“If an oil well is too far beneath the sea to be plugged when something goes wrong, it’s too deep to be drilled in the first place.” — Bob Herbert, June 1, 2010 Imagine “the Associated Producers, Rationally Regulating Their Interchange with Nature” Amidst mass capital-imposed structural unemployment and ever-escalating environmental collapse, the ongoing epic […]
Archive | Commentary
Monthly Review Magazine
Who Will Bring Israel to Book over Flotilla Attack?
Will the rule of law be applied to Israel this time? In principle, it is unlawful for a state to enforce a blockade against ships that are flying the flag of another state on the high seas. The only exceptions to this would be if the blockade were mandated by the UN security council […]
TeleSur Demands Immediate Release and Physical Safety of Journalist David Segarra Captured during Israeli Attack
TeleSur Communiqué TeleSur demands, in the strongest terms, the immediate release of its collaborator David Segarra, captured after the Israeli military attack and massacre on a humanitarian fleet headed for Gaza. We exhort the civil and military authorities of Israel to safeguard his physical safety and all his rights. With other colleagues, David Segarra joined […]
The Legal Position on the Israeli Attack
Craig Murray at a rally in London, 31 May 2010 A word on the legal position, which is very plain. To attack a foreign flagged vessel in international waters is illegal. It is not piracy, as the Israeli vessels carried a military commission. It is rather an act of illegal warfare. Because the incident took […]
A Singer Sings, a President Resigns, an Attack Sends Signals
Over the weekend much of Germany went temporarily berserk when one of its own, little black-haired high school senior Lena, performing in Oslo, won the Grand Prix in the huge annual Eurovision song contest. It was Germany’s first win since 1982, when another young lady won out with her plaintive call for “A Little Peace.” […]
Open the Gates: A Rabbinical Response to the Gaza Freedom Flotilla Tragedy
Dear Friends, In the wake of the Gaza Freedom Flotilla tragedy, we once again feel the need to raise our voices as rabbis in the Jewish community. According to press reports, we now know that 10 to 15 people have been killed and many more have been injured when Israeli Navy Seals boarded a boat […]
Israel Attacks Turkish Free Gaza Ship: 16 Killed, According to Israeli Army Radio
30 May 2010 — According to Turkish news sources (CNN Turk, Hürriyet, Milliyet, NTV, and many others), Israeli soldiers stormed the Turkish Free Gaza ship Mavi Marmara belonging to İnsani Yardım Vakfı (Humanitarian Aid Foundation), killing at least 2 and wounding over 30 on board. The Turkish government has set up a crisis room while […]
Protest Israeli Murders of Freedom Flotilla Activists
International Solidarity Movement 31 May 2010, Free Gaza Movement Israel Murders at Least 10 Unarmed Civilians on Aid Flotilla to Gaza, Dozens Injured (Cyprus, June 1, 2010, 6:30AM local) — Under darkness of night, Israeli commandos from at least 14 warships and military helicopters boarded the Turkish passenger ship, Mavi Marmara, and began shooting. According […]
Regarding the Use of Force by the Israeli Defense Forces Against the Humanitarian Aid Fleet to Gaza
We protest in the strongest terms the use of force by the Israeli Defense Forces against the civilians from many countries who want to transport humanitarian assistance to the people in Gaza, and among whom there are women and children, which, according to the initial information available, resulted in the death of 2 persons and […]
Israel: Protest in Arab Town of Um el-Fahem against Israeli Attack on Freedom Flotilla
A mass rally has been held in Um el-Fahem today in condemnation of the Israeli pirate attack on the freedom flotilla. Former Mayor of Um el-Fahem Raed Salah was on board the Mavi Marmara during the attack, in which nearly 20 activists are said to have been killed by the IDF. For more information, visit […]
Egypt: Can the Muslim Brotherhood Say “Down with Mubarak”?
I can almost swear this is the first time I hear the Muslim Brothers chanting publicly, “Down with Mubarak!” Nyahahaha . . . the cowards. During the evening Palestine protest in Ramses, whenever the Socialists chanted “Down with Mubarak,” followed by young MBs, you can see in the video MB organizers waving “No,” trying to […]
Israel’s Attack on the Turkish Ships Complicates China’s Balancing Act on Iran and the United States
President Obama’s already diminishing chances to “steamroll” the Iran-Turkey-Brazil Joint Declaration by ramming new sanctions against the Islamic Republic through the United Nations Security Council during the next few weeks got even smaller this morning, when Israeli naval commandos stormed Turkish-flagged ships in international waters off Gaza, killing at least 16 people in the process. […]
Gaza: Live from the Freedom Flotilla
Update “Israel Attacks Turkish Free Gaza Ship: 16 Killed, According to Israeli Army Radio.” For more information, visit <www.ihh.org.tr>, <www.witnessgaza.com>, and <www.freegaza.org>. | Print
India and Pakistan: Labor, Democratization, and Development
Christopher Candland. Labor, Democratization and Development in India and Pakistan. London: Routledge, 2007. 216 pages. This book, by Christopher Candland, sets out to provide a documented analytical and empirical study of the linkages between organized labor, development, and democratization in India and Pakistan from the colonial period till date. It attempts to explain why […]
Thailand: NGO-COD Shows Scandalous Double Standards over the Violent Crackdown
The Thai NGO Coordinating committee (NGO-COD) issued a statement on 20th May 2010 about the violence in Bangkok. The statement blamed both the government and the UDD Red Shirts for the deaths. This is despite the fact that the UDD protestors were unarmed and the government used tanks, snipers and weapons of war against the […]
Time for OTA
When the Republican Gingrich devolution took over Congress in 1995, it stripped the Congressional Office of Technology Assessment (OTA) of all its funding and left it a shell with no experts to advise committees and members of Congress. Whereupon Congress was plunged into a dark age regarding decisions about trillions of national security, offshore oil […]
Arab Domestic Affairs
“We will not allow any country to interfere in our domestic affairs.”(But see who’s swimming in the fishbowl that is the “Arab world.” . . .) Fahd Bahady is a Syrian cartoonist. This cartoon, first published by Al Jazeera, illustrates an interview with Bahady by eHasakeh (16 March 2010); it is reproduced here for non-profit […]
Breaking the Blockade of Silence: L.A. Art and Advocacy for the Cuban 5
How do you break through the twelve-year blockade of silence that has kept five Cuban political prisoners invisible to the American public? How can art transcend U.S. prison walls and present the truth about these men, locked up in five distant prisons scattered across the United States, to a Los Angeles community? On May 22nd […]
Rock
Rock! Eneko Las Heras, born in Caracas in 1963, is a cartoonist based in Spain. This cartoon was published on his blog . . . Y sin embargo se mueve on 28 May 2010. Translation by Yoshie Furuhashi (@yoshiefuruhashi | yoshie.furuhashi [at] gmail.com). | Print
Rwandan Arrest of U.S. Lawyer Motivated by Politics
Professor Peter Erlinder, noted criminal defense lawyer and past president of the National Lawyers Guild, was arrested Friday morning in Rwanda for “genocide ideology.” Erlinder’s representation of high-profile defendants before the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda (ICTR) has incurred the wrath of government officials, who have charged him with “negation of the Tutsi genocide” for […]
