By Norman Solomon* SAN FRANCISCO, USA | 28 July 2026 (IDN) — When House Democratic leader Hakeem Jeffries sent out a recent “Dear Colleague” letter, its second sentence cited “the position articulated by…pro-peace organisations like J Street.” The congressman and J Street were opposing an amendment to block $3.3 billion in military shipments and other aid […]
Trump’s Authoritarian Play Against Foreign Journalists
By Alon Ben-Meir* For nearly a century, foreign correspondents have come to the United States precisely because this country prided itself on welcoming scrutiny. Now, the Trump administration proposes to turn that legacy on its head—by transforming visas for international journalists into instruments of control. NEW YORK | 26 July 2026 (IDN) — Under a […]
Genocides Are No Bargaining Chips
By Benoit Lannoo* ANTWERP, Belgium | 25 July 2026 (IDN) — The relations of the State of Israel with Türkiye and Azerbaijan have been under great tension since the Israeli government submitted a bill recognising the Armenian Genocide to the parliament, the Knesset, at the end of June. The government of Benjamin Netanyahu did not […]
War-War and Jaw-Jaw
By Jonathan Power LUND, Sweden | 22 July 2026 (IDN) –Donald Trump will find out the hard way in Iran that, as Winston Churchill famously observed, “Jaw-Jaw is better than War-War.” If war can be avoided through a warm, lengthy, private conversation—without advisers, accompanied by generous gestures and promises of international recognition when his opponent, […]
Politicians Should Stop Hiding Behind the “Two-State Solution” Fantasy
By Norman Solomon* SAN FRANCISCO | 18 July 2026 (IDN) — Creation of a Palestinian state next to Israel seemed feasible when President Bill Clinton hosted the signing of the Oslo Accords at the White House in September 1993. The goal was reaffirmed in 2011 when 90 per cent of the Senate co-sponsored a resolution […]
The Demolition Of Some Important Myths About American History
By Jan Servaes BRUSSELS | 18 July 2026 (IDN) — Traditional American historiography is often criticised for presenting simplistic, one-dimensional portraits of historical figures and events, thereby concealing complex realities and controversial aspects. Traditional historiography therefore tends to gloss over events and the broader struggle of marginalised groups, and to glorify a select few key […]
We Should Question US “Soft Power”
By Jonathan Power LUND, Sweden | 15 July 2026 (IDN) – Is the world being captured by what the late Harvard academic, Joseph Nye, has termed American “Soft Power”? President Donald Trump says he’s pushing for this. The debate about American influence on the world at large is not new. Charles Dickens, the great British […]
Power, Fear, and Submission
By Dr. Alon Ben-Meir* NEW YORK | 10 July 2026 (IDN) — How is it possible that the Republican Party, at the peak of American power and at the new dawn of the country’s 250th anniversary, became a cult of personality around a leader they know to be a felon, a liar, and a danger […]
My Conversation With Karl Marx About Donald Trump
By Norman Solomon* SAN FRANCISCO | 7 July 2026 (IDN) — The following has been edited for clarity and length. Norman Solomon: You’ve downplayed the importance of the individual in history. But the United States now has as president an individual who transformed power relations and the political landscape. Karl Marx: I can assure you that […]
1776 Against 1787: Constituent Power and the Forgotten Meaning of American Democracy
By Sam Ben-Meir* NEW YORK | 6 July 2026 (IDN) — On Saturday, July 4, Americans celebrated the nation’s 250th anniversary with the familiar fanfare: fireworks, flags, patriotic speeches, and ritual invocations of liberty. Yet at this extraordinary milestone, when the country is more deeply divided than at any time in recent memory over the […]