War

Sanctions Against Iran: A Duplicitous "Alternative" to War

Media reports on Iran oscillate wildly between threats of imminent military action and hopeful reports of diplomatic progress. Amidst this confusing din, there is a constant truth: the United States has not ceased its economic bullying of Iran, nor has the threat of war receded. As Dennis B. Ross, the Obama Administration’s former Iran advisor, told the New York Times, “now you have a focus on the negotiations...It doesn't mean the threat of using force goes away, but it lies behind the diplomacy.” This ...

Palestinian Hunger Strikers: Fighting Ingrained Duplicity

On his seventy-third day of hunger strike, Thaer Halahleh was vomiting blood and bleeding from his lips and gums, while his body weighs in at 121 pounds—a fraction of its pre-hunger strike size. The thirty-three-year-old Palestinian follows the still-palpable footsteps of Adnan Khader and Hana Shalabi, whose hunger strikes resulted in release. He also stands alongside Bilal Diab, who is also entering his seventy-third day of visceral protest. Together, they inspired nearly 2,500 Palestinian political ...

Love Bomb: How Deep Is Israel's Love for Iran?

If you follow the news in the Middle East, you have probably come across the online sensation known as the “Israel-Loves-Iran” campaign. The campaign, launched by Israeli graphic designer Ronny Edry and his wife Michal Tamir, emerges amidst rising tensions between Iran and the West over the country’s nuclear program, as well as months of sabre-rattling between the leaders of Israel, the United States, and Iran. What started out as a campaign to upload colourful posters with the slogan “Iranians, we ...

A Barbarian in Rome

[The following are excerpts from a longer text in the form of a diary kept during the war] “ I have freed millions from barbarism.” George W. Bush, The Guardian, Sunday, June 15, 2008. i. “Are you going home for the holidays?” asked a colleague of mine some years ago in the elevator. It is a typical and legitimate question, but if you happen to be from Baghdad, as I am, formulating an answer is not a simple task. The immediate one that came to mind was: have you watched the news in the last four ...

US Military in Afghanistan

Syria Media Roundup (February 23)

Sunday Times reporter Marie Colvin, killed in Syria on Wednesday reminds us all of the importance of front line reporting (1) along with a French photographer, Remi Ochlik and, on the previous day a Syrian citizen journalist Rami Al-Sayed (2) ‘Phone Calls to Hell’: Syria’s citizen journalists, including Rami Al-Sayed ‘Damascus Launching the Syrian Journalists Association after Decades of Oppression’ ‘Syrian Security Forces Target Doctors’, in The Guardian ‘Red Cross tries to broker ...

Plundering the Past: Scholarly Treasures

“Not a year has passed without hunger in Iraq,” wrote the great Iraqi poet al-Sayyab (1926–1964) more than half a century ago in his memorable poem “Rainsong.” Now, many years and many wars later, there is hunger aplenty. Were he alive today, al-Sayyab would have expressed nothing short of horror at the massive hunger in the “new” Iraq, especially when considering the obscene wealth that has been and is still being plundered and squandered by its rulers. One in six Iraqis live in poverty. This is in a ...

The Libyan Model?

In the halls of the United Nations (UN) in New York, “Libya” hangs like an ellipse. For some, the word connotes a successful agenda for humanitarian intervention. For others, it suggests a disaster. Impending wars in West Asia remain spurred on, or haunted, by “Libya.” Oil traders downplay the dangers of a strike on Iran. They point out that any shortfall in oil markets will be covered by “friendly” oilfields in Iraq and Libya, as well as by the Saudi regime’s eagerness to pump more oil to maintain ...

An Ongoing Nakba: The Plight of Palestinian Refugees in Iraq

In September 2011, the month that Palestinian Authority President, Mahmoud ‘Abbas, submitted Palestine’s statehood bid at the United Nations (UN), Qusai Abdul-Raouf of the Lebanon-based Palestinian Human Rights Foundation was undertaking the task of documenting the increasing number of attacks against Palestinians in the al-Baladiyyat neighbourhood of Baghdad. As he toured the neighborhood, three ...

Genocides-R-Us

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