Belgrade (Special to Informed Comment) – The results of the historic summit between the US President Joe Biden and his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin, held in Switzerland on June 16, will be felt for some time. Officially, the two leaders discussed Syria, Libya, Iran, Afghanistan, Ukraine, hacking and “strategic stability”, but what they agreed during […]
Archives for June 2021
How Israel’s missing constitution deepens divisions between Jews and with Arabs
By Brendan Szendro | – Renewed fighting has erupted again between Israel and the Palestinian group Hamas, endangering a ceasefire instituted after an 11-day war in May. The conflict in Gaza is an early test of Israel’s new coalition government. Recently, parties across the political spectrum united to remove Israel’s scandal-plagued prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu […]
How Israel’s Extremist-Right Flag March helped Mobilize Young Palestinians for Resistance to Apartheid Rule
By Motasem A Dalloul | – ( Middle East Monitor) – Ultranationalist, right-wing Israeli settlers carried out their “Flag March” in Jerusalem yesterday. Due to security concerns, the route was changed from previous years, and they passed the Jaffa Gate of the Old City rather than the usual Damascus Gate. Also as usual, the settlers […]
From Dentist to Israeli Kingmaker: Mansour Abbas Isn’t The Champion Palestinians Need
Perth, Australia (- Special to Informed Comment) – “We will reclaim the lands that were expropriated from our people,” said Dr. Mansour Abbas, 47, in a largely Arabic-language speech before the Knesset plenum. “This is a national cause of the first degree.” This, he said right before being sworn in to join a patchwork coalition […]
In Challenge to New Gov’t, Far Right Israeli Extremists Chant “Death to Arabs” in Provocative March through Palestinian East Jerusalem
Ann Arbor (Informed Comment) – Dia Hajj Yahya writes at the Israeli newspaper Arab 48 that because of extreme right Israeli squatters’ deliberately provocative march through Palestinian neighborhoods, 33 Palestinians were injured during confrontations with the Israeli Occupation authorities in the area of the Old City in occupied Jerusalem on Tuesday, one of them by […]
It wasn’t just politics that led to Netanyahu’s ouster – it was fear of his demagoguery
By Dov Waxman | ( The Conversation) – There is something Shakespearean about Benjamin Netanyahu’s downfall. As in a scene from “Julius Caesar,” who was assassinated by Roman senators, Netanyahu was deposed by his former underlings, the leaders of the three right-wing parties that have joined the new government – Naftali Bennett, Avigdor Lieberman and […]
Social Security Versus National Security: Whose Entitlement Really Makes Us Safer?
( Tomdispatch.com) – “Biden’s doing better than I thought he would.” “Yeah. Vaccinations, infrastructure, acknowledging racism in policing. A lot of pieces of the Green New Deal, without calling it that. The child subsidies. It’s kind of amazing.” “But on the military–” “Yeah, same old, same old.” As my friends and I have noticed, President […]
Israel’s New Secular Government: Lieberman Crows that he Sidelined Fundamentalist Ultra-Orthodox and, read his lips: “No new taxes”
Ann Arbor (Informed Comment) – A lot of attention is focused on Naftali Bennett, the new prime minister of Israel. But it should be remembered that he had been a bit player, and his 7 coalition allies are often headed by much more prominent and powerful figures who are in the coalition precisely in order […]
What NPR’s “All Things Considered” won’t Tell you about the Iran Nuclear Issue (Like that Iran is Weak and has no Nukes while Israel is advanced and Does)
Mt. Berry, Ga. (Special to Informed Comment) – What news audiences of National Public Radio (NPR)’s All Things Considered have and have not heard about the Iranian nuclear program since the election of Joe Biden offers a neat boundary delineation of the Hallin spheres of mainstream reporting on the topic. Daniel Hallin’s classic study of […]