2008 could mark the beginning of the end of the relatively good news in the drug plan’s first two years of existence.
Safty: Iran: Washington’s War may have to wait9 Jan 2008I argued in a previous article that Washington’s case for war against Iran relied more on rhetoric than on evidence, was opposed by the military, American and international public opinions, and was complicated by Israel’s inability to crush Hizbollah in the 2006 Lebanon war. But that this did not mean that a Washington-supported Israeli attack against Iran was not being planned.
Ruebner: Double standard on divestment9 Jan 2008Today, two movements for the promotion of human rights in Sudan and Palestine seek to emulate the successful role played by boycotts, divestment, and sanctions in achieving democracy and equality in South Africa. The two movements, however, have received radically different receptions on Capitol Hill.
Young: Iraqi Public Opinion8 Jan 2008No nation that claims to value democracy for the world’s people can maintain a military occupation against the will of the occupied population. Yet despite what seems like a fundamental moral truism—the notion that a military occupation of one country by another can only be justified if the occupied population supports it—mainstream commentators in this country rarely broach the subject of Iraqi attitudes toward the US-led occupation.
Moghissi: Of “Cultural” Crimes and Denials8 Jan 2008A zealot Muslim father killed her daughter in Toronto in a rage over her refusal to wear hijab. Racist Muslim-phoebes had a field day; Islamist leaders denied that this tragedy had anything to do with Islam; and many Canadian feminists, human rights activists, and the left stayed silent in order not to be accused of Islamophobia or racism.
Pappe: Ethnic Cleansing Goes On8 Jan 2008Emanuela Irace, il manifesto – Translated by Diego Traversa, Peacepalestine Ilan Pappe arrived in Italy without causing any sensational uproar. He is IEMASVO’s guest [1], at the ISIAO’s Roman venue [2], for a conference over Israel-Palestine.
Emersberger: Haiti’s Debt8 Jan 2008Despite being the most impoverished country in the Western Hemisphere, Haiti lags behind many countries in the Americas in obtaining debt relief through a program run by the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and the World Bank. A hard-hitting paper published in December by the Washington D.
Berrigan: The Fog of War Crimes8 Jan 2008A Marine squad was on a dusty road in Iraq, far from home. Suddenly, a deadly roadside bomb explodes the early morning calm and kills a lance corporal and wounds two other Marines.
Jacobs: Ron Paul-Is Being Against the War Enough?8 Jan 2008When I was hanging out with the youth element of the Revolutionary Unions (RU) back in the early to mid-1970s, there was a fellow member who attended American University and was part of our branch. While returning from a meeting in Washington, DC one afternoon, our conversation turned to what brought us to leftist politics.
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