Responses to Obama's Speech: An Attitudinal National and Ethnic Divide?

5 June, 2009 — peoplesgeography

Links added

In scanning the progressive press, I’d like to add an observation to Idrees’ survey of the online reaction to Obama’s speech about an interesting pattern that seems to have emerged. A list follows by way of illustration, and then I’ll draw out why I think a significant attitudinal divide may exist and speculate about why it is there.

Largely Lauding

Largely Skeptical

  • Ali Abunimah (A Bush in sheep’s clothing)
  • As’ad Abu Khalil (Chicanery and intelligence-insulting, vapid and sinister)
  • Yaman @ Kabobfest (”A little Qur’an here, a little civilizational worth there, and abracadabra, the Muslims are happy again!)
  • Ahdaf Soueif (Global moral standing still elusive if sectional interests prevail — my précis)
  • Hossam el-Hamalawy (“Republicans screw the Arabs. Democrats screw the Arabs, but with a smile,” is a popular saying among the dissidents’ circles in Egypt.)  See also el-Hamalawy’s (aka the Arabist) pre-speech NYT Op-Ed.

Read the rest of this entry »

Posted in Media, Middle East, US Foreign Policy. Tags: . 22 Comments »

Boycott, Surrender or War

30 March, 2009 — peoplesgeography

“There is no peace process. There never was”, Jeremy Salt writes from Ankara. “There is only a war process. The fictions of the Oslo process, Madrid, the Declaration of Principles, Wye River, the Hebron protocol, have all been exposed”:

The spate of reports coming out of the Middle East in the past two weeks are signs of a coming danger greater than the region has known in its modern history. The Israeli onslaught on Gaza; the massacre of civilians; the strafing of hospitals, ambulances and medical staff; the vandalisation of Palestinian homes; the violent, racist graffiti scrawled on walls; the soldiers’ t-shirts patterned with graphics showing a pregnant Palestinian woman in the cross hairs of a rifle; the support by 85 per cent of the Israeli population for an attack on civilians which killed hundreds of children; the evidence of Israeli soldiers themselves of how civilians were murdered in cold blood; the march on Umm al Fahm by the followers of Meir Kahane, at the same time as Palestinian cultural festivals in Jerusalem were being prohibited; the choice of a settler racist as Israel’s Foreign Minister; the two-tier colonial society established on the West Bank, reminiscent of Algeria in the 19th century; the wall, the checkpoints, the closures, the daily humiliation, the seizure of land and demolition of homes; the continuing demographic war against the Palestinians in Jerusalem; the recent attack on Sudan by unknown planes said to have been Israeli; the wars of the past and now the preparations for an attack on Iran – what more evidence could anyone need of how utterly dangerous the state of Israel is to regional and global stability? Read the rest of this entry »

Posted in Gaza, Israel, Israel Lobby, Middle East, Palestine, US Foreign Policy, War crimes. Tags: . 3 Comments »

James Petras: Regional Wars and the Decline of the US Empire

28 March, 2009 — peoplesgeography.com

James Petras’s latest essay [.pdf], ‘World Depression: Regional Wars and the Decline of the US Empire’ is excerpted below, wherein he combines an analysis of world economic prospects with his thoughts on US Empire and the continuity of zionist influences in the Obama administration. Petras is the author most recently of the books Zionism, Militarism and the Decline of US Power (2008), Rulers and Ruled in the US Empire: Bankers, Zionists and Militants (2007) and The Power of Israel in the United States (2006).  Please visit his site for more of his articles; see also The Art of Plain Speaking: James Petras on the Israel Lobby.

Introduction

All the idols of capitalism over the past three decades crashed. The assumptions and presumptions, paradigm and prognosis of indefinite progress under liberal free market capitalism have been tested and have failed. We are living the end of an entire epoch: Experts everywhere witness the collapse of the US and world financial system, the absence of credit for trade and the lack of financing for investment. A world depression, in which upward of a quarter of the world’s labor force will be unemployed, is looming. The biggest decline in trade in recent world history – down 40% year to year – defines the future. The immanent bankruptcies of the biggest manufacturing companies in the capitalist world haunt Western political leaders. The ‘market’ as a mechanism for allocating resources and the government of the US as the ‘leader’ of the global economy have been discredited. (Financial Times, March 9, 2009) All the assumptions about ‘self-stabilizing markets’ are demonstrably false and outmoded. The rejection of public intervention in the market and the advocacy of supply-side economics have been discredited even in the eyes of their practitioners. Even official circles recognize that ‘inequality of income’ contributed to the onset of the economic crash and should be corrected. Planning, public ownership, nationalization are on the agenda while socialist alternatives have become almost respectable. Read the rest of this entry »

Posted in Economy, Israel Lobby, Middle East, US Foreign Policy, USA, Zionism. Tags: . Leave a Comment »

Letter To Obama on Gaza and Palestine

22 January, 2009 — peoplesgeography.com

An Open Letter to the new US President was taken out as out as a full page advertisement in the New York Times on 21st January by organisations that include CAIR, the ADC and United for Peace and Justice and the US Campaign to End the Israeli Occupation (snapshot below; pdf available here).

Letter Excerpt:

As American citizens we are deeply concerned that our nation’s one-sided approach to the Middle East crisis compromises America’s ability to act as a fair negotiator. Our foreign policy has upheld the interests of Israel, but has failed to do the same for the Palestinian people. Israel­, the fourth largest military power in the world, ­has devastated a population of 1.5 million people, one without an army, navy, or air force.

As the attacks in Gaza demonstrated, the outgoing administration chose to defend Israeli aggression even though the violence resulted in the disproportionate deaths of more than 1,300 Palestinians, including 300 children, as compared to 13 Israelis. Indeed, the loss of all of these lives cannot be justified.

Read the rest of this entry »

Posted in Gaza, Israel, Middle East, Palestine, US Foreign Policy, USA. Tags: . Leave a Comment »

Stephen M. Walt on the myth of Israeli strategic 'genius'

21 January, 2009 — peoplesgeography

Along with his co-author John Mearsheimer, no-one has been more responsible for starting to turn the tide in US academe towards a more sensible US foreign policy and away from reflexive and disadvantageous (to say little of immoral and unjust) blind support for Israel’s likudniks than Stephen Walt. (The likudnik label well applies to all of Israel’s governments: lest we forget that the expansion of illegal Jewish settlements under Labor actually accelerated).

In the thoughtful analysis that follows, Walt proffers a concise historical overview that leads to the conclusion that Israel’s military blunders have increased since its 1982 invasion of Lebanon, and these these blunders are compounded by reflexive and unconditional US support.  There is not much here that seasoned observers don’t already know; the greater point is that these facts and views, as clearly articulated by Walt here, are starting to gain traction, and that is not insignificant.

I’ve re-posted here slightly truncated and with editorial emphasis in bold. You can read it in full along with his other regular posts at his FP blog here.

Many supporters of Israel will not criticize its behavior, even when it is engaged in brutal and misguided operations like the recent onslaught on Gaza…. Read the rest of this entry »

Posted in Israel, Lebanon, Middle East, Palestine, US Foreign Policy, USA. Tags: , , . Leave a Comment »

A Modern Parable for the Middle East

23 December, 2008 — peoplesgeography

I originally posted this at Haitham Sabbah’s and at Israel’s 60th Birthday blog, and cross-post it here now.

Curiously, I first came across this anecdote as a teenager in a local library book, and have never forgotten it. Through the magic of the web, I recently found the book online and fortunately this page was among the pages captured. Its taken from a treasury of humour compiled by the late science fiction author and polymath Isaac Asimov.

Jones, a wealthy financier, had on many occasion in the good old days – when trains were flourishing and coaches were the last word in technological luxury – crossed the continent by Pullman. He was well known and well served and was accustomed to every convenience, particularly when dining. Imagine his exasperation, then, when it turned out that the chef did not have tutti-frutti ice cream.

“No tutti-frutti?” he shouted. “I always have tutti-frutti.”

“I’m sorry, sir,” said the waiter, soothingly. “We have chocolate, vanilla, strawberry, black walnut, cherry, mocha almond -” Read the rest of this entry »

Posted in Middle East. Tags: . 2 Comments »

“Are you Islamabad?”: A lighthearted look at stereotypes

29 July, 2008 — peoplesgeography.com

Vox pops from Arab- and Iranian-Americans, from comedian Dean Obeidallah, Negin Farsad and friends (3.38).

Posted in Arab, Comedy, Humor, Humour, Islam, Middle East, People, USA, Video. Tags: , . 4 Comments »

Militant Zionism and the Invasion of Iraq: Ron Andreas

28 July, 2008 — peoplesgeography.com

An important reminder of the goals of destabilisation of the Middle East and the instrumentalisation of war for militant zionism, with thanks to Ron Andreas (submitted by the author).

Unlike the Western oil majors, the militant Zionist proponents of greater Israel view stability and peace in the Middle East as inimical to their goals. Chaos and strife create the “revolutionary atmosphere” (as Ben Gurion one of the key founders of the state of Israel put it) in which more land and water resources can be taken under their control. This fact explains the motive behind the ceaseless provocations and destabilization that the Israeli military and secret services perpetrate.

The “iron wall” policy established by Ze’ev Jabotinsky prior to the founding of the Jewish state requires the expulsion of Christian and Muslim Arabs from Palestine. Such a goal requires war or other violent means. Read the rest of this entry »

Posted in Empire, War and Terror, Iraq, Israel, Israel Watch, Middle East, US Foreign Policy, USA, War, Zionism. Tags: , . 2 Comments »

Israel, Palestine, and the US Congress: CNI Event

24 July, 2008 — peoplesgeography.com

Three video clips from the Council for the National interest (CNI) Public Forum event: Israel, Palestine, and the US: Realities and Opportunities at the Cannon House Office Building on Capitol Hill, Washington, DC.

  • Part 1 features James Abourezk, former US Senator, and Dr. Menachem Klein, Professor of Political Science at Bar-Ilan University, Israel.
  • Part Two features US Ambassador Edward Peck and Uri Avnery, Israeli peace activist and former Knesset Member.
  • Part Three features Professor John Mearsheimer, University of Chicago, and co-author of The Israel Lobby.

Israel, Palestine, and the US: Realities and Opportunities

Part One (9.54)
Read the rest of this entry »

Posted in International Relations, Israel, Lobby watch, Middle East, Neocons, Palestine, US Foreign Policy, USA, Video. Tags: , , , , , , . Leave a Comment »

For a fairer, non-partisan policy on I-P: world to political representatives

22 July, 2008 — peoplesgeography

The University of Maryland’s Program on International Policy Attitudes recently released a new survey regarding public opinion on the Israel-Palestinian conflict:

A new WorldPublicOpinion.org poll of 18 countries finds that in 14 of them people mostly say their government should not take sides in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. Just three countries favor taking the Palestinian side (Egypt, Iran, and Turkey) and one is divided (India). No country favors taking Israel’s side, including the United States, where 71 percent favor taking neither side.

International Poll: Most Publics–including Americans–Oppose Taking Sides in Israeli-Palestinian Conflict

July 1, 2008

Country-by-Country Summaries (PDF)
Questionnaire/methodology (PDF)
Press Release (PDF)
Full PDF Version

Posted in Israel, Middle East, Palestine, US Foreign Policy, USA. Leave a Comment »
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