Geography Archives: Middle East

  Part 1 Aijaz Ahmad: Israel, which is completely isolated in the region, is very unhappy about the fact that Turkey is rising as a power which is establishing very productive and extensive contacts in the region.  Israel was very happy when both of them were completely isolated in the region: Turkey was in the […]

  The article “Palestinian Economic Dependency on Israel,”1 published on the Alternative Information Center’s website on 23 September 2010, briefly mentioned official development assistance (ODA) to Palestinians.2  This article will elaborate more fully on foreign aid to the Palestinians, particularly in relation to the Israeli economy. Trade Deficit The Occupied Palestinian Territory (OPT) has an […]

  On Oct. 2, tens of thousands of people from across the United States — members of civil rights organizations, labor unions, community groups and religious institutions — will rally at the Lincoln Memorial in Washington, D.C., to demand “Jobs, Justice and Education!”  (See www.onenationworkingtogether.org.) As part of this effort, the peace movement is mobilizing […]

The Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine announced in a press conference on September 25, 2010 that it was suspending its participation in the PLO Executive Committee in response to Abu Mazen’s return to negotiations and the illegitimate “approval” of the EC for this dangerous action. At a press conference held in Ramallah led […]

  As’ad AbuKhalil, or Angry Arab as he is more commonly known after his blog The Angry Arab News Service, is in real life a most friendly and forthcoming man.  A Lebanese-born author of four books on the Middle East, he is professor of political science at California State University and is visiting professor at […]

27 September 2010 Iranian and Iraqi youth were the stars at a 24 September ceremony to celebrate peace between their countries.  On this date thirty years ago began the eight-year Iran‐Iraq war that killed and injured hundreds of thousands of both sides.  With a whole generation of orphans wishing to prevent future conflicts, the focus […]

Paper prepared for the American Sociological Association Meetings in Atlanta, August 16th, 2010. There are many explanations for the crisis of capital that began in 2007.  But the one thing missing is an understanding of “systemic risks.”  I was alerted to this when Her Majesty the Queen visited the London School of Economics and asked […]

  At crisis point in peace talks, Jews, Israelis call to lift the siege on Gaza, end the occupation. 26th September 2010 Passengers on the Jewish Boat to Gaza gather for a group photograph before their departure.  Photo by Vish Vishvanath/Metro. Passenger Reuven Moskovitz.  Photo by Vish Vishvanath. A boat carrying aid for Gaza’s population […]

  Shortly after the 1967 Middle East War, many economic boundaries for transactions between the Occupied Palestinian Territory (OPT) and Israel collapsed: both labor and goods could flow freely from the OPT to Israel and vice versa. At the same time Israel started to control the external borders of the OPT.  A customs union was […]

Excerpts: In recent years, the Brazilian Government has invested heavily in South America’s integration and peace.  We have strengthened our strategic partnership with Argentina.  We have reinforced Mercosul, including through unique financial mechanisms among developing countries. The establishment of the Union of South American Nations — UNASUL — aims at consolidating a genuine zone of […]

Hossein Derakhshan, known as the “blogfather” of the Persian-language blogosphere, has been in prison since he was arrested on 1 November 2008, shortly after his return to Iran, his homeland.  Salman, a writer for the Web site Kamtarin, conducted an interview with Ozra Kiarashpour, the mother of Hossein Derakhshan, about her son’s situation. Hello, Ms. […]

1. The Cost of the Occupation to Israeli Society The majority of Israel’s anti-occupation movement, unfortunately, does not focus on the rights of Palestinians to live free, but on the damage that the occupation causes to Israeli society (Sternhell, 2009). The arguments that the occupation is a major investment of resources that could be useful […]

Jean Bricmont is professor of theoretical physics at the University of Louvain, Belgium, and is a member of the Brussels Tribunal.  He is the author of Humanitarian Imperialism and co-author, with Alan Sokal, of Fashionable Nonsense: Postmodern Intellectuals’ Abuse of Science.  He has written critically about ‘humanitarian interventionism’ since the Kosovo war in 1999.  In […]

Fahd Bahady is a Syrian cartoonist.  This cartoon was published in his blog on 20 September 2010; it is reproduced here for non-profit educational purposes.  See, also, “2 Election Officials Missing, Thousands Complaints Filed in Afghan Polls” (Xinhua, 21 September 2010). | Print

As he has every year since becoming President of the Islamic Republic, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad is coming to New York this week to attend the United Nations General Assembly.  Several important U.S. media outlets have either already conducted (MSNBC, ABC) or will conduct (PBS’ Charlie Rose and CNN’s Larry King) interviews with Ahmadinejad in connection with […]

Army Pfc. Bradley Manning is accused of leaking military secrets to the public.  This week, his supporters are holding rallies in 21 cities, seeking Manning’s release from military custody.  Manning is in the brig for allegedly disclosing a classified video depicting U.S. troops shooting civilians from an Apache helicopter in Iraq in July 2007.  The […]

  Jordan Flaherty: I think some of the voices that really haven’t been heard in these five years of recovery are those that are still displaced: a hundred thousand or more former residents who were dispersed around the country in the aftermath of Katrina and still have not been able to come home.  One recent […]

  Listen to MC Kash’s song “I Protest (Remembrance)”: They say when you run from darkness All you seek is light But when the blood spills over You’ll stand and fight Threads of deceit Woven around a word of plebiscite By treacherous puppet politicians Who have no soul inside My paradise is burning With troops […]

The Foundation for Defense of Democracies (FDD), a Washington, DC-based neoconservative “think tank” that has consistently promoted hard-line policies against the Islamic Republic, came out with what it describes as “a comprehensive report . . . identifying 10 major Chinese energy companies that continue to do business with Iran in spite of international sanctions.”  According […]

As Mahmoud Abbas chases after money, the Palestinian cause veers off course. Fahd Bahady is a Syrian cartoonist.  This cartoon was published in his blog on 10 September 2010; it is reproduced here for non-profit educational purposes.  The text above is an interpretation of the cartoon by Yoshie Furuhashi. | Print