(By Juan Cole) The Guardian reports that the George W. Bush administration put German Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder’s personal telephone under surveillance in 2002. Schroeder was opposed to the Bush-Cheney aggressive war on Iraq. This surveillance allowed the Bush administration to know where it stood with Germany and NATO. The surveillance continued, on the personal phone […]
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European Union
Now Peace Talks, John Kerry, are “Anti-Semitic” in Eyes of Israeli Far Right
(By Juan Cole) The Likud-led Israeli government doesn’t like US Secretary of State John Kerry at all. Defense Minister Moshe Yaalon ridiculed him as “obsessive” and “messianic.” Economy Minister Naftali Bennett earlier this week slammed Israeli Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu as being under Kerry’s influence, when Netanyahu was said to be considering leaving Israeli squatters […]
Israeli Business Leaders, Fearing Boycotts, Pressure Israeli Gov’t to make Peace
(Via AFP) Israel concerned at growing boycott threat (via AFP) Israeli government and business leaders are alarmed by a growing international boycott movement and the likely effect of EU measures against exports from Jewish settlements in the occupied West Bank. Cabinet ministers are to meet next week to hammer… ——— Related video: Press TV […]
Bad for the Jews: Israeli Annexation of Palestinian West Bank, Scarlett Johansson and BDS
(By Juan Cole) The determination of the Likud Party to annex the Palestinian West Bank is damaging the interests of world Jewry. This harm is clearly visible in the controversy that has engulfed movie star Scarlett Johansson, who was a global ambassador for the Oxfam charity and who also agreed to become a spokesperson for […]
Don’t Break up Syria: WW I-Style Imperial Divide & Rule is a Failure
(By Christopher Dekki) Since the beginning of this terrible conflict in Syria, I have been closely listening to people’s reactions to the violence and devastation occurring there. What is astonishing is how quickly Syria transformed from a place of relative obscurity to a topic of constant discussion among so many. Even more astonishing, the solutions […]
Iran Breakthrough a Triumph For Pragmatists and a Defeat For the Warmongers (Cole @ Truthdig)
My esssay, “Iran Breakthrough a Triumph For Pragmatists and a Defeat For the Warmongers” is out in Truthdig today. Excerpt: “By 2011, the U.S. Congress and the Department of the Treasury had imposed what amounted to a financial blockade on Iran. The U.S. strong-armed other countries not to buy Iranian petroleum, cutting exports by a […]
Fear is Driving Diplomacy on Syria, not Humanitarianism
(By Martin Gascoigne) Syria, like many countries in the region, is a demographically young country. With a population of 23 million. Slightly over a third are estimated to be below the age of 14. The ‘Arab Spring’ had its well-spring in such demographics. If a lack of hope heralded hopeful changes; it has been a […]
Israel Tries to Bully Europe over Criticism of Planned 1800 Squatter Units on Palestinian Land
(By AFP) Israel hits back at EU over settlement protest (via AFP) Israel called in European ambassadors in a tit-for-tat move on Friday after four EU states lodged formal protests against the rightwing government’s drive to expand settlements in the occupied West Bank. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu accused the… ——- Related Video: Press TV […]
Top 5 US Government Decisions that put Troops more at Risk than Snowden Did
(By Juan Cole) The propaganda wars in Washington continue over Edward Snowden’s revelation that the National Security Agency and other Federal government departments have in the past decade quietly abolished the Fourth Amendment of the Constitution, without even telling us that is what they were doing. All Americans, once proud, free citizens of a republic […]