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HOLLYWOOD AND THE CIA — Film historian Ed Rampell details Hollywood’s entangled relationship with the CIA and the Pentagon; HOUSES OF THE DEAD: Nancy Kurshan exposes the cruel human rights offenses taking place inside America’s vast gulag of Control Unit Prisons; BROTHERHOOD OF SUMMER:  David Macaray charts the history of the most powerful union in the US: the Baseball Players Association; TAR SANDS COME TO AMERICA: Steve Horn explains how the Keystone Pipeline debates have diverted  attention from Big Oil’s other plans to transport Alberta’s oil into the US. PLUS: Jeffrey St. Clair on CONSTITUTIONAL ENTROPY; Mike Whitney on HOW THE BANKS TARGETED BLACKS; Chris Floyd on THE RISE OF BRITAIN’S TEA PARTY; Kristin Kolb on THE NEEDLE AND THE DAMAGE DONE; Kim Nicolini on the FILMS OF WILLIAM FRIEDKIN; and Lee Ballinger on POETS VS. THE ONE PERCENT.
Archives by Tag 'Israel'
The Speech That was Not Delivered
URI AVNERY
Note: This text was written on Wednesday, a day before President Obama made his historic speech in Jerusalem. It appears that my text  came much closer to his actual speech than I had dared to hope. Some passages are almost identical. Readers may want to compare the text...
The Unheard Voices of Palestinians
ALAN WIEDER
David Grossman did the interviews for his book, The Yellow Wind, in May 1987, six months bef...
Obama, Israel and Palestine
ROBERT FANTINA
One wonders when, if ever, the nonsense that spews forth from the mouths of the U.S.’s elected, so-called representatives, ceases. Less than five months after his victory over a truly frightening oppon...
A Draft-Dodging, Zionist Friendly, Rghtwing Texan Islamist to lead Syria?
FRANKLIN LAMB
Damascus. For the past year, a plan C or D, depending on how one numbers the failed US-Israel projects in Syria was badly needed for those presuming to topple the Assad government. And this week, according  to Congressional staffers, both Tel Aviv ...
Return of the Living Dead
PEPE ESCOBAR
Uncle Marx never thought about this one: history repeating itself as double tragedy after already being a farce in the first place. Let’s examine the case in hand. First of all, take a close look at this Wall Street Journal op-ed from September 2002, in the hysteri...
Rachel Corrie’s Rafah Legacy
RAMZY BAROUD
“Hi Papa .. Don’t worry about me too much, right now I am most concerned that we are not being effective. I still don’t feel particularly at risk. Rafah has seemed calmer lately,” Rachel Corrie wrote to her father, Craig, from Rafah, a town located at the southern...
Will Israeli Settlers Receive Obama’s Blessing?
JONATHAN COOK
Those who hoped that Barack Obama would be arriving in Israel to bang Israeli and Palestinian heads together, after four years of impasse in the peace process, will be sorely disappointed. The US president’s trip beginning today may be historic – the first of h...
More Apartheid
CESAR AGUEL
Where? Well . . . Take a guess. Choose two places and one does not count. We are of course referring to the new measures taken by the Israeli Transport Ministry, for the daily transfer, back and forth, of Palestinians residing in the Occupied Territor...
Obama Marks Iraq War Anniversary with War Summit in Israel
BEN SCHREINER
A decade after the American-led invasion of Iraq, the U.S. is once again preparing to set the Middle East ablaze.  In fact, President Obama will touch down in Tel Aviv ten years to the day “shock and awe” was first unleashed for what appears to be little more than a ...
Obama in the West Bank
RUTH MICHAELSON
Obama’s visit to Israel and the West Bank has been labelled as an opportunity by some. Indeed, it is an opportunity- and it’s likely to be one that will be deliberately skirted by the administration, in a bid to ensure that Israeli Premier Benjamin Netanyahu does a be...
Obama in the Middle East
MICHAEL BRENNER
American actions in the greater Middle East over the past decade pose a unique challenge to the analyst. Understanding the thinking that goes into a particular policy decision or the calculations that lie behind a diplomatic strategy is always hard in Washington where the...
The Corries’ Ten-Year Quest for Justice
TOM WRIGHT and THERESE SALIBA
“Parents can be awakened by their children” –Cindy Corrie, 2003 Commencement address Ten years have now passed since we received ...
The New Generation of Hypocrisy on Iran
TED SNIDER
Though the recent nuclear talks with Iran ended with an apparent whiff of progress, and though the two sides have agreed to meet for further technical negotiations this month and then for political level talks next month, the U.S. continues to approach Iran with a hostili...
UNICEF Criticizes Israel’s Treatment of Palestinian Kids
Dr. CESAR CHELALA
A new UNICEF report, “Children in Israeli Military Detention,” is sharply critical of Israel’s treatment of detained Palestinian children. According to UNICEF, 700 Palestinian children aged 12-17, most of them boys, are arrested and harshly interrogated by the Israe...
“5 Broken Cameras’” Strange Trip to the Oscars
URI AVNERY
This does not happen every day: a Minister of Culture publicly rejoices because a film from her country has not been awarded an Oscar. And not just one film, but two. It happened this week. Limor Livnat, still Minister of Culture in the outgoing government...
The P5+1 Meeting with Iran
SASAN FAYAZMANESH
On March 1, 2010, an essay in Haaretz titled “Who will blink first in Iran’s nuclear poker game?” stated that “Israel is on the verge of a preemptive war to try to foil Iran’s nuclear program.” So, the question was who would blink first? Would it be Ira...
Is the Anti-Occupation Movement Driven by Defenders of Genocide?
Dr. PAUL LARUDEE
If there is one message that unifies critics of Israel and advocates for Palestinian rights, it is “End the Occupation.”  As with many unifying messages, however, it is successful partly because of its ambiguity.  What land and which people are occupied?  And what ...
The Iranian Dilemma
MICHAEL BRENNER
Iran looms on the horizon.  Resumption of technical talks with Iranian officials does not alter the gloomy outlook for resolution of the dispute’s underlying issues.  Sanctions clearly are not forcing Tehran leaders to yield to American demands. While there is no evid...
The Third Intifada?
URI AVNERY
Is this the third intifada? This question was raised this week by a number of Israeli security experts. And not only by them – their Palestinian colleagues were almost as perplexed. All over the West Bank, Palestinian youth threw stones at Israeli soldiers. All t...
The Oft-Predicted Fickle Syrian ‘Tipping Point’ Has Tipped
FRANKLIN LAMB
Damascus This observer lost count more than a year ago of the sheer number of predictions by analysts and lobbyists that the “tipping point” signaling the Assad government’s collapse was a sure thing and would happen any time now. “It’s just a ma...
Yad Vashem, Power, and the Politics of History
DAVID LANGSTAFF
As my friend and I made our way to Yad Vashem, the world-renowned Holocaust memorial museum in West Jerusalem, I couldn’t help but feel a sense of trepidation. I was nearing the end of a two-month stint working with the International Solidarity Movement (ISM) i...
Turkey’s Difficult Choice in Palestine, Israel
RAMZY BAROUD
An Israeli-Turkish rapprochement is unmistakably underway, but unlike the heyday of their political alignment of the 1990’s, the revamped relationship is likely to be more guarded and will pose a greater challenge to Turkey rather than to Israel. Israeli media re...
Obama’s Israel Trip
JONATHAN COOK
Israeli and Palestinian officials have been in Washington laying the ground for President Barack Obama’s visit to Israel and the West Bank, scheduled for next month and the first since he took office four years ago. Topping the agenda, Israeli Prime Minister ...
The Tail Instructs the Dog
FRANKLIN LAMB
On 2/26/2013 Iran is expected to meet with other world powers in Almaty, Kazakhstan to discuss its nuclear program. Discussions that the occupiers of Palestine fervently hope will not be successful. It is toward this end that their key demand this week to the US Congress,...
Israel’s Wall of Madness
ANDRE VLTCHEK and LYNDA BURNSTEIN BRAYER
Golan Heights. If someone would say: “Israel, Palestine and Golan Heights! And you have only two seconds to describe what first comes to your mind.” Then I would immediately put into words two images that would enter my mind: “Mental asylum, a...