Tag: Middle East
Views from the Beltline: How Trump unleashed Iran
In 1953, Iran’s democratic government led by Prime Minister Mohammad Mosaddeq was toppled by a military coup backed by the CIA and the British Secret Intelligence Service. Mosaddeq had nationalized the British-controlled Iranian oil industry, and the Americans and the Brits weren’t having any of that. The coup transformed Iran’s
Continue readingTHE FIFTH COLUMN: Is There Hope For Palestine
I wrote this in November 2007 on the hope for a solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict: The solution essentially comes down to understanding the most and least that each side can accept. We could argue forever whether the State of Israel should have been created the way it was but,
Continue readingTHE FIFTH COLUMN: Palestine – What If
Balfour Declaration (November 2nd, 1917) “His Majesty’s Government view with favour the establishment in Palestine of a national home for the Jewish people, and will use their best endeavours to facilitate the achievement of this object, it being clearly understood that nothing shall be done which may prejudice the civil
Continue readingSong of the Watermelon: Israel’s Assault on Gaza
In the days since Hamas’s violent rampage through southern Israel, one word that keeps popping up is “unprovoked.” A Biden administration official condemned “the unprovoked attacks by Hamas terrorists against Israeli civilians,” while Mike Pence urged every American to “condemn the unprovoked and massive attack on Israel by terrorists in
Continue readingDead Wild Roses: The No Space for Hate People Better Step Up Their Game…
The theory. The Praxis.
Continue readingCanadian Dimension: Jenin
Israeli soldier during the July 2023 Jenin incursion. Photo by IDF Spokesperson’s Unit/Wikimedia Commons. For two days beginning on July 3, Israeli helicopter gunships pulverized dozens of buildings, stores, houses in Jenin’s refugee camp—half a kilometer square with more than 11,000 residents, and the town of Jenin, in the Occupied
Continue readingViews from the Beltline: Iran and Saudi Arabia make nice
The Middle East has been an ugly place for some time. It has become humanity’s favourite region for killing each other although Vladimir Putin is attempting to return that honour to Europe. It was good news therefore to hear that two of the region’s major belligerents have decided to kiss
Continue readingViews from the Beltline: Iran and Saudi Arabia make nice
The Middle East has been an ugly place for some time. It has become humanity’s favourite region for killing each other although Vladimir Putin is attempting to return that honour to Europe. It was good news therefore to hear that two of the region’s major belligerents have decided to kiss
Continue readingSong of the Watermelon: National Post Letter
Electoral reform opponents are once again pulling out the old Israel canard. I’ve responded with a letter attempting to set the record straight in today’s National Post: Electoral reform Re: Think you want electoral reform? Kelly McParland, July 9 According to Kelly McParland, “Israel has a proportional representation system of
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Monday Morning Links
Miscellaneous material to start your week. – Paul Krugman discusses the need for people who have been responsible about limiting the spread of COVID-19 to start speaking out and taking action to ensure that the reckless and nihilistic aren’t able to impose avoidable disease and death. Adia Benton, Maimuna Majumder
Continue readingCanadian Dimension: The duty to end Israeli apartheid
Qalandiya checkpoint in the West Bank. Photo by Adam Nieman/Flickr. This week I tried to explain here that the continuing occupation and its transformation from a supposedly temporary situation to a permanent one, with the erasure of the Green Line (for Jews), has created a new situation: It is no
Continue readingPaul S. Graham: America’s enforcer in the Middle East
Stephen Gowans is an independent Canadian political analyst. His writings, which appear on his What’s Left blog have been reproduced widely in online and print media in many languages and had been cited in academic journals and other scholarly works. He’s the author of Washington’s Long War on Syria (2017),
Continue readingViews from the Beltline: How much crap should Iran be expected to take from the U.S.?
Iran under the Ayatollahs is hardly a model nation. Domestically, it is repressive and, due largely to sanctions imposed by the United States, impoverished. Its foreign policy is aggressive. It supports groups that Canada has labelled terrorist, such as Hezbollah and Hamas, aids President Bashar al-Assad in Syria’s civil war,
Continue readingCanadian Dimension: Canada gets cozy with repressive Middle East monarchies
Photo by U.S. Department of State While Justin Trudeau’s government embraces repressive Middle East monarchies, they want us to believe their campaign to oust Venezuela’s government is motivated by support for democracy and human rights. On a tour of the Middle East last week Defence Minister Harjit Singh Sajjan met
Continue readingCanadian Dimension: Art of the Smear: the Israel Lobby Busted
In 2016 and 2017 Al Jazeera produced a program that unmistakenly documents the Israel government and U.S. Israel lobby’s all-out effort to spy on, smear, and disrupt American students and other activists who are working to build an understanding of the Palestinians’ plight. The Lobby — USA, however, has never
Continue readingCanadian Dimension: Israel’s Mockery of Security: 101 Actions Israel Could Take
Photo by U.S. Embassy Jerusalem Israel has made a colossal mockery of the concept of security. In debating an Israeli friend from Jerusalem, I challenged him that Israel consciously plans and uses its military might to damage the Palestinian’s national project to build a state and free itself from Israeli
Continue readingCanadian Dimension: Israel’s Anti-Semitism Smear Campaign
Photo by U.S. Embassy Tel Aviv Donald Trump is devoted to his bottom line and to a belief in his own greatness. Beyond that, he has no fixed convictions. He does have instincts and attitudes, however. Some of them are less odious, at least in theory, than the fixed convictions
Continue readingCanadian Dimension: Israeli Peace Activist Uri Avnery Dead at 94
Photo by Michael F. Mehnert Veteran left-wing journalist, lawmaker and peace activist Uri Avnery died Monday at age 94 in Tel Aviv. A founder of the Gush Shalom peace movement, Avnery was also one of the first Israelis to actively advocate for the establishment of a Palestinian state, more than
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