By Seevali Abeysekera* LONDON | 1 October 2026 (IDN) — Little did the American electorate realise that the paradigm change it embraced in 2008 would, less than two decades later, be followed by another transformation—one that has raised fundamental questions about American power at home and abroad. By electing Barack Obama, the first Black president of […]
Censorship Regarding Genocide
By Jan Servaes BRUSSELS | 29 September 2026 (IDN) — During his speech to the UN General Assembly in New York on 24 September, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu used a visual aid. He displayed a pager resembling the devices used in the deadly pager attacks that Israel carried out in Lebanon in 2024. An […]
Palestine Gains Recognition While Losing the Land for a State
Diplomatic recognition has widened, but settlement expansion and territorial fragmentation threaten the foundations of Palestinian statehood. By Ramesh Jaura BERLIN | NEW YORK | 26 September 2026 (IDN) – Mahmoud Abbas delivered one of the most important speeches of this year’s United Nations General Assembly without being allowed into the hall. The Palestinian president appeared […]
Iran and the United States Find a Narrow Opening in New York
Indirect exchanges through Qatar have revived diplomacy, although the two governments remain far apart By Jamshed Baruah NEW YORK | 25 September 2026 (IDN) – The annual United Nations gathering is often dismissed as a succession of speeches. Much of its diplomacy, however, takes place outside the General Assembly Hall, in private rooms, hotel meetings […]
The Greater Israel Delusion May Undo Israel
By Alon Ben-Meir* Israel’s accelerating drive toward a biblical “Greater Israel” is not a deviation but the culmination of decades of creeping annexation and global indulgence. If unchecked, it will entrench permanent occupation, inflame the region for generations, and may ultimately undo Israel as a viable state. NEW YORK | 11 September 2026 (IDN) — […]
Israel’s Apartheid policy is jeopardising Christian schools in Jerusalem
Christian schools in Jerusalem remained closed on 1 September because more than 70 teachers from the West Bank had been denied entry. But what surprised Benoit Lannoo, an Antwerp based expert on Eastern Christians, most of all was that there was no reaction whatsoever from European, Western institutions or from any EU Member State, neither […]
The Limit Of Coercion: Israel’s Strategic Delusion
By Alon Ben-Meir* NEW YORK | 4 September 2026 (IDN) — Comparative conflict analysis reveals clear conditions under which weaker actors concede. The Palestinian case meets none of them, underscoring Israel’s strategic futility in expecting capitulation in the absence of a political settlement. The asymmetry of power between states and non-state actors—or between dominant governments […]
The Palestinian Imperative: Statehood Demands Strategy, Not Slogans
By Alon Ben-Meir* NEW YORK | 28 August 2026 (IDN) — A two-state solution remains the only viable path to peace, yet it will not emerge from Israeli policy shifts alone. Palestinians must undertake a profound strategic transformation—rooted in unity, institutional reform, and nonviolence—to make statehood both credible and attainable For decades, I have written […]
A Prisoner, A Peacemaker, and Israel’s Defining Choice
By Alon Ben-Meir* NEW YORK | 21 August 2026 (IDN) — What if the man Israel has imprisoned for murder is also the only Palestinian capable of delivering peace? Marwan Barghouti embodies a paradox at the heart of the conflict: legitimacy born of resistance, yet committed to coexistence. Although his release under the current Israelis’ […]
The Heartbeat of Resistance, Resilience and Kindness, in Today’s World – The Arbaeen Pilgrimage
By Azza Karam* KARBALA, Iraq | 10 August 2026 (IDN) —There are pilgrimages, and then there is Arbaeen. Each year, millions of people converge on the Iraqi city of Karbala in one of the largest annual religious gatherings anywhere in the world. This year, according to the Governor of Karbala, more than 22 million pilgrims […]