‘A parliamentary report published in 2013 noted that since its creation in 1948, Israel has granted official refugee status only to 200 people.’ (Washington Post) And that is, of course, the point Israel is NOT a European country. It is a state in the Middle East composed primarily of ideological migrants from the U.S. plus a few million former …
Prof. James Petras – The Two Faces of Capitalism and Left Options
Introduction Rightwing politics now dominate the globe. Broadly speaking, the Right can be divided into a US-centered rightwing bloc and a variety of anti-US rightwing regimes and social forces. Israel is a special case of a rightwing regime, allied with the US, which acts more independently to pursue its own colonial priorities and hegemonic ambitions. The anti-US rightwing includes capitalist …
Robert Parry – How Neocons Destabilized Europe
The refugee chaos that is now pushing deep into Europe – dramatized by gut-wrenching photos of Syrian toddler Aylan Kurdi whose body washed up on a beach in Turkey – started with the cavalier ambitions of American neocons and their liberal-interventionist sidekicks who planned to remake the Middle East and other parts of the world through “regime change.” Instead of the …
Gaither Stewart – One Of History’s Greatest Mass Migrations Of Peoples
Europe, the small tail end peninsula of the great Euro-Asian land mass, gears up to receive the brunt of a mass migration of peoples from the South and East fleeing from the wars raging in their worlds. The United Nations Refugee Agency predicts some 800,000 arrivals of “seekers of asylum” in the remaining months of 2015. Estimates of the numbers …
David Hearst – “Peace Maker” and War Criminal Tony Blair: Gaza and All That Offshore Gas
What was in it for Tony Blair when he conducted talks with Hamas chief Khaled Meshaal in Doha? Of all the bizarre encounters the Palestinian conflict has generated, Tony Blair’s four meetings in Doha with Hamas leader Khaled Meshaal must surely rank as among the oddest. Here was the Quartet’s Middle East envoy breaking the Quartet’s own rules about not talking to …
Thalif Deen – Europe Squabbles While Refugees Die
UNITED NATIONS – As tens of thousands of refugees continue to flee conflict-ridden countries, including Afghanistan, Iraq, Libya and Syria, Western European governments and international humanitarian organisations are struggling to cope with a snowballing humanitarian crisis threatening to explode. Hungary is building a fence to ward off refugees. Slovakia says it will accept only Christian refugees, triggering a condemnation by …
Jon Queally – As Obama’s War in Iraq and Syria Rumbles On, Are Intel Books Getting Cooked?
Calling to mind the subterfuge made infamous by the administration of George W. Bush in the lead-up to the invasion of Iraq in 2003, reports are emerging from within Obama’s Pentagon and intelligence community that internal assessments of the ongoing war against the Islamic State (ISIS) in Iraq and Syria are being “cooked” or “politicized” to fit the public proclamations …
Catherine Shakdam – Religious eugenics: How Saudi Arabia is sponsoring a frightening new movement in the Middle East
Blanketed by its wealth and protected by political alliances, Saudi Arabia has covertly run and promoted a new movement in the Middle East: religious eugenics, under the false pretense of opposing the rise of Iran. From Syria to Bahrain and Yemen the evidence is overwhelming. Earlier this August, the Red Cross added its voice to those of other humanitarian and …
Medea Benjamin – Who’s the Real Troublemaker in the Middle East?
Except for maybe the Affordable Care Act, nothing gets Republican politicians fired up like Iran. In the first GOP debate alone, Scott Walker promised that he’d tear up the Iran nuclear deal on day one of his presidency. Carly Fiorina blamed the country for “most of the evil that is going on in the Middle East.” Mike Huckabee vowed to topple the “terrorist Iranian …
Jeff Faux – Breaking News: The Rich Discover Inequality
After forty years of rising income and wealth inequality, some of America’s rich seem worried that maybe things have gone too far. In a recent New York Times Op Ed (August 9), for example, Peter Georgescu, CEO emeritus of the multinational public relations firm, Young and Rubicon, wrote that he is “scared” of a backlash that might lead to social …