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Brazil and Turkey Defy Washington on Iran Sanctions
The United Nations Security Council approved a resolution calling for new sanctions against Iran today. Wait, did you just yawn? Pay attention, there’s real news here. The man-bites-dog story is that two countries — Brazil and Turkey — voted no, while Lebanon abstained. That’s a record. There’s never been more than one no vote before; […]
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Supporting Occupation and Motivating New Terrorists: Obama’s Failure to Deliver on His Cairo Speech
President Obama’s first half year in office was singularly focused on reviving America’s desultory standing in the Muslim world. Last week marked the first anniversary of Obama’s Cairo speech — his widely heralded address “to the Muslim world” — which was intended as the culmination of a series of important steps. These included: Obama’s appointment […]
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China’s Evolving Calculus on Iran Sanctions
As the United Nations Security Council moves toward a vote on a resolution imposing additional sanctions on Iran over its nuclear activities, China is being remarkably silent, at least in public. In the wake of the announcement of the Iran-Turkey-Brazil Joint Declaration in Tehran on May 17 and Secretary of State Hillary Clinton’s announcement in […]
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Iran: Ruling Faction and Opposition Leaders Both Opposed to Israel
Ali Khamenei, Leader of Iran’s Islamic Revolution: The Zionists made a miscalculation. They made a mistake. They made a big mistake. This mistake has been repeated in recent years, again and again. They made a mistake of attacking Lebanon. They made a mistake of attacking Gaza. And they made a mistake of attacking the aid […]
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Turkey: Anger on the Streets
Tens of thousands again come together to protest. The captured and the dead (from the recent raid by Israeli commandos on an aid flotilla) have been returned (to Turkey), but the Turkish people are intent on continuing to make their voices heard. And fuelling the fury is the news of the preliminary autopsy reports, […]
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Turkish Gaza Aid Ship Survivors Speak
Anita McNaught: The last passengers from the Mavi Marmara arrive at a hospital in Turkey — two men, up to now too badly injured to fly out of Israel, their lives still hanging in the balance. . . . Of the 24 injured brought to Ankara’s Ataturk Hospital, five remain in a critical condition. […]
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Israel, Turkey, and the United States
An act of piracy, war crime, blatant violation of international law, murder of unarmed civilians — each and every definition used by the international media is true, and altogether beside the point. The murderous Israeli operation is, in fact, the expression of the new Israeli modus operandi. And as such it is frightening. All over […]
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The Real Strategic Challenge That Turkey and Iran Pose to Israel
As the interlinked dramas of Israel’s attack on Turkish civilian ships on the high seas and the Obama Administration’s push for a new Iran sanctions resolution in the Security Council play out, some in the American foreign policy establishment are beginning to realize that the Middle East — and America’s place in it — are […]
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Colonizers’ Hutzpah
I am grateful to MRZine for inviting me to comment on “Israel in the current conjuncture, in the wake of the attack on the Freedom Flotilla and international reaction to it”. But in truth I have very little to add to the excellent comments and analyses that have been presented in various left-wing publications, […]
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The Attack on the Gaza Freedom Flotilla and International Law
Excerpt: Did the human rights activists on board the ship have the right to repel the Israeli commanders on the basis of self-defence? Since the initial boarding of the ship was likely illegal, the civilian passengers did have the right to act in self-defence against the invading soldiers. However, lawful self-defence on the part […]
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Who Will Bring Israel to Book over Flotilla Attack?
Will the rule of law be applied to Israel this time? In principle, it is unlawful for a state to enforce a blockade against ships that are flying the flag of another state on the high seas. The only exceptions to this would be if the blockade were mandated by the UN security council […]
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Farewell, Robin Wood (1931-2009): The Relevance of a Radical Film Critic
“It is probably impossible today for anyone to make an even halfway commercial movie that shouts, in some positive sense, ‘Revolution!’ as loudly as its lungs can bear, so one must celebrate the films that seem (whether deliberately or not) to imply its necessity.” — Robin Wood1 At a time when comedy shows tell […]
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The Legal Position on the Israeli Attack
Craig Murray at a rally in London, 31 May 2010 A word on the legal position, which is very plain. To attack a foreign flagged vessel in international waters is illegal. It is not piracy, as the Israeli vessels carried a military commission. It is rather an act of illegal warfare. Because the incident took […]
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Regarding the Use of Force by the Israeli Defense Forces Against the Humanitarian Aid Fleet to Gaza
We protest in the strongest terms the use of force by the Israeli Defense Forces against the civilians from many countries who want to transport humanitarian assistance to the people in Gaza, and among whom there are women and children, which, according to the initial information available, resulted in the death of 2 persons and […]
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Israel’s Attack on the Turkish Ships Complicates China’s Balancing Act on Iran and the United States
President Obama’s already diminishing chances to “steamroll” the Iran-Turkey-Brazil Joint Declaration by ramming new sanctions against the Islamic Republic through the United Nations Security Council during the next few weeks got even smaller this morning, when Israeli naval commandos stormed Turkish-flagged ships in international waters off Gaza, killing at least 16 people in the process. […]
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Protest Israeli Murders of Freedom Flotilla Activists
International Solidarity Movement 31 May 2010, Free Gaza Movement Israel Murders at Least 10 Unarmed Civilians on Aid Flotilla to Gaza, Dozens Injured (Cyprus, June 1, 2010, 6:30AM local) — Under darkness of night, Israeli commandos from at least 14 warships and military helicopters boarded the Turkish passenger ship, Mavi Marmara, and began shooting. According […]
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Israel Attacks Turkish Free Gaza Ship: 16 Killed, According to Israeli Army Radio
30 May 2010 — According to Turkish news sources (CNN Turk, Hürriyet, Milliyet, NTV, and many others), Israeli soldiers stormed the Turkish Free Gaza ship Mavi Marmara belonging to İnsani Yardım Vakfı (Humanitarian Aid Foundation), killing at least 2 and wounding over 30 on board. The Turkish government has set up a crisis room while […]
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President Obama Should Be Honest about the Iran-Turkey-Brazil Nuclear Deal
Brazilian President Lula, Turkish Prime Minister Erdoğan, and their foreign ministers have been too polite in their characterization of President Obama’s role in the nuclear deal they mediated with Iran last week. For we now have documentary evidence that President Obama’s Secretary of State and his White House spokesman are simply not telling the truth […]
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A “New World Order” Is Possible — and Needed
The efforts of Brazil and Turkey to find a negotiated solution to the standoff over Iran’s nuclear program, which generated a negotiated agreement with Iran last week, must be seen in the context of a growing challenge to the international political order. That political order has been dominated by the United States, with Europe as […]
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Iran and the United States: Next Steps on the Brazil-Turkey Deal?
On May 24, Iranian representatives, accompanied by Brazilian and Turkish counterparts, met with the IAEA’s Director General, Yukiya Amano. The purpose of the meeting was to present a letter to Amano — as called for in the May 17, 2010 Joint Declaration by Iran, Turkey, and Brazil — formally notifying the IAEA of the Islamic […]