The Tehran Peace Museum and the Society for Chemical Weapons Victims Support (SCWVS) are planning a candlelight vigil at 19:00 local time (10:30 EST) on September 21 to commemorate the UN-designated International Day of Peace. The organized event is a historic first in Iran, where tensions with the United States are causing serious anxiety. On […]
Geography Archives: Middle East
The Great Rehearsal
September 17-25 www.greatrehearsal.org 1968 was a world revolution. From Mexico City to Tokyo, Paris to Prague, Columbia University to Berkeley, it was a revolutionary event that at once failed and transformed the world. The process it put into place continues today. 1968, the long ’68, altered fundamental balances of power and set the stage […]
Dealing with Iran’s Not-So-Irrational Leadership
Nothing expresses the widening gap between the mind frames of the Iranian ruling elite and their Western counterparts more than the headlines in their respective newspapers. The American media, above all, have unilaterally resolved the intelligence questions over Iran’s nuclear program. The New York Times leads the pack with articles and even editorials that […]
Pakistan Invades America — “Without Permission”
The U.S. State Department lodged a sharp protest over ongoing Pakistani missile strikes and ground raids today, saying the Islamic Republic was violating American sovereignty. “We will try to convince Pakistan . . . to respect [the] sovereignty of the United States — and God willing, we will convince,” State Department Spokesman Sean McCormack told […]
Jaffa’s “Renewal” Aims at Expulsion of Palestinians
The ground floor of Zaki Khimayl’s home is a cafe where patrons can drink mint tea or fresh juice as they smoke on a water pipe. Located by Jaffa’s beach, a stone’s throw from Tel Aviv, the business should be thriving. Mr. Khimayl, however, like hundreds of other families in the Arab neighborhoods of Ajami […]
Pre-Election Attack of the Pro-Life Killer Fetus!
(PU) The City of New York, still reeling from falling cranes, broken water mains, and the Republican presidential ticket, was forced to cope with yet another hard-hitting reality last Tuesday, as a giant human fetus of indeterminate sex and race suddenly appeared out of nowhere and began a rampage through midtown Manhattan. Estimated to be […]
A Guantanomized Age: The Long Interrogation
Stark images of spectral men — their appearance in bright orange jumpsuits belied by legal invisibility — have been seared into the minds of many Muslims as an index of America’s anger. But, for American Muslims, abuse and disappearance of detainees are not the defining features of the “war on terror.” Eyed by the national […]
Israel’s Dark Arts of Ensnaring Collaborators
Israel’s enduring use of Palestinian collaborators to entrench the occupation and destroy Palestinian resistance was once the great unmentionable of the Middle East conflict. When the subject was dealt with by the international and local media, it was solely in the context of the failings of the Palestinian legal system, which allowed the summary execution […]
The Current Situation of the United States Economy
A Briefing to the Vietnamese Central Committee Delegation, September 11, 2008 The economic situation of the United States today is widely understood to be the most serious since the Great Depression of the 1930s, and not only for this country. So far the actions by the government have been inadequate, late, and do not address […]
Sarah Palin: Vice Wrapped in Virtue
Conservatives unveiled their vice presidential wildcard with high hopes of courting disaffected Clintonistas and mobilizing the religious base. But the payoff appeared increasingly meager as Sarah Palin’s unscreened embarrassments, from attempted book-bannings to vindictive political purges, came tumbling down her mountain of presumed moral authority. Fortunately for Republicans, the timidity and “good manners” that served […]
Arrogance, Ignorance, and Cowardice: Lessons from 9/11
A version of this essay was delivered to the “Struggle for Global Justice” film festival organized by the student group Azaad at the University of Texas at Austin on 11 September 2008. Given the disastrous decisions made by U.S. officials in the seven long years since September 11, 2001, it would be easy tonight simply […]
Slavoj Zizek in Defense of “Lost Causes”
Leftist intellectuals basically fall into two camps. There are those who believe that the challenge we face is the existence of certain structures (the IMF, the US, the media, capitalism, etc.) and that avidly denouncing these structures is the key to our liberation. And then there are the more interesting intellectuals who insist that at […]
America’s Registered Muslims
I awoke early this morning and sleepily shifted to the computer screen. Scanning the news, my eyes alighted upon a startling sight: “17-page document identifies Obama as a registered Muslim, Clinton supporter says.” The first thought to zip through my mind: 17 pages? What kind of form does a Muslim need to fill out to […]
Iranian Health Houses Open the Door to Primary Care
Working in pairs out of modest, village-based facilities, the Islamic Republic of Iran’s trained community health workers, the behvarzan, provide basic health care to most of the country’s rural population. Mojgan Tavassoli reports. Ministry of Health of the Islamic Republic of Iran Some primary health care efforts started in the 1970s. In 1975, latrine […]
The Soft Surge: Opening the Gates of Hell in Pakistan
When I was younger, my family would visit Pakistan during summer vacations. In the teeming port city of Karachi, I often went with my uncle to the local bazaar, where merchants and browsers haggled fiercely over prices underneath tan tents. To conceal my American upbringing, I wore pants in the oppressive heat (shorts were derided […]
Keeping Hope for War Alive: Poll by “The Israel Project” on War with Iran
Washington, DC – A poll commissioned by The Israel Project, an international non-profit formed to present a “more positive public face” for Israel, has found a strikingly large percentage of Americans view Iran as a major threat, leading them to support possible military action. Serious questions remain however about the validity of the results due […]
Israel Turns Gaza into Prison for UConn Fulbright Scholar
As a Palestinian from the Gaza Strip, I could not have been more proud to learn last June that I had earned a prestigious Fulbright Scholarship to study in the United States. As a child, I would wonder how televisions, computers, and washing machines actually worked. I took this fascination to the Islamic University of […]
Radical Women National Conference: The Persistent Power of Socialist Feminism
October 3-6, 2008 San Francisco The Women’s Building, 3543 18th St. Speakers Embattled civil liberties attorney Lynne Stewart Activists and scholars from Central America, China, Australia, and the U.S. Key topics Multi-racial organizing in a society divided by racism The dynamic leadership of youth and queers Women of color and immigrant women spark a labor […]
Israel Must Rein in Settler Movement, Protect Palestinian Children
I left my home in the United States to spend the summer in the West Bank, where I was attacked by Israeli settlers late last month. As a member of the Christian Peacemaker Team, I went to the South Hebron Hills to help keep young Palestinian children safe from Israeli settlers intent on hurting […]
Preemptive Strikes against Protest at RNC
In the months leading up to the Republican National Convention, the FBI-led Minneapolis Joint Terrorist Task Force actively recruited people to infiltrate vegan groups and other leftist organizations and report back about their activities. On May 21, the Minneapolis City Pages ran a recruiting story called “Moles Wanted.” Law enforcement sought to preempt lawful […]
