The strained relationship between US Jews and Israel
At the opening of the US embassy in Jerusalem in May, two pastors were present to make the opening and closing prayers. They come from extreme right, white Christian evangelical traditions. Both are well known for their outspoken anti-Semitism and their support for Israel. It might be thou...CONTINUE READING
Behind Ireland’s historic vote for abortion rights
The massive Yes vote on 25 May for a referendum repealing an Irish constitutional amendment that made abortion illegal was a resounding victory for women in Ireland and around the world. When voting ended on Friday, exit polls showed that repeal would win by a landslide, and the celebratin...CONTINUE READING
Pro-EU authoritarianism will only strengthen Italy’s racist right
Italian president Sergio Mattarella has plunged Italy into an institutional crisis of grave proportions. In rejecting the proposal by the 5 Star Movement and the League to form a government, which included a finance minister considered to be too Eurosceptic, Mattarella openly declared that...CONTINUE READING
A new beginning for the struggle in Indonesia?
21 May marked the 20th anniversary of the fall of the dictator Suharto, who ruled Indonesia from 1965 until 1998 – 33 years; a very long time. This 33 years constituted a massive percentage of the time Indonesia has existed. The leadership of the national revolution proclaimed independence...CONTINUE READING
The logic of Israel’s brutality
In 2002, Israeli army chief Moshe Yaalon declared: “The Palestinians must be made to understand in the deepest recesses of their consciousness that they are a defeated people”. More than any other quote from any other Israeli official, this statement reveals the heart of Israeli policy tow...CONTINUE READING
Two apartheid states, two massacres
On 21 March 1960, the apartheid state of South Africa carried out one of its most notorious massacres, unleashing murderous fire on 5,000 Blacks gathered outside the police station in Sharpeville. They were protesting against the racist Pass Laws, which severely restricted the movement of...CONTINUE READING
The return of the regime change hawks
They’re back. After nearly a decade in exile from the headquarters of US imperialism, foreign policy extremists so radical that even known neoconservatives dismissed them as kooks have returned to power in the Trump administration. Together with Trump, they have set the US and its allies I...CONTINUE READING
Palestinian morality and Israeli-US immorality
The world saw two starkly opposed moral cultures on 14 May. On one side were unarmed protesters in the Gaza Strip calling for the right of Palestinians to return to the homes and lands they were driven from by the creation of Israel 70 years ago. Palestinians call that the Nakba (“catastro...CONTINUE READING
