Israel/ Palestine

Israel lobby flack Patrick Clawson strategizes how to trick the United States into going to war against Iran on behalf of Israel. The ‘Washington Institute for Near East Policy’ is itself one big false flag operation that uses ‘policy analysis’ to push far rightwing Israeli plans for perpetual war and Occupation in key US government […]

Afghanistan

Top Seven Errors President Obama has made on the Middle East

Juan Cole

Yesterday I explored the errors and fantasies in Gov. Mitt Romney’s WSJ op-ed on the Middle East. Here I will briefly go over the mistakes that the Obama administration has made in the region. Unlike the proposed blunders of Romney, I have to say, most of these are errors of omission or of an abundance […]

Israel/ Palestine

Annals of Settler Colonialism (5): German Namibia #savagesunite

Juan Cole

The German settlers and authorities round up 13,000 of the remaining Herero. They put them in concentration camps, where 4,000 died of mistreatment. Almost all of the Herero were now in camps. Although the Israelis do have large prison camps where they hold thousands of Palestinians for engaging in resistance to Occupation, they haven’t put […]

Israel/ Palestine

Annals of Settler Colonialism (4) German Namiba #savagesunite

Juan Cole

German officers arrive in Southwest Africa from Berlin to deal with the Herero, whose rebellion has died down. Ordinarily a colonial state would now move to negotiations. But Gen. von Trotter had no intention of negotiating or compromising. The Herero were now doomed. Refusing to negotiate in good faith is common among settler colonialists. Being […]

Israel/ Palestine

The Annals of Settler Colonialism: German Namibia (1) #savagesunite

Juan Cole

Settler colonialism has a long and unsavory history and always involves displacing people from their land, driving them into penury, making and keeping them stateless, and, often, killing large numbers of them. The settlers brand resistance to their squatting on other people’s land “terrorism” by “savages.” One of the few contemporary examples of settler colonialism […]

Israel/ Palestine

Why they Hate us: Romney Secretly Plots to Screw Palestinians over Again

Juan Cole

In a conversation with donors he thought private, GOP presidential candidate Mitt Romney laid out with startling clarity the American policy toward the Palestinians: Mother Jones has the story, and the transcript. Romney typifies the American duplicity toward the 12 million Palestinians. His campaign speaks of a ‘two-state solution.’ But in private he admits that […]

Afghanistan

Top Ten Likely Consequences of Muslim anti-US Embassy Riots

Juan Cole

1. Tourism in Egypt and Tunisia, the economies of which heavily depend on it, is likely to take a nosedive this fall. It is a shame, because Tunisia had been hoping for a near return to 2010 levels of 7 million visitors this year. And Egypt’s tourism was up 16% over the previous year, though […]

Africa

South Africa: Label West Bank Squatter Products; Israel: You Apartheid State!

Juan Cole

Having Avigdor Lieberman as a foreign minister is one of the worst things that could happen to Israel. I was in Brazil last year this time when Lieberman visited, and parliamentarians were saying they would not meet with him because they consider him a racist. He has a long record of saying offensive and chauvinist […]

art and photography

Dear Mr. Romney: Palestinians are Poor Because You Stole from them and Kept them Stateless

Juan Cole

Mitt Romney, a privileged white man worth a quarter of a billion dollars who has sheltered his money from taxes in Bermuda, the Cayman Islands and Switzerland, and who never misses a square meal, stooped to a new obscene low in blaming the victim on Monday by slamming the Palestinians for not being richer. Palestinian […]