Geography Archives: Middle East

No state has an intrinsic “right to exist.” As international relations scholar Scott Burchill points out, there is no abstract “right to exist” in international law, or in “any serious theory of international relations.”

Sixty-five people were detained in Istanbul last week after a press conference announcing the launch of a new opposition alliance, the United Fighting Forces (BMG).

Trump was too busy nursing his grudge to bother with overseas matters, but both his son-in-law and secretary of state rushed through a package of foreign policy initiatives and policies, writes As`ad AbuKhalil.

In fact, those weren’t really separate horror shows: they were instalments of one long horror show.

One-time presidential hopeful faces backlash over op-ed saying BDS movement ‘rooted in antisemitic thought and history’.

Dozens of Israeli teens sign public letter objecting to military service over Israel’s policies of apartheid, neoliberalism, and denial of the Nakba.

During the past two decades, many respected individuals and organizations designated the regime Israel has established in the occupied Palestinian territory—the West Bank, including East Jerusalem, and Gaza—as a form of apartheid.

Mark Lowcock of the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs warned that recent labeling of Houthis as a terrorist organization by the U.S. would likely trigger a “famine on a scale we have not seen in 40 years.

Along with a motley collection of wealthy swindlers and fraudsters, President Donald Trump on Dec. 22 pardoned four former Blackwater private contractors (mercenaries) convicted in the infamous Sept. 16, 2007, Nisour Square massacre in Baghdad.

Normalisation with Israel is just the latest example of Arab rulers advancing their own interests at the expense of Palestinians.

“Freedom is blossoming.” That is how, without a shred of irony, CNN International Diplomatic Editor Nic Robertson describes Saudi Arabia in his recent article.

The most recent denunciation from Syria confirms the support of Western powers to the alleged humanitarian organization of the White Helmets which is also a fraud of crude media manipulation.

The ongoing attack on the left in Labour is increasingly targeting those who are vocal in support for Palestine, writes Sybil Cock.

Even when reports of its racism escape this ideological censorship, examples of racism in Israel are treated as isolated incidents, rather than systemic characteristics of the entire racist regime.

Right-wing Israeli Prime Minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, has nothing to worry about as the man who will directly handle America’s foreign policy in the Middle East is a loyal friend of Israel. Crisis averted.

Saudi Arabia’s use of American diplomatic cover and weapons alike has taken on a fevered pace as the Kingdom deepens the tragedy it has afflicted upon Yemen.

“Clearly the U.S. and its allies do not want transparency and open debate about the OPCW Douma investigation, and one can only conclude that this is the case because they know full well that their claims cannot be substantiated. Smears and censorship are the only tactics they have left.” – Propaganda Expert Piers Robinson

The discussion on institutional Israeli racism against its own Palestinian Arab population has all but ceased following the final approval of the discriminatory Nation-State Law in July 2018. Indeed, the latest addition to Israel’s Basic Law is a mere start of a new government-espoused agenda that is designed to further marginalize over a fifth of Israel’s population.

A communist view from Moscow.

Freedom of speech on the Internet is all but extinct, and on the eve of the 2020 U.S. elections, a de facto “free speech court” is going to make sure it never comes back. On Facebook at least.