Author's Posts
Jenin is just the start: Did Palestinians finally bury the ghosts of the past?
July 13th, 20230 The deadly Israeli invasion of Jenin on July 3 was not a surprise. Also, unsurprising is the fact that the killing of 12 Palestinians, wounding of 120 more and the destruction of nearly 80 percent of the Jenin Refugee Camp’s homes and infrastructure will not make an iota of a difference. Even Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin...
“We will not surrender”: The extraordinary Palestinians of Jenin
June 29th, 20230 By Ramzy Baroud On June 19, a large Israeli military force raided the northern Palestinian town and refugee camp of Jenin from multiple directions. Not only did the raid fail, it backfired, and it also created a precedent in Israel’s decades-long war on the ever-rebellious Palestinian region. Israel killed eight Palestinians and...
Prophets of doom: Kissinger and the “intellectual” decline of the West
June 9th, 20230 It is unclear why 100-year-old Henry Kissinger has been elevated by Western intelligentsia to serve the role of the visionary in how the West should behave in response to the Russia-Ukraine war. But does the centenarian politician have the answers? Every major global conflict that involved the U.S. and its NATO allies in the past had...
A man without a strategy: How Netanyahu is provoking armed Intifada in the West Bank
June 9th, 20230 After signing a military decree on May 18, allowing illegal Israeli Jewish settlers to reclaim the abandoned Homesh settlement located in the northern Occupied West Bank, the Israeli government has informed the U.S. Biden administration that it will not turn the area into a new settlement. The latter revelation was reported by Axios on...
“Not on our dime!”: Why U.S. Democrats are growingly challenging Israel
May 24th, 20230 Though the United States remains a strong supporter of Israel, there are some indications that the supposed “unbreakable bond” with Tel Aviv is faltering, though more in language than in deeds. Following the provocative “Flag March” on May 18, which is carried out annually by Israeli Jewish extremists in the Occupied...
Lying about lying: Why we must revisit the definition of “fake news”
April 4th, 20230 The phrase “fake news” continues to be deployed routinely in U.S. politics. In a polarized political atmosphere, both Republicans and Democrats distrust media organizations affiliated with opposing parties. This means that most of what is uttered or written by CNN is “fake news” for Republicans, and much of what appears in...
Xi’s “chilling” remarks: A multipolar world offers challenges and opportunities to the Middle East and Africa
March 29th, 20230 The final exchange, caught on camera between visiting Chinese President Xi Jinping and his Russian host and counterpart, Vladimir Putin, sums up the current geopolitical conflict, still in its nascent stages, between the United States and its Western allies on the one hand, and Russia, China and their allies, on the other. Xi was...
Mass protests and false hope: Israel’s supreme court is no friend of the Palestinian people
March 16th, 20230 As hundreds of thousands, throughout Israel, joined anti-government protests, questions began to arise regarding how this movement would affect, or possibly merge, into the wider struggle against the Israeli military occupation and apartheid in Palestine. Pro-Palestine media outlets shared, with obvious excitement, news about...
Victory is defeat: Palestinian children’s art exposes Israel’s cultural genocide
March 10th, 20230 The following text tells the whole story of what pro-Palestinian communities around the world are fighting for, and what pro-Israelis are fighting against: “We are delighted to report that Chelsea and Westminster Hospital has removed a display of artwork designed by children from Gaza.” That was the summary of a news report...
True champions of humanity in Türkiye and Syria: We thank you
February 22nd, 20230 On February 7, a funeral was held in the northern Syrian town of Jinderis. It was one of numerous such funerals to be held on that day across Syria and Türkiye, following a devastating earthquake that killed and injured thousands. Each one of these funerals represented two seemingly opposite notions: Collective grief and collective...
Palestine is my cause: Arabs reaffirm support for Palestinians, rejection of the occupation
February 2nd, 20230 By Ramzy Baroud The latest Arab Opinion Index 2022 is yet more proof that Arab societies are diverse in every possible way, from their assessment of their economic situation and living conditions to their take on immigration, state institutions and democracy. With one single exception: Palestine. Seventy-six percent of all...Israel was never a democracy: So why is the West lamenting end of “liberal” Israel?
Even before the new Israeli government was officially sworn in on December 29, angry reactions began emerging, not only among Palestinians and other Middle Eastern governments, but also among Israel’s historic allies in the West. As early as November 2, top U.S, officials conveyed to Axios that the Biden administration is “unlikely...
Lions’ Den is not a fleeting phenomenon: On Palestine’s looming armed revolt
December 24th, 20220 Just when Israel, and even some Palestinians, began talking about the Lions’ Den phenomenon in the past tense, a large number of fighters belonging to the newly-formed Palestinian group marched in the city of Nablus. Unlike the group’s first appearance on September 2, the number of fighters who took part in the rally in the Old...
The Nakba Day triumph: How the U.N. Is correcting a historical wrong
December 18th, 20220 The next Nakba Day will be officially commemorated by the United Nations General Assembly on May 15, 2023. The decision by the world’s largest democratic institution is significant, if not a game changer. For nearly 75 years, the Palestinian Nakba, the "Catastrophe" wrought by the ethnic cleansing of Palestine by Zionist militias in...
On “hate” and love at the World Cup: Palestine is more than an Arab cause
December 10th, 20220 We were mistaken to think that Palestine represents the central issue for all Arabs. Such language suggests that Palestine is an external subject, to be compared to other collective struggles that consume most Arabs, everywhere. The ongoing celebration of Palestine and the Palestinian flag at the Qatar World Cup 2022 by millions of......
Why the decision of the FBI to investigate Abu Akleh’s murder is unprecedented
November 26th, 20220 The recent decision by the United States Department of Justice to open an investigation into the killing, last May, of Palestinian American journalist Shireen Abu Akleh is not a game-changer, but important and worthy of reflection, nonetheless. Based on the long trajectory of U.S. military and political support of Israel, and...
“Nothing works”: Europe must stop blaming others for its own crises
November 12th, 20220 The European Union’s Foreign Policy Chief Josep Borrell is not particularly perceived by the EU’s political elite or mainstream media as a right-wing ideologue or warmonger. But seen through a different, non-Western prism, it is hard not to mistake him for one. Borrell’s recent comments that “Europe is a garden” and that......
From ally to enemy: Australia hammers final nail in U.S. “Deal of the Century”
October 31st, 20220 U.S. President Donald Trump’s so-called "Deal of the Century" was meant to represent a finality of sorts, an event reminiscent of Francis Fukuyama’s premature declaration of the ‘End of History’ and the uncontested supremacy of western capitalism. In effect, it was a declaration that ‘we’ – the U.S., Israel and a few allies...
Difficult months ahead: Why Israel is afraid of the Lions’ Den
October 24th, 20220 This headline in the Israeli newspaper the Jerusalem Post only tells part of the story: “The Lions’ Den, Other Palestinian Groups are Endless Headache for Israel, PA.” It is true that both the Israeli government and the Palestinian Authority are equally worried about the prospect of a widespread armed revolt in the occupied West...
Strangers behind the trees: On the death of Rayan Suliman and his fear of monsters
October 16th, 20220 Children of my Gaza refugee camp were rarely afraid of monsters, but of Israeli soldiers. This is all that we talked about before going to bed. Unlike imaginary monsters in the closet or under the bed, Israeli soldiers are real, and they could show up any minute — at the door, on the roof or, as was often the case, right in the middle...
Hidden motives: Why Lapid is not serious about a Palestinian state
October 8th, 20220 Israeli Prime Minister Yair Lapid threw a wrench into the works when he declared from the United Nations General Assembly podium, “An agreement with the Palestinians, based on two states for two peoples, is the right thing for Israel’s security, for Israel’s economy and for the future of our children.” The statement took many......
From Exodus to Marvel: A brief history of Hollywood’s justification of Israeli war crimes
October 3rd, 20220 The introduction of an Israeli Mossad agent as the latest Marvel movie character crosses the line, even by Hollywood's poor moral standards. However, the Israeli superhero, Sabra, must be understood within the rational progression of the Israelification of Hollywood, a phenomenon that is surprisingly new. Sabra is a relatively old...
“Avenging Sabra and Shatila”: On Israeli massacres and Palestinian resistance
September 14th, 20220 September 16 marks the 40th anniversary of the Sabra and Shatila massacre, the killing of around 3,000 Palestinians at the hands of Lebanon’s Phalangist militias operating under the command of the Israeli army. Four decades have passed, yet no measure of justice has been received by the survivors of the massacre. Many of them have......
The road to fascism: How the war in Ukraine is changing Europe
September 11th, 20222 As soon as I landed in Rome, I discovered that I was no longer able to access any Russian media whatsoever. Unfortunately, threats by European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen that Europe should sever all links with “Russia’s propaganda machine” were taken seriously by the Italian government. As a journalist, having...
Investigating the victim: On Abbas’ “holocaust” and the depravity of Israeli Hasbara
September 4th, 20220 “There was no Massacre in Jenin” was the title of a Haaretz editorial on April 19, 2002, one week after Israel ended its deadly onslaught on the besieged Palestinian refugee camp in the northern West Bank. The unwarranted conclusion by Haaretz, other Israeli media and, ultimately, numerous Western outlets was not the outcome of a......
