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Rainbow of Crisis
Articles in this section
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2 June 2008, by Nicola Nasser
Palestinians Trapped at Crossroads
Firing home-made primitive rockets at Israeli targets from the Gaza Strip, the mass sweeping through the Palestinian - Egyptian border crossing of Rafah in January and the series of ongoing (...) -
2 June 2008
"The U.S. is sowing the seeds of a long term tragedy..."
2008 is the sixtieth anniversary of the founding of Israel and of the Nakba, the Palestinian catastrophe. What do you see as the Israeli goal and has it changed over the years? What is the (...) -
1 June 2008, by Jim Quilty
Lebanon’s Brush with Civil War
When Israel commenced its bombardment of Lebanon on July 12, 2006, Prime Minister Ehud Olmert and his general staff declared that the air raids were provoked by Hizballah’s kidnapping of two (...) -
1 June 2008, by Marc JOHNSON
Perspectives on humanitarian aid
Cyclone Nargis, which struck southern Burma on 2-3 May, killing over 60,000 people, has generated an international debate about the nature of humanitarian aid, and the need for stronger (...) -
31 May 2008, by Paul Rogers
Al-Qaida’s afterlife
An increased American military and political effort in Afghanistan is making the conflict there part of a new dynamic of global confrontation, says Paul Rogers -
30 May 2008, by Cincia Nachira (Il Manifesto)
Crisis Not Over
1) After the recent events, the situation today seems to confirm the victory of Hezbollah and its allies in the "first round." What do you think? What happened is very clearly that a change (...) -
29 May 2008, by Stephen Mikesell and Mary Des Chene
On the eve of the republic
It is 14th Jeth, 2065, [Tuesday May 27, 2008] in Nepal, the day before the constituent assembly is to convene and declare Nepal a full republic. The king remains in his palace. The form of the (...) -
29 May 2008, by Archbishop Tutu
Gaza siege must end
Senior Hamas leader and former Palestinian prime minister Ismail Haniya (L) and Nobel peace laureate Desmond Tutu give a press conference in Gaza City. (AFP/Mahmud Hams) Gaza – Ma’an - (...) -
28 May 2008, by Phyllis Bennis
THE U.S. IS LOSING BUT THE WINNERS ARE UNCLEAR
This is a period of rapid and dramatic decline of American economic power around the world, and that, along with massive anger directed at U.S. policies around the world, has resulted in a (...) -
28 May 2008, by Ahmad Jaradat and Sara Venturini, Alternative Information Center (AIC)
Economic Success for Palestinians Requires Political Freedoms and Full Territorial Sovereignty
Israel’s occupation policy in the Bethlehem area provides another perspective on the optimistic reality promoted by the Palestine Investment Conference -
28 May 2008, by IJAZ KHAN
Narrow Opportunity for Democratic Change
In 1985, in classroom in London, Professor Geoffrey Williams explained revolution with a quote from Prof. Hans Kelsen as ‘a Law creating fact’. Revolution replaces existing legality and creates (...) -
27 May 2008, by Franklin Lamb
The Doha Scorecard
"The agreement was not ideal for either party and I hope that it will serve as a launch pad for decent relations between the majority and the opposition. We will tackle the other issues in (...) -
27 May 2008, by Michel Warshavski
Facing the Specters of Israel’s Establishment: the Palestinian Right of Return as the True Healing of Israeli Society
years ago, when the State of Israel was celebrating its fiftieth anniversary, our main duty was to explain that the creation of Israel was also the Palestinian Nakba, and often people asked (...) -
27 May 2008, by GREG KAFOURY
Is Obama Turning Right?
This week, Senator Barak Obama traveled to Florida and spoke to Jewish and Cuban-American audiences. In those speeches, he embraced the right-wing policy positions of the American Israel (...) -
27 May 2008, by Patrick Bond and Thandokuhle Manzi
Xenophobia tears apart SA’s working class
The low-income black township here in Durban which suffered more than any other during apartheid, Cato Manor, was the scene of a test performed on a Mozambican last Wednesday morning. -
27 May 2008, by Arnold August
Threat and Lies
In a recent statement by U.S. President Bush has issued a threat to Cuba: “life will not fundamentally change for Cubans until their form of government changes.” Bush goes on in his next (...) -
26 May 2008, by Ramzy Baroud
One State: Coexistence, Not Apartheid
For the last 60 years, all those who have sought a genuinely peaceful and fair solution for Israel and Palestine have faced the same obstacle — Israel’s sense of invincibility and military (...) -
26 May 2008, by NIKOLAS KOZLOFF
U.S. Fourth Fleet in Venezuelan Waters
With U.S. saber rattling towards Venezuela now at its height, the Pentagon has decided to reactivate the Navy’s fourth fleet in the Caribbean, Central and South America. -
25 May 2008, by HEIN MARAIS
Staring into the mirror
Let’s first clear our heads a little. The distinction drawn so often between xenophobic attacks and acts of criminality is spurious. Murder, assault and looting – indisputably criminal acts – (...) -
23 May 2008, by Siddharth Varadarajan
Nine scenarios for the nuclear endgame
After four rounds of shadow-boxing in the coordination committee on the Indo-United States nuclear deal, it has become obvious that Prime Minister Manmohan Singh does not have a credible (...) -
22 May 2008, by Marc Johnson
Rangoon public increasingly impatient with regime
Tension is rising in Rangoon, as the regime continues to ignore more than 2 million victims of cyclone Nargis, which has killed over 77,000 persons since it hit southern Burma on May 2nd. The (...) -
22 May 2008, by Ilan Pappe
Israel ’committing memorycide’
Between February, 1948 and December,1948 the Israeli army systematically occupied the Palestinian villages and towns, expelled by force the population and in most cases also destroyed the (...) -
22 May 2008, by Sumantra Bose
Kosovo to Kashmir: the self-determination dilemma
The debate over Kosovo has highlighted deep divisions in the international system on the issue of self-determination of peoples. Solutions to self-determination disputes lie in compromises that (...) -
21 May 2008, by Naomi Klein
Regime-quakes in Burma and China
When news arrived of the catastrophic earthquake in Sichuan, my mind turned to Zheng Sun Man, an up-and-coming security executive I met on a recent trip to China. Zheng heads Aebell Electrical (...) -
21 May 2008
Pakistan Fisherfolk Forum Celebrate 10 Years of Struggle
HYDERABAD, May 6: Fishermen have asked the federal government to handover control of the ocean to Sindh and Balochistan and hoped the new setup will resolve their problems. They demanded (...) -
21 May 2008, by Marc Johnson
Wave of Burmese solidarity forces regime to retreat on cyclone aid
Media reports have neglected the most important source of aid to victims of cyclone Nargis - spontaneous donations from their fellow citizens. -
21 May 2008, by Irfan Husain
Rivalrous coalition
The fissures in Pakistan’s new government are allowing the country’s dangerous problems to fester, says Irfan Husain. -
18 May 2008
We fought apartheid; we see no reason to celebrate it in Israel now!
We, South Africans who faced the might of unjust and brutal apartheid machinery in South Africa and fought against it with all our strength, with the objective to live in a just, democratic (...) -
18 May 2008, by Pierre BEAUDET
There is no alternative to the right of return
To the People of Palestine, Whether you live within the "Green Line," in Jerusalem, the West Bank, Gaza, or in exile, you shall return, there is no doubt that you shall return. Today the (...) -
17 May 2008, by Mustafa Barghouthi
We Remain
Sixty years on what Palestinians refer to as the Nakba — the catastrophe — but what might be more accurately termed the inauguration of the ethnic cleansing of Palestine, one is struck by a (...) -
14 May 2008, by Ahmad Jaradat
“Please Return My Smile”
Representatives from the Alternative Information Center (AIC), Christian Peacemakers Team (CPT), UNICEF, OCHA, Save the Children UK, Defence of Children International (DCI), YMCA, Relief (...) -
14 May 2008, by Jeff Halper
Rethinking Israel after Sixty Years
Israeli Independence Day 2008, marking the sixtieth anniversary of the rise of the Jewish State on the ruins of Palestinian society, should be cause more for sober reflection and reevaluation (...) -
14 May 2008, by Ali Abunimah
Remembering 1948 and looking to the future
This month Israel marks the 60th anniversary of its founding. But amidst the festivities including visits by international celebrities and politicians there is deep unease — Israel has skeletons (...) -
13 May 2008, by SAREE MAKDISI
Forget the Two-State Solution
There is no longer a two-state solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. Forget the endless arguments about who offered what and who spurned whom and whether the Oslo peace process died when (...) -
12 May 2008, by Marc JOHNSON
Aid and hypocrisy
Response to the tropical cyclone Nargis, which hit Myanmar on 3 May 2008 has been hijacked by vested interests on all sides, leaving millions of Asia’s poorest people without any effective aid. -
11 May 2008, by FRANKLIN LAMB
Hezbollah Eases Up and Beirut Opens Its Shutters
Based on a US Congressional source, the Siniora government is reportedly able, with US approval, to offer the following face-saving proposal to Hezbollah to end the current crisis: 1. (...) -
9 May 2008, by LIAQUAT ALI KHAN
All Roads Lead to the Establishment
Pakistan’s constitutional shenanigans permit the fox to eat the lion. -
4 May 2008
Challenges after the Elections
The last five years in South Asian politics have proved to be extremely embarrassing to the mainstream media, its self-anointed pundits and the pollsters as far as ascertaining the wishes of the (...) -
3 May 2008, by Chido Makunike
Complex Issues
Chido Makunike looks at the various competing interests in Zimbabwe, the MDC, ZANU PF, Mugabe and the West in relation to what the Zimbabwean are hoping to get out of democracy. -
3 May 2008, by Tariq ALI
Mirage of Good War
Rarely has there been such an enthusiastic display of international unity as that which greeted the invasion of Afghanistan in 2001. Support for the war was universal in the chanceries of the (...) -
2 May 2008, by Siddharth Varadarajan
Prachanda: “The people’s mandate is for all parties to work together”
If the Nepali Congress and UML run away from the task of building the new Nepal, the people will never forgive them, says Maoist leader Prachanda -
1 May 2008
Palestinian and Israeli Human Rights Organisations Call for End to Restrictions on Gaza Fuel supply
Palestinian and Israeli human rights groups today issued an urgent call to cease restrictions on Gaza’s fuel supply and stop the unprecedented harm to Gaza’s humanitarian needs. The above-listed (...) -
1 May 2008, by William DALRYMPLE
A New Deal ?
The province of Sindh in southern Pakistan is a rural region of dusty mudbrick villages, of white-domed blue-tiled Sufi shrines, and of salty desert scrublands broken, quite suddenly, by (...) -
30 April 2008, by VARADARAJAN Siddharth
The CPN (M) after the elections
Varadarajan: What was your reaction to the election result? Were you surprised by the scale of Maoist victory? Prachanda: No, we were not surprised. We knew the media and other parties were (...) -
26 April 2008, by Siddharth Varadarajan
U.S. subverting poll mandate
After first “congratulating the people of Nepal on their historic Constitutional Assembly election,” the United States is now seeking to subvert the electorate’s mandate by lobbying against the (...) -
24 April 2008, by Michel Warshavski
A City Named Durban
There are cities about which the mere mention of their name causes horror, for example Nuremburg in Germany, whose name is automatically connected with the discriminatory laws of the Nazi (...) -
22 April 2008, by Mustafa Barghouthi
The choice of non-violence: our strategy for Palestine
Sixty years after the Naqba, the catastrophe, Palestinians are still without a state. They are living under occupation, many are in refugee camps, others are scattered around the world, and a (...) -
21 April 2008, by Alternative Information Center (AIC)
Boycott the International Writers Festival in Jerusalem
The first International Writers Festival is scheduled to take place 11-15 May 2008 in Jerusalem, just three days after Israel’s official celebrations of 60 years of independence. Local and (...) -
20 April 2008, by PATRICK COCKBURN
A New Struggle is Beginning
The old war was primarily between the Sunni community — which contested the American occupation — and an Iraqi government dominated by the Shia in alliance with the Kurds. That conflict has not (...) -
19 April 2008, by Center for Socialist Studies
Repression in Egypt
In light of recent events in Egypt yesterday April 6, 2008, the Center for Socialist Studies calls on supporters of freedom and justice everywhere in the world to show there support for victims (...) -
18 April 2008, by Ahmad Jaradat
Palestinian Prisoners Day: Highlighting the Ongoing Suffering of Thousands
Today, the 17th of April, Palestinians commemorate Palestinian Prisoners Day to remind both the international and the local publics that thousands of Palestinians, including hundreds of (...) -
16 April 2008, by Siddharth Varadarajan
Triumph of the new mainstream
By voting in the Maoists, the Nepali people have chosen the party most likely to push for an egalitarian society and inclusive republican system in the Constituent Assembly. India must not only (...) -
16 April 2008, by Prashant Jha
Maoist landslide
An electoral earthquake reflects the social distance that had grown between Kathmandu’s elite and media and Nepal’s people, says Prashant Jha -
16 April 2008, by Michael T. Klare
The End of the World as You Know It
Oil at $110 a barrel. Gasoline at $3.35 (or more) per gallon. Diesel fuel at $4 per gallon. Independent truckers forced off the road. Home heating oil rising to unconscionable price levels. Jet (...) -
15 April 2008, by Michel Warshavski
The One State Solution and Irreversibility
Palestinians fleeing the fighting in 1948. Following the ceasefire, they the newly formed Israeli government disallowed them to return to their homes and properties. “As a solution to the (...) -
14 April 2008, by Michel Warshavski
A New War?
Beirut in the aftermath of an Israeli bombing raid during the war in the summer of 2006. While I risk being considered an Israeli Cassandra, I reiterate my claim that war is on the agenda in the (...) -
13 April 2008, by Sankarshan Thakur
RED RULES KINGDOM
The red flag is flying high over Kathmandu. Prachanda’s Maoists have stolen a lightning march over rivals in Nepal, sparing none save the Nepali Congress, the nation’s oldest political party. -
13 April 2008, by Ameet Dhakal
«We will form coalition government»
The Maoists’ second-in-command, Babu Ram Bhattarai, who may well become Nepal’s next Prime Minister, said his party would form a coalition government even if it won the majority in the (...) -
13 April 2008
Maoist Leader Speaks
Buoyed by early gains in the crucial Constituent Assembly polls, Maoist chief Prachanda on Saturday said his commitment to multi-party democracy should not be doubted and vowed to forge (...) -
13 April 2008
Maoists Landslide Win
The Maoists today continued with their winning streak in the Constituent Assembly election and scored several stunning upsets. The Maoists secured victories by wide margins and continue to (...) -
13 April 2008, by Kanak Mani Dixit
After the Maoist Victory
The Nepali citizenry surprises itself and the world on occasion, with a show of people’s will that is unprecedented and path-breaking. The People’s Movement of April 2006 was one such (...) -
12 April 2008, by SHARON SMITH
Let Them Eat Ethanol!
Wall Street millionaires have spent months mourning their losses from once ridiculously over-valued investments. Yet these same free market cheerleaders remain blissfully unaware of the (...) -
9 April 2008, by Siddharth Varadarajan
The rumblings in Nepal’s Tarai
The people of Nepal go to the polls on Thursday to elect a Constituent Assembly (CA). While the eyes of the world are focussed on what the results will mean for the Maoists and the Monarchy, (...) -
8 April 2008, by Jenny Pearce
Who are the enemies of peace and democracy?
The Colombian government of Álvaro Uribe is making strenuous efforts to identify the Farc guerrilla movement as the chief threat to the country’s security and progress. But the evisceration of (...) -
7 April 2008, by Asian NGOs
A Statement of Concern
We are saddened and alarmed that the peaceful protest led by Buddhist monks in the Tibetan capital on March 10, which was followed by a wave of sympathy protests in the neighboring Tibetan areas (...) -
7 April 2008, by Alternative Information Center (AIC)
Corruption and the Palestinian National Authority
The Palestinian Authority (PA) has been repeatedly accused of corruption since it was established in 1994. The first audit conducted by the PA’s comptroller, whose findings were published in (...) -
5 April 2008
«Negotiations are useless at this point»
PNI Secretary General Mustafa Barghouthi MP said today that negotiations with Israel are meaningless until it meets basic conditions that reflect a genuine commitment towards peace. The MP (...) -
5 April 2008, by Joel Beinin
Underbelly of the Neoliberal Agenda
It was business as usual for Orascom, a gigantic Egyptian conglomerate with major interests in everything from Cairene highway construction to Red Sea luxury resorts to cell phones in Iraq. (...) -
4 April 2008, by Connie Hackbarth
Palestinian Self-Determination as a Human Right
This speech was originally presented by Connie Hackbarth on 2 April at the Derechos hacia una Cultura de Paz conference of the Movimiento por la Paz, el Desarme y la Libertad. -
3 April 2008, by Paul Roberts
The whirlwind
A persistent drumbeat of optimism about the progress of the war in Iraq has been audible among some United States commentators in the last months of 2007 and the early months of 2008. The (...) -
2 April 2008, by Michel Warschawski
Israeli Crimes and Boycott
Jewish residents of Tel Aviv on 29 November 1947, following the United Nations vote in favor of partitioning Palestine into two separate states, one Jewish and one Arab. Throughout the world, (...) -
2 April 2008, by Siddharth Varadarajan
Transition time: the past is over, only the future counts
It is 7 a.m. in Kathmandu and I am sitting with a group of young Maoist party cadres at the office-cum-residence of Prachanda, waiting for the Maoist leader to arrive for a scheduled interview (...) -
1 April 2008, by Reidar Visser
Basra’s second battle decoded
On the surface, the story may look plausible enough. A provincial city rich in oil degenerates into mafia-style conditions affecting the security of citizens as well as the national revenue from (...) -
1 April 2008, by Phyllis Bennis
"SURGE" EXPOSED AS FAILURE BUT NEW DANGERS RISE
The Iraqi government’s U.S.-backed offensive that began on March 25 was not designed to go after "criminals" and was not limited to Basra. It was designed to eliminate the military and political (...) -
31 March 2008, by Daya Varma and Vinod Mubayi
Dalai Lama and India
The unrest in the Tibet region of China is having an impact in India also. The Indian government is obligated to ensure that the Tibetan community in India who fled with the Dalai Lama in (...) -
29 March 2008, by Palestinian National Initiative
2008 Land Day Events Fall under Shadow of Apartheid and Settlement Expansion
Palestinians will mark the 32nd anniversary of Land Day this year with a week-long series of peaceful demonstrations throughout the West Bank. Land Day commemorates the killing of 6 Palestinians (...) -
28 March 2008, by Joshua Holland and Raed Jarrar
Five Things You Need to Know to Understand the Latest Violence
Heavy fighting has spread across Shia-dominated enclaves in Iraq over the past two days. The U.S.-backed regime of Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki has ordered 50,000 Iraqi troops to "crack down" (...) -
27 March 2008, by TARIQ Farooq
What about General Musharaf?
No one in the newly elected parliament is talking directly about General Pervez Musharaf. After Prime Minister Yousaf Raza Gilani of the Pakistan Peoples Party took the oath of office, (...) -
27 March 2008, by PATRICK COCKBURN
Basra Erupts
The Iraqi army is fighting the Mehdi Army Shia militia in the streets of Basra after the government launched its most serious offensive to gain control of the southern oil city. Clouds of (...) -
26 March 2008, by Palestine News Network (PNN)
Nonviolent resistance in Israeli prisons
Palestinian political prisoners do what they can to resist occupation and the conditions under which they try to survive. The Rasala Center for Human Rights said yesterday, “The suffering of (...) -
25 March 2008, by Mahesh Maskey and Mary Deschene
The Constituent Assembly And The Revolutionary Left
As the elections to the constituent assembly draw near, the question in Nepal seems not to be whether there will be a democratic republic, but rather what kind of democratic republic it (...) -
25 March 2008
International Community Must Take Moral and Political Stand towards Israel on Gaza Patient Deaths
Zainab Bashir and Yousef Al-Madhoun have become the 116th and 117th Gazans to be added to the long list of patients who have died after Israel delayed or denied their access to essential (...) -
23 March 2008, by Reidar Visser
Debating Devolution
In early August 2007, Jalal al-Din al-Saghir, a Shi‘i preacher affiliated with the Islamic Supreme Council of Iraq, made headlines with striking comments to a reporter for the Christian Science (...) -
21 March 2008
Left Parties in India Write letter Regarding Corruption Involved in Israeli Arms Deal
Dr. Manmohan Singh, the Prime Minister of India. The General Secretaries of the four Left political parties in India addressed the following letter to the Prime Minister regarding the corruption (...) -
21 March 2008, by WAJAHAT ALI
A Country on Fire
Violence and unpredictably court Pakistan like a loyal and persistent stalker—or spurned lover. Over the past year, nearly a thousand Pakistanis have died as a direct result of suicide bombings, (...) -
20 March 2008, by Palestinian National Initiative
2008 International Day Against Racism Marked by Deepening of Israel’s Apartheid System
March 21 will mark the International Day on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination, but for Palestinians, there is little to celebrate in this respect. -
20 March 2008, by Alex de Waal
Dilemmas of multiple priorities and multiple instruments: the Darfur crisis
Violent conflict in Darfur, Sudan, escalated to outright civil war in February 2003 and the following fifteen months saw a scorched earth counterinsurgency conducted by the Sudanese army and its (...) -
19 March 2008, by CONN HALLINAN
A River Running Backward
When historians look back on the war in Afghanistan, they may well point to last December’s battle for Musa Qala, a scruffy town in the country’s northern Helmand Province, as a turning point. (...) -
18 March 2008, by S Akbar Zaidi
Democracy Interrupted?
Pakistan has voted for a democratic future but Pervez Musharraf is still in the spotlight. Washington is fully capable of converting the victory of the people into a defeat by forcing (...) -
18 March 2008, by LIAQUAT ALI KHAN
Democracy Day
Pakistan’s newly-elected Parliament meets on Monday, March 17, to form a new government. Monday is "democracy day" ending the eight years of military rule. Former Army Chief Pervez Musharraf, (...) -
17 March 2008, by Ramzy Baroud
Big Bang or Chaos: What’s Israel Up To?
Why did Israel attack Gaza with such brutality? Did Israeli officials think, even for a fleeting moment, that their army’s attacks could halt, as opposed to intensify, Palestinian rockets or (...) -
16 March 2008, by PATRICK COCKBURN
How to Destroy a Country in Five Years
"It reminds me of Iraq under Saddam," said a militant opponent of Saddam Hussein angrily to me last week as he watched red-capped Iraqi soldiers close down part of central Baghdad so the convoy (...) -
15 March 2008, by Paul Rogers
The tipping-point
The resignation of Admiral William Fannon, the commander of United States Central Command (Centcom) on 11 March 2008 brings the issue of a confrontation between the George W Bush administration (...) -
14 March 2008, by FRANKLIN LAMB
Is the Bush Administration Switching Horses in Lebanon?
Barack v. Hillary isn’t the only Presidential election game in Washington these days. There is also the Samir v. Walid v. Michel (as in Geagea, Jumblatt and Suleiman) campaign underway as each (...) -
14 March 2008, by Stephen Kinzer, Baltimore Sun
Iran still Main Target
In a reality-based world, the idea that the United States should attack Iran would by now seem most implausible. Not only is the Iraq war taking a terrible financial and human toll, but American (...) -
13 March 2008, by Ali Abunimah
A defeated policy, not a defeated people
Compared with the international silence that surrounded Israel’s recent massacres of Palestinian civilians in the Occupied Gaza Strip, condemnation and condolences for the victims of the (...) -
13 March 2008, by Ali Abunimah
Shifting Attitudes Towards Hamas
Since Hamas won the legislative elections in the Occupied Palestinian Territories in January 2006, the United States has attempted to isolate the Islamist resistance movement in Gaza while (...) -
11 March 2008, by Bryan Atinsky and Connie Hackbarth
Government Makes ’Deal’ with Settlers
The Israeli government authorized the renewed building of 750 housing units in the Jerusalem area Givat Ze’ev settlement. The Israeli Ministry of Defense has cut a deal with the Yesha Council, (...) -
11 March 2008, by Forrest Hylton
High Stakes in the Andes
Sadly, the operation on March 1 in which the Colombian Armed Forces shot and killed Luis Edgar Devia Silva, a.k.a. "Raúl Reyes," spokesman for the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC), (...) -
11 March 2008, by Siddharth Varadarajan
The glimmer of that elusive dawn
The real significance of the compact between the Pakistan People’s Party and Pakistan Muslim League (Nawaz) is not that former rivals have joined hands but that the two parties are thinking (...)