By Norman Solomon* SAN FRANCSCO 15 December 2023 (IDN) — Top American officials in the “national security” establishment are notably good at smooth rhetoric and convenient silences. Their scant regard for truth or human life has changed remarkably little since 1971 when Daniel Ellsberg risked decades in prison to leak the Pentagon Papers to the world. During […]
The Current Netanyahu-Led Government Was Born in Sin
By Dr Alon Ben-Meir* NEW YORK 15 December 2023 (IDN) — From the first day the current Netanyahu-led coalition government was formed, it was preoccupied with its corrupt domestic agenda and perilously intensified the conflict with the Palestinians, and prompted Hamas to commit the unfathomable savage butchery of 1,200 Israelis The unspeakable savagery that Hamas […]
Iran Deal Off the Table as Nuclear Tensions Rise
By Kelsey Davenport The writer is the director for nonproliferation policy at the Arms Control Association (ACA). This article first appeared in ‘Arms Control Now’ of the ACA and is being reproduced with their permission. WASHINGTON, D.C. | 14 December 2023 (IDN) — A top U.S. official said that restoring the 2015 nuclear deal with […]
Exposed—The Callous Inhumanity of ‘Ertez Yisrael’
By Seevali Abeysekera* LONDON | 14 December 2023 (IDN) — When on 7 October, Hamas fighters broke out of the open-air prison called Gaza and breached the previously impregnable border that Israel had built in order to suffocate the Palestinians, little did the world realise that within a few short weeks, Israel would finally reveal […]
COP28: Little to Celebrate, More to Lament
By Thalif Deen UNITED NATIONS | 13 December 2023 (IDN) — When the much-ballyhooed climate change “conference of parties” —COP28—concluded on December 12 in the bustling Emirati city of Dubai, it reflected an old Greek proverb: the mountain that laboured to produce a mouse. The London-based Nafkote Dabi, Climate Change Policy Lead at Oxfam International, […]
Unlike Conformist Media, Noam Chomsky Has Exposed Realities of Power
By Norman Solomon SAN FRANCISCO | 13 December 2023 (IDN) — One of the rare times that Noam Chomsky’s name has been mentioned on a big national NPR program came two months ago. On “Weekend Edition” in mid-October, a week into Israel’s murderous assault on civilians in Gaza, a correspondent reported while visiting a bookstore […]
Why Europe Came Out on Top
By Jonathan Power LUND, Sweden | 13 December 2023 (IDN) — By 1914 Europeans ruled 84% of the globe. How did they do it? Eleven hundred years ago, Europe was a backwater. There were no grand cities, apart from Muslim Cordoba in Spain, and the remnants of Rome and Athens. The Middle East, India and […]
Exposing the Emerging Orientalist Narrative of Peace and Security for Afghanistan — Part II
By Bashir Mobasher and Zakira Rasooli* Toda Peace Institute issued this article, which is being republished with their permission. INDIANA, USA | DOHAN, Qatar | 12 December 2023 (IDN) — Edward Said defines Orientalism as a series of representations of the ‘East,’ in the form of ‘knowledge’ (and beyond), which does not reflect the intrinsic […]
Gaza War: A Moment of Honor for the UN and Shame for the US
By Jeffrey D. Sachs* This article was published in Common Dreams and is being republished with the author’s permission. NEW YORK | 12 December 2023 (IDN) — The nearly unanimous vote in the UN Security Council on Friday (8 December) calling for an immediate ceasefire in Gaza is a moment of honor for the United Nations […]
Exposing the Emerging Orientalist Narrative of Peace and Security for Afghanistan — Part I
By Bashir Mobasher and Zakira Rasooli* Toda Peace Institute issued this article, which is being republished with their permission. INDIANA, USA | DOHAN, Qatar | 11 December 2023 (IDN) — In July 2023, Tobias Ellwood, a UK parliamentarian and former Government Minister in the Ministry of Defense, released a video of himself stating that “security […]