International Affairs
Israel/Palestine: One State or Two?
A few weeks ago the NY Times’ Thomas Friedman, surveying the mess that is the Middle East today and reflecting on US policymakers’ proclivity for wishful thinking, dropped a bombshell: Start with Israel. The peace process is dead. It’s over, ...
Read MoreNetanyahu’s Holocaust Revisionism
In a recent post, I cited Benjamin Netanyahu’s fantastic assertion that Iran seeks to take over the whole world. I suppose that claim could be dismissed as a fanciful flight of rhetoric, even though it did occur in an apparently ...
Read MoreThanks, Tom Friedman
I have to preface this post with some caveats about Tom Friedman, since I’m about to commend him. Friedman is a blowhard who has been wrong about a lot of things, most notably in his support for G.W. Bush’s ...
Read More“Occupation” as Euphemism
In an unusual NY Times op-ed, Palestinian activist Nasser Nawaja describes the ordeal of his West Bank village, Susiya, under threat of Israeli demolition. The homes of some 340 Palestinians are slated to be destroyed on the grounds that they ...
Read MoreThe Greek Drama
A just solution to the disaster enveloping Greece would involve a massive write-down of Greek debt. That is not going to happen, so in the upcoming referendum the Greek people are faced with a choice between two horrible alternatives. A ...
Read MoreA Clarifying Election
The Israeli election results have put to rest any faint hope for a settlement of the Israel/Palestinian conflict in the foreseeable future. No one should be fooled by Netanyahu’s post-election “clarification”: his behavior as well as his words, not only ...
Read MoreThe Iranian Threat to Israel: “Existential”?
Among many letters to the editor printed in today’s NY Times was one which refers to the Iranian regime’s “genocidal ambitions” aimed at Israel. The writer of course was reflecting the widespread belief that Iran’s rulers are dedicated to the ...
Read MoreThe Greeks Say “Enough”
You don’t often find Paul Krugman and the Wall Street Journal editorial page in agreement, but this morning they did agree on one thing: the austerity that has been inflicted on Greece has been short-sighted and destructive, and the smashing ...
Read MoreThe US and Torture: A Brazilian Perspective
Thanks to the Washington Monthly’s Nancy LeTourneau, I was alerted to another torture report that came out in recent days, this one from Brazil. That country’s National Truth Commission reported on its investigation into the 21-years of dictatorship that came ...
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