Geography Archives: Israel

  • Libya, Egypt: Fashioning Democracy, Packaging Revolution

    Democracy, democracy.  Don’t we just love it?  Don’t we love it as a pretence for furthering our international ambitions?  Don’t we love it when it means cheaper oil and cosy partnerships? In the case of Libya, the façade of supporting a democratic movement has fallen from even our most blatant sources of propaganda.  To quote […]

  • The Palestinian Attempt to Gain Recognition for a State in the UN: CWP’s Opinion

    International recognition of the right to self-determination of the Palestinian people is an important and vital step in the process of internationalization of the Palestinians struggle for independence, freedom and equality.  It may possibly strengthen the Palestinians struggle against the occupation and hand over the responsibility for ending the occupation and eliminating racial discrimination to […]

  • Protests Are Not Enough to Change the Rules of the Game

    The Arab uprising goes from strength to strength.  When the Egyptian protestors stormed the Israeli Embassy in Cairo last week, they showed that the power of protest can prevail over docile diplomacy.  Across the Arab World, protest power has shown its effectiveness.  The achievements are incontestable.  Yet, in the world of the excluded, the Arab […]

  • Egypt: SCAF Reactivates Emergency Law

    Yara Kassem is a cartoonist in Cairo, Egypt.  This cartoon was circulated via her Twitter account on 15 September 2011; it is reproduced here for non-profit educational purposes.  Cf. “In the new, revolutionary state, instead of revoking emergency law as promised, the Supreme Council of the Armed Forces (SCAF) has announced its reactivation, in particular, […]

  • Salvaging September: An ICAHD Statement regarding the Palestinian Statehood Initiative at the UN

    The Israeli Committee Against House Demolitions (ICAHD) has been one of the leading critical Israeli peace and human rights organizations struggling for Palestinian rights during its more than 14 years of existence. ICAHD activists resist the demolition of Palestinian homes, both inside Israel and in the Occupied Territory, and together with our Palestinian and International […]

  • NATO’s Democracy

      Kritikal Point, a collective of artists, may be contacted at <[email protected]>.  En español.  Cf. “How dare Egyptian rebels attack Israeli embassy instead of asking for foreign troops to destroy their museums and libraries? #Egypt #Jan25” (Mazen Shaer, 9 September 2011); “Egyptian revos storm #IsraeliEmbassy while Syrian self-proclaimed so-called revolution icons are promising Israel an […]

  • Syria: What Kind of Revolution?

      The Syrian uprising which erupted nearly six months ago seems to be settling into a dangerous deadlock with neither side — the regime or the opposition — willing to budge from its stated position.  The daily toll of deaths and injuries climb ever higher with no resolution in sight.  The regime seems insistent on […]

  • Syria: Testing Time

      Syria remains relatively calm as efforts to destabilise its government through orchestrated attacks by rebels fail. Life in the Syrian capital, Damascus, seems to be continuing as normal.  The streets and the mosques are crowded after the devout break their Ramazan fast in the evening.  The security presence is minimal.  In fact, there are […]

  • George Monbiot and the Guardian on “Genocide Denial” and “Revisionism”

    On Tuesday, June 14, the Guardian of London published “Left and Libertarian Right Cohabit in the Weird World of the Genocide Belittlers.”1  In this nearly 1,100-word commentary, the British writer George Monbiot attacked the two of us (among others) as “genocide deniers” and “revisionists” for our writings on the former Yugoslavia and Rwanda.  Monbiot also […]

  • The Rise and Fall of Libya

    Upon the US capturing Saddam Hussein out of a “spider hole” and parading his abject person on TV, Tariq Ali wrote: “My first reaction to the capture of Saddam Hussein was both anger and disgust.  Anger with the old dictator who could not even die honourably.  He preferred to be captured by his old friends […]

  • Washington’s Syria Policy Battle: Interventionists versus Non-Interventionists

    Two distinct camps are forming to battle over Syria policy in Washington. The first is made up of the neocons, who are busy fitting the Arab Spring into US strategic interests as they see them.  John Bolton, Michael Doran, and Elliott Abrams have been leading the charge in articulating this argument. The second group are […]

  • Libya News Roundup

    Richard Seymour (20 August 2011): “I think we would see a recomposition of the old regime, without Qadhafi but with the basic state structures intact.  The former regime elements would become regime elements, within a pro-US, neoliberal state with some limited political democracy.  In addition, those calling for intervention in Syria would be strengthened, as […]

  • FlagMan: The Man Who Removed the Israeli Flag from the Israeli Embassy in Egypt

      “#flagman the brave man that removed the Israeli flag from Israel Embassy in Cairo.  His name is Ahmed Shehata #Israel #Egypt.” — Mohamed Aboelkhier Video by Jonathan Rashad Cartoon by Carlos Latuff Jonathan Rashad is a young Egyptian freelance photographer, who started his career in 2008 at the age of 16.  Carlos Latuff is […]

  • Syrians Tweet Back to Obama

    After US President Barack Obama declared on 18 August 2011: “For the sake of the Syrian people, the time has come for President Assad to step aside.” . . . Haneen Khaddour (18 August 2011): “Here we go again #american intervention.  No one wants you in #syria” Sate (18 August 2011): “Ya’ aha Obama.  So […]

  • Social Origins of the Tent Protests in Israel

    It started in mid-July, when Dafni Leef, a Tel Aviv filmmaker, was met with a hike in her rent that she couldn’t afford to pay.  Instead of moving to a new apartment, she moved to a tent on Rothschild Boulevard, the city’s sleekest thoroughfare, and set up a Facebook event calling for her compatriots to […]

  • The Race with Iran: Saudi Arabia’s Sectarian Card

    Four months ago, we returned from a trip to the Middle East and wrote that “the main question engaging people with respect to the Arab Spring is no longer, ‘who’s next,’ but rather how far will Saudi Arabia go in pushing a ‘counter-revolutionary agenda’ across the [region].”  Since then, something of a discussion, if not […]

  • The Future of Arab Revolts: Interview with Samir Amin

      The way Egyptian scholar and researcher Samir Amin sees it, nothing will be the same as before in the Arab world: protest movements will challenge both the internal social order of Arab countries and their places in the regional and global political chessboard. Hassane Zerrouky: How do you see what’s happening in the Arab […]

  • Libya — Lather, Rinse, Repeat — Syria: Liberal Imperialism and the Refusal to Learn

    Two of my favorite quotes come into play here, one by the English poet, Alexander Pope, who explained that “some people will never learn anything . . . because they understand everything too soon,” and George Bernard Shaw, much more resigned and ironic in stating that “we learn from experience that men never learn anything […]

  • Middle East News Roundup: Arab Spring, Royal Summer, Islamist Autumn

    Egypt Amin Saikal (ABC, 29 July 2011): “The Islamist parties [in Egypt] now stand a good chance to win an absolute majority in the parliamentary elections in November, and also contest successfully the presidential election. . . .  According to an Aljazeera public opinion survey, released on July 7, 2011, nearly 50 per cent of […]

  • Listening to What Iranians Say about Their Nuclear Program Instead of Relying on “Intelligence” and Agenda-driven “Analysis”

    As part of the current and ongoing effort to demonize further the Islamic Republic, there has been an uptick in media stories, drawing on conveniently leaked Western intelligence assessments, highlighting Tehran’s allegedly looming acquisition of nuclear weapons.  One of these stories, from the Associated Press, seems particularly emblematic, so we want to look at it […]