nationalism

No, Mr. Smotrich, Palestinians are not New in History, and all Nationalisms are Modern, including the Israeli

Ann Arbor (Informed Comment) – Bezalel Smotrich in a speech in Paris over the weekend maintained that there are no Palestinians and that the whole notion of Palestine is no older than a century. This cliocide, a form of genocide involving wiping out the history of a people, has been a common narrative among Zionists […]

Modernism

New Identity: Religion, Nationalism and Foreign Policy in Turkey (Review)

Marc Martorell Junyent

Review of Filiz Çoban Oran, Religion, Nationalism and Foreign Policy: Discursive Construction of New Turkey’s Identity. London: I.B. Tauris, 2022. Tuebingen (Special to Informed Comment) – In 2009, US President Barack Obama advised Europe to welcome what was then called Turkey into its fold and benefit from the country’s “diversity of ethnicity, tradition and faith.” […]

Archaeology

Palestinians: Bust of 4500-yr.-old Goddess Anat found in Gaza “attests the Depth of Ancient Palestinian Civilization”

Juan Cole

Ann Arbor (Informed Comment) – A farmer plowing his land in Khan Younis, the Gaza Strip, recently found the head of a statuette of the ancient Levantine goddess Anat from 4,500 years ago, AFP reports. Everything in Israel/Palestine is political, including, and maybe especially, archeology. In 2500 BCE the ancient Levantine civilization, sometimes called “proto-Canaanite,” […]

nationalism

The Rise of Russian Grievance Culture

The Conversation

By Gregory Carleton, Tufts University | – The range of anti-Russian measures taken by countries around the world since the start of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine is virtually unprecedented and hearkens back to the darkest days of the Cold War. They’ve assumed many forms but broadly include economic sanctions, military support for Ukraine and boycotts […]

Colonialism

Why Putin’s Denial of Ukrainian Statehood and Israel’s Denial of Palestinian Statehood are Crimes against History

Juan Cole

Ann Arbor (Informed Comment) – In his incendiary speech on Ukraine on Monday, Vladimir Putin alleged that Ukraine does not really exist, that it is an artificial construct of the Communist period, crafted by Vladimir Lenin. He declared, “Ukraine never had a tradition of genuine statehood.” When I heard that, it reminded me of the […]

al-Qaeda

Bin Laden and Trump: Two Bookends to America’s Imperial Decline

Foreign Policy in Focus

By Walden Bello | – The end of 2021 and the beginning of a new year is a convenient time to take stock of the causes of America’s decline. This past year saw both Washington’s inglorious exit from Afghanistan after 20 years in the country that had served as the launching pad for its direct […]

Elections

Israel enters a New Election between the Right and the Far Right

Middle East Monitor

By Antoine Shalhat | – ( Middle East Monitor ) – Israel is heading towards a fourth general election in less than two years, coinciding with another confirmed fact that the competition in this election will be between the components of the Israeli right-wing. The elections will be held against a single backdrop: the opposition […]

Donald Trump

Fourth World: Or American Carnage from a Pandemic President

Tom Engelhardt

( Tomdispatch.com) – The year was 1991 and the United States was suddenly the globe’s lone superpower, its ultimate hyperpower, the last and greatest of its kind, the soon-to-be-indispensable nation. The only one left — alone, utterly alone and triumphant atop the world. Who could have asked for more? Or better? It had been a […]

Epidemics

The New Isolationism and the Distrustful Citizen: Covid-19 and the end of Geopolitics

John Feffer

( Tomdispatch.com) – I don’t trust you. Don’t take it personally. It doesn’t matter whether you’re a friend or a stranger. I don’t care about your identity or your politics, where you work or if you work, whether you wear a mask or carry a gun. I don’t trust you because you are, for the […]