We are writing in support of Shane Bauer, Sarah Shourd, and Josh Fattal who have been unjustly detained for more than nine months. These three young people are active members of a global community opposed to US aggression in the Middle East. They do not deserve to be punished for the policies of their […]
Geography Archives: Middle East
Afghanistan
Bomber Pilot: “From here they look like ants.” Newspaper Reader: “And from here, too.” Eneko Las Heras, born in Caracas in 1963, is a cartoonist. This cartoon was published on his blog . . . Y sin embargo se mueve on 8 May 2009. Translation by Yoshie Furuhashi (@yoshiefuruhashi | yoshie.furuhashi [at] gmail.com). | […]
Hooman Majd’s Postcard from Tehran
Author and analyst Hooman Majd traveled to Iran last month and has published an initial report from his travels, “Postcard from Tehran,” in ForeignPolicy.com. Hooman makes a number of important points in his article, which largely reinforce our analysis of Iranian politics since the Islamic Republic’s June 12, 2009 presidential election and of U.S/Western policy […]
The Mural Speaks
The Rachel Corrie Foundation andBreak the Silence Mural Project co‐presentThe Mural Speaks Come celebrate the completion of this dynamic, interactive mural at a free event at 6:00 p.m., Saturday, May 8 at the Labor Temple building, corner of State and Capitol, downtown Olympia. The Mural Speaks event is more than a mural commemoration; it’s a […]
Lula and Erdoğan Go to Tehran: Alternative Perspectives on Their Diplomatic Prospects
Brazil’s President, Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, will travel to Iran this weekend, ostensibly to attend the G-15 summit meeting that opens in Tehran on Monday. But Lula’s trip is attracting enormous international attention because the Brazilian leader will use his visit to try, in collaboration with Turkey’s Prime Minister, Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, to broker […]
Israel’s Stasi Watch over Imams
Job interviews for the position of imam at mosques in Israel are conducted not by senior clerics but by the Shin Bet, Israel’s secret police, a labor tribunal has revealed. Sheikh Ahmed Abu Ajwa, 36, is fighting the Shin Bet’s refusal to approve his appointment as an imam in a case that has lifted the […]
Mohamed ElBaradei on the Iranian Nuclear Issue
As we follow the NPT Review Conference in New York and the enormous salience of the Iranian nuclear issue there, it is useful to consider some recent observations about the Iranian case by the International Atomic Energy Agency’s former Director General, Mohamed ElBaradei. Baradei was in the Boston area last week, where, among other things, […]
Egypt: Workers Demand More Pay, Clash with Police
Under Egyptian law, people found guilty of inciting or organizing demonstrations without permission face jail terms of up to one year and hefty fines. However, hundreds have gathered in downtown Cairo to protest against Egypt’s high unemployment rate and the government’s failure to increase the national minimum wage. Workers’ groups say the government’s eagerness to […]
Egypt: Workers Struggle for a Higher Minimum Wage
Bahaa Saber holds up a loaf of bread Hossam el-Hamalawy is an Egyptian socialist, journalist, and photographer. Visit his blog: . The photographs above were first published on his blog on 3 May 2010 under a Creative Commons license. Note: the minimum wage in Egypt has not been raised since 1984. | | Print
Iran’s Challenge to the Nuclear Order
Excerpt: Three nations in the Middle East dominate any present-day discussion of nuclear weapons, yet only one is subjected to an unprecedented degree of international scrutiny. Two have nuclear weapons; the third does not. Yet it is the third nation that is widely considered the threat to world peace and the target of ever increasing […]
Iraq Redux: Defectors, Terrorists, and Unnamed Officials in the Media’s Iran Coverage
On April 25, the Washington Post had another piece on Iran, this time on the front page, that could easily have been run about Iraq back in 2002. We have recently criticized the Post for relying on Green Movement partisans for ostensibly objective “analysis” about Iranian politics. This front page article relies almost entirely on […]
Egypt, the Non-Aligned Movement, and the NPT Review Conference
Maged Abdel-Fattah is Egypt’s Ambassador to the United Nations. Ezzat Ibrahim: Egypt is president of the Non-Aligned Movement (NAM) and New Agenda Coalition (NAC). What kind of contribution are NAM and NAC expected to offer during the NPT revision conference? Maged Abdel-Fattah: First of all, NAM (118 member states) is a major player in […]
Is the Washington Post Hyping the Iranian Nuclear “Threat” Once Again?
Yet again, the Washington Post has published another highly inflammatory article on Iranian nuclear developments, “Iran’s Advances in Nuclear Technology Spark New Concerns about Weapons,” by Joby Warrick. As we wrote, Warrick co-authored another recent story for the Washington Post on Iran’s nuclear program that “could easily have been run about Iraq back in 2002.” […]
Threatening Iran Is Wrong
The antiwar movement everywhere should be extremely alarmed about the Obama Administration’s declaration in April that Washington can target Iran with nuclear weapons. Although vague “all options are on the table” warnings were also issued under George W. Bush, now the threat of a pre-emptive nuclear strike on Iran is enshrined in the revised […]
Turkey: May Day in Taksim Square, 33 Years after Bloody May Day
Turkish workers celebrate May Day in Taksim Square today, 33 years after the bloody May Day of 1977,* when gunmen, believed to be linked to the intelligence services, fired on workers demonstrating in Taksim, killing 36 and wounding hundreds in the ensuing chaos. Since then, workers were prohibited from holding May Day rallies in the […]
Feeling the Hate in New York
Midtown Manhattan, 25 April 2010 Dov Hikind, NY State Assemblyman (D-Brooklyn): “From day one, this president proved that he was not Barack Obama, but Barack Hussein Obama.” Audience (carrying signs reading “Racism. Sexism. Apartheid. Stop Shariah Islam” among other signs): “Boo!” Demonstrator: “He’s a Nazi!” * * * Demonstrator: “This government is pressuring Israel right […]
The Future of Palestine: Righteous Jews vs. New Afrikaners
Hisham B. Sharabi Memorial Lecture, Palestine Center, Washington, D.C., 29 April 2010 It is a great honor to be here at the Palestine Center to give the Sharabi Memorial Lecture. I would like to thank Yousef Munnayer, the executive director of the Jerusalem Fund, for inviting me, and all of you for coming out […]
Why Are the US and Israel Threatening Iran? And Who Really Rules the World?
Barack Obama won the Nobel Peace Prize in 2009 while at the same time sending more troops to the Afghanistan War. What has become of the promise of “change”? I am one of the few who are not disillusioned, because I had no expectations. I had written about Obama’s positions and prospects even before […]
Remembering Fred Halliday
I was immensely saddened to hear of Fred Halliday‘s untimely passage. I knew Fred since 1978 when through a New Left Review friend, Robin Blackburn, I met him at his London home on my way to revolutionary Iran, temporarily forfeiting my US education for the sake of the greater cause. Fred was putting the final […]
What “Populist Uprising?” Part 2: Further Reflections on an “Astroturf Movement”
The much-ballyhooed Tea Party “movement” that has arisen to absurdly accuse the corporate and imperial Barack Obama administration with “socialism,” “favoring the poor,” and other “radical leftist” crimes claims to be a decentralized, independent, “grassroots,” and popular/populist uprising against concentrated power. Contrary to that claim, Part 1 of our report presented recent polling data showing […]
