When Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi took the podium at a mosque last June to deliver his first public Friday sermon, the world got a glimpse of the man who led an obscure extremist group from Syria to storm across the border into Iraq and took over the second-largest city in that nation to establish itself as the most serious menace to …
ISIS Is The Child Of Chaos, Not Religion By Justin Podur
In the third week of May, ISIS took the city of Ramadi in Iraq and Palmyra in Syria, in two, big, high-profile victories. Though ISIS has constantly been in the news for years now, these two cities seem to return the sense of an unstoppable march of Islamist forces across the Middle East. As the beheadings began almost immediately in …
Blundering Tony Blair quits as Middle East peace envoy – only Israel will miss him – ROBERT FISK
For Arabs – and for Britons who lost their loved ones in his shambolic war in Iraq – Blair’s appointment was an insult Tony Blair’s time as Middle East envoy representing the US, Russia, the UN and the EU has finally come to an end. Eight years after he took up the role, Blair tendered his resignation and left one question: …
Swedish politician: US is the true cause of the masses of refugees from the Middle East
The present Swedish debate about war refugees from the Middle East is an example of peer restricted expression. In the name of political correctness or perceived decency, any questioning of maximum generosity in opening Swedish borders for the refugees is indignantly rejected by the official mainstream. We have a humanitarian duty towards those who are forced to flee from areas …
Israel Thanks Obama for Sabotaging Nuclear Nonproliferation Deal – Sarah Lazare
The U.S. sabotage last week of an international agreement aimed at eradicating nuclear weapons stockpiles has been met mostly with alarm and frustration around the world—but gratitude from one key U.S. ally: Israel. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu personally called U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry on Saturday to thank the White House for leading the charge to block a final document that would …
Stop Feeding the Troll: The Case for an ISIS Propaganda Blackout – Adam Johnson
The London Express (5/22/15) unsubtly juxtaposed ISIS militants with an atomic explosion. This past weekend, several media outlets ran a story about how ISIS is seeking a nuclear weapon: ISIS Claims It Could Buy Its First Nuclear Weapon From Pakistan Within a Year —International Business Times ISIS to Smuggle Its First Nuclear Weapon From Pakistan, Mulls Attack on US: Report —Economic Times ISIS …
Our Mania for Hope Is a Curse – Chris Hedges
The naive belief that history is linear, that moral progress accompanies technical progress, is a form of collective self-delusion. It cripples our capacity for radical action and lulls us into a false sense of security. Those who cling to the myth of human progress, who believe that the world inevitably moves toward a higher material and moral state, are held …
Blocking a Nuclear-Free Mideast – Paul R. Pillar
Last week, the latest quinquennial review conference for the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty (NPT) ended as a failure, without issuing a formal statement or report. The single biggest snag concerned whether to call for the convening of a conference on a Middle Eastern nuclear weapons free zone (MENWFZ). Fingers of blame were pointed in various directions, including at Egypt for pushing some …
“This land is ours,” says Israel’s top diplomat, citing religious texts – Patrick Strickland
Tzipi Hotovely, Israel’s new deputy foreign minister, vowed to continue building Jewish-only settlements across the occupied West Bank, including East Jerusalem, in a recent speech to ministry employees. Hotovely is a member of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s hardlineLikud party which returned to power in Israel’s 17 March elections at the head of one of the most right-wing coalition governments in the country’s history. Because Netanyahu is presently serving as …
Isis claims it could buy its first nuclear weapon from Pakistan within a year – HEATHER SAUL
Isis has used the latest issue of its propaganda magazine Dabiq to suggest the group is expanding so rapidly it could buy its first nuclear weapon within a year. The hyperbolic article, which the group attributes to the British hostage John Cantlie, claims Isis has transcended its roots as “the most explosive Islamic ‘group’ in the modern world” to evolve into “the …