Home > English > Website archives > Rainbow of Crisis
Rainbow of Crisis
Articles in this section
-
9 January 2008, by Pierre BEAUDET
After Benazir
Q: Let’s start with the tragedy of Bhutto assassination. Today, international media remind us she was the first woman to become the PM of an Islamic country, she was a democratic leader, etc. (…) -
9 January 2008, by Economic and Political Weekly
Benazir’s Last Battle
Benazir Bhutto died battling the “state within the state”. Can Pakistan rid itself of the cancer? -
9 January 2008, by Mazin Qumsiyeh
Welcome Mr. Bush!
The President’s visit to the Middle East this week will show once and for all that status quo lives on under the attempt to validate the old saying that an ounce of image is worth a pound of (…) -
7 January 2008, by AHMED RASHID
CAN ASIF ZARDARI HOLD THE PARTY TOGETHER ?
Nearly two weeks after the assassination of Benazir Bhutto, people are still coming in their tens of thousands to condole with her husband Asif Ali Zardari and weep and rage at her graveside. -
7 January 2008, by Ahmed Rashid
After Bhutto, Pakistan on Edge
With the country exploding in anger, Pakistan’s fate hangs on how Musharraf and political leaders decide to restore stability -
6 January 2008, by Dr. Nurit Peled-Elhanan
“In the State of Israel, the Jewish Mother is Disappearing”
The following speech (translated from the original Hebrew) was presented by Dr. Nurit Peled-Elhanan, at a demonstration commemorating the 20th anniversary of Women In Black. Nurit is an Israeli (…) -
6 January 2008, by Citizens Group on Electoral Process
For a Democratic Election
The Citizens Group on Electoral Process held its 16th Meeting at Lahore on January 4, 2008. Names of participants are attached. The Group began its deliberations by offering fateha for the (…) -
6 January 2008, by Conn Hallinan
The Algebra of Occupation
In 1805, the French army out maneuvered, outsmarted, and outfought the combined armies of Russia and Austria at Austerlitz. Three years later it would flounder against a rag-tag collection (…) -
6 January 2008, by CPI (ML) Liberation
Benazir: Casualty of US-sponsored ‘Democracy’
Benazir Bhutto’s shocking and unconscionable assassination has plunged Pakistan into crisis. The streets continue to simmer with rage, the Musharraf regime desperately tries to claim that (…) -
6 January 2008, by WILLIAM DALRYMPLE
The Legacy of Benazir
Benazir Bhutto’s assassination is another body-blow for Pakistan, whose trajectory is every day appearing more and more distinct from that of its estranged sister, India. The killing has (…) -
6 January 2008, by MARC LYNCH
Why Bush’s Strategy is failing?
"Everywhere you turn, it is the policy of Iran to foment instability and chaos," Defense Secretary Robert Gates warned Gulf dignitaries in Bahrain last month. But in reality, everywhere you turn, (…) -
6 January 2008, by Junaid Ahmad
What’s Behind Benazir Bhutto’s Assassination?
Benazir Bhutto, the "life chairperson" of Pakistan’s largest and most popular political party, the Pakistan People’s Party (PPP), is now dead. Her assassination took place while she was (…) -
5 January 2008, by Paul Rogers
The abyss
The killing of Benazir Bhutto makes the United States’s predicament in an already critical region even tougher. -
4 January 2008, by Gabriel Kolko
Destabilizing the Islamic World
Communism’s virtual disappearance caused the geopolitical and strategic factors that produced alliances and coalitions after 1947 to decline and lose their justifications everywhere, but new ones (…) -
3 January 2008, by Tariq ALI
My heart bleeds
Six hours before she was executed, Mary, Queen of Scots wrote to her brother-in-law, Henry III of France: "...As for my son, I commend him to you in so far as he deserves, for I cannot answer for (…) -
3 January 2008, by Aijaz AHMAD
Benazir Bhutto: A death foretold
Barely 54 at the time of her death, Benazir Bhutto had been Pakistan’s most charismatic politician for over a quarter century, since the judicial assassination of her father, Zulfikar Ali Bhutto, (…) -
3 January 2008, by M. SHAHID ALAM
The Life and Death of Benazir Bhutto
On December 27, a little more than two months after her return to Pakistan from years of exile, Benazir Bhutto was killed while leaving the grounds of Liaquat Bagh after addressing a rally of (…) -
2 January 2008, by AJAI SAHNI
Myths and Realities
A tremendous myth had been generated over the past months regarding the imminent restoration of ’democracy’ in Pakistan—with Benazir Bhutto projected as the great liberal hope. This was arrant (…) -
2 January 2008, by TARIQ ALI
The Dark Night is Far From Over
Arranged marriages can be a messy business. Designed principally as a means of accumulating wealth, circumventing undesirable flirtations or transcending clandestine love affairs, they often don’t (…) -
2 January 2008, by Michael Warschawski
Citizenship, Zionism and Separation of Religion from the State
It is customary to say that Haaretz is a progressive newspaper. However, its progressive character is generally no where to be seen when Israel initiates a war against one of its neighbors—its (…) -
31 December 2007, by Farooq TARIQ
Refusing to break with feudal traditions — Bilawal Bhutto Zardari, new chair of Pakistan Peoples Party
Appointment of 19-year-old Bilawal Bhutto Zardari as the new chair of Pakistan Peoples Party is an attempt to keep the feudal traditions of politics in South Asia. The PPP central executive (…) -
31 December 2007, by Ali Abunimah and Omar Barghouti
Democracy: an existential threat?
As two of the authors of a recent document advocating a one-state solution to the Arab-Israeli colonial conflict, we intended to generate debate. Predictably, Zionists decried the proclamation as (…) -
30 December 2007, by International Crisis Group
International Responsibilities
The assassination of Benazir Bhutto in Rawalpindi on 27 December 2007 is a serious blow to the re-emergence of democracy in Pakistan and the country’s return to stability. The leader of the (…) -
30 December 2007, by Praveen Swami
Who Killed Benazir?
Islamists within Pakistan’s feared Inter-Services Intelligence Directorate may have helped facilitate the assassination of the former Prime Minister, Benazir Bhutto, by blocking the flow of (…) -
30 December 2007, by Michel Warshavski
One Must Choose, Now!
For the last couple of decades, there has been a wide no-man’s land upon which the anti-occupation/anti-war camp encountered and even cooperated with some European governments, their agencies and (…) -
30 December 2007, by Robert Fisk
They Don’t Blame Al-Qa’ida. They Blame Musharraf.
Weird, isn’t it, how swiftly the narrative is laid down for us. Benazir Bhutto, the courageous leader of the Pakistan People’s Party, is assassinated in Rawalpindi - attached to the very capital (…) -
30 December 2007, by Dave Markland
The battle for Musa Qala: the war in a microcosm
In early December, NATO and American troops led an assault aimed at retaking the Taliban stronghold of Musa Qala, in Afghanistan’s Helmand province. While the operation was hailed as a success by (…) -
30 December 2007, by WAJAHAT ALI
Death Foreshadowed
I. THE ASSASINATION An assassin’s bullets and suicide bomb ended the life of Pakistan’s former Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto; tragically, she followed in the footsteps of her father, Zulfiqar (…) -
29 December 2007
Women Workers Fight Back
Defying the anti-union legislation inherited from the old regime, which prohibits unions in public services, fighting to improve the poor wage and health and safety conditions… many are the (…) -
29 December 2007, by Tariq Ali
A tragedy born of military despotism and anarchy
Even those of us sharply critical of Benazir Bhutto’s behaviour and policies - both while she was in office and more recently - are stunned and angered by her death. Indignation and fear stalk the (…) -
17 December 2007
How Washington has planned ethnic cleansing
SPIEGEL ONLINE : Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad was just in New York for the United Nations General Assembly. Once again, he said that he is only interested in civilian nuclear power (…) -
17 December 2007, by Issa Khalaf
The No State Solution
The one state solution is a massive fantasy, not because its political analysis and moral assumptions are necessarily wrong, but because these assumptions necessarily ascribe rational motives and (…) -
17 December 2007, by Revolutionary Association of Women in Afghanistan
The US and her fundamentalist stooges are the main human rights violators
The US and her allies tried to legitimize their military occupation of Afghanistan under the banner of “bringing freedom and democracy for Afghan people”. But as we have experienced in the past (…) -
16 December 2007, by Michael Warschawski
Why I Will Not Participate in the Madrid Social Forum for a Just Peace in the Middle East
I have no problem in taking part in a conference where Zionist spokespersons are invited too, for debates are part and parcel of a healthy political arena. As well, I have no problem being invited (…) -
13 December 2007, by Franklin Lamb
What is UNIFIL Doing ?
The United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon was created with the adoption of Security Council Resolutions 425 and 426 on March 19, 1978, primarily to confirm Israeli withdrawal from Lebanon and (…) -
11 December 2007, by Ramzy Baroud
Why Annapolis Failed
Olmert, like many Israeli and Jewish Zionist leaders (as opposed to non-Zionist Jews who refuse to subscribe to this archaic mindset) increasingly realizes that Israel’s colonial euphoria is (…) -
5 December 2007, by NAQVI M B
The Battle for Democracy : Politics of boycott
Opposition parties are making a spectacle of themselves. All Parties Democratic Movement, minus JUI of Maulana Fazlur Rehman, has decided that January 8 election should be boycotted. The reason (…) -
4 December 2007
Temporray Pause Before the Storm
State of Nature: Although 2007 proved to be the deadliest year for US in Iraq, the Bush administration is putting on an optimistic front with talk of casualty rates declining, al-Qaeda being (…) -
3 December 2007
What was missing in Annapolis
As criticized by some as it was awaited by others, the Annapolis Conference on peace for the Middle East took place between 26-28 November in Maryland (United States). Representatives of the PLO (…) -
3 December 2007, by Maher Najjar
Fire and Water in Gaza
On Sept. 19, the Israeli government declared the Gaza Strip "hostile territory" and authorized steps to punish its civilian population. It decided that every Qassam rocket fired into Israel would (…) -
1 December 2007, by Robert Blecher and Mouin Rabbani
In Annapolis, Conflict by Other Means
At an intersection in front of Nablus city hall, a pair of women threaded a knot of waiting pedestrians, glanced left, then dashed across the street. “What’s this?” an onlooker chastised them. (…) -
30 November 2007, by Stefan Christoff
Hizballah and Terrorism
In 2002 Canada unveiled an official list of "terrorist" organizations, strikingly similar to that of the the US government. Today the Lebanese political movement Hizballah — both the military and (…) -
30 November 2007, by JEFF HALPER
When the Roadmap is a One Way Street
One may well think that the struggle inside the Jewish community of Israel is between those of the political right, who want to maintain the settlements in East Jerusalem and the West Bank so as (…) -
30 November 2007, by Michel Warschawski
Anti Annapolis in Madrid
In two weeks, a social forum will be held in Madrid that is devoted entirely to the political situation in the Middle East. This Forum for a Just Peace in the Middle East was organized by the (…) -
29 November 2007, by Phyllis Bennis
The 12 Myths of Annapolis
Myth #1) The Annapolis meeting was designed to launch serious new negotiations between Israelis and Palestinians that aimed at ending the occupation and producing a just, lasting and (…) -
29 November 2007, by Stephen Lendman
Tragedy and Travesty at Annapolis
With Gaza under siege, Hamas uninvited, and an illegitimate government in its place, peace and any progress toward resolution can’t happen. -
28 November 2007
Not Through Annapolis
AMY GOODMAN: Leaders from around the world are gathering in Annapolis, Maryland today to take part in a US-sponsored summit on the Middle East. President Bush met separately with Israeli Prime (…) -
27 November 2007
The World as seen from ...
CPI-ML recently held their national congress. Here are some extracts from the the resolution concerning the international situation. -
27 November 2007, by KARIM MAKDISI
Annapolis and the Unholy Alliance
At midnight last Friday night, Lebanon entered the uncharted waters of a constitutional crisis as the outgoing President Emile Lahoud’s term ended without the appointment of a successor. Earlier (…) -
27 November 2007, by Mohammed Khatib
Separate but Unequal: The Road to Apartheid
On the eve of the meeting intended to restart negotiations between Israel and the Palestinians at Annapolis, Maryland, Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert announced that Israel will build no new (…) -
26 November 2007, by KATHLEEN and BILL CHRISTISON
DysneyLand in Annapolis
The "Annapolis establishment," as it might be called — those in Israel, Palestine, and the U.S. who have a vested interest in making the Annapolis summit look like producing something meaningful — (…) -
23 November 2007, by Connie Hackbarth, Alternative Information Center (AIC)
The Global War and the Israeli-Palestinian Conflict: Current Thoughts
This was first presented by Connie Hackbarth, Executive Director of the Alternative Information Center (AIC), at the conference "Renforcer les Dynamiques Sociales et les Solidarites," sponsored by (…) -
23 November 2007
Israel succeeds in imposing facts through Annapolis
In a press conference held in the central West Bank city of Ramallah, Dr Mustafa al Barghuthi, secretary general of the Palestinian national initiative, pre emptively stated Israel as responsible (…) -
21 November 2007, by Siddharth Varadarajan
No news is good news for Washington
The IAEA’s latest report on the Iranian civilian nuclear programme will take the wind out of the sails of the war party in Washington. It suggests Tehran might be telling the truth about not (…) -
20 November 2007, by URI AVNERY
The Joke in Annapolis
The Annapolis conference is a joke. Though not in the least funny. -
20 November 2007, by Pervez Hoodbhoy
Problems start at the top
Gen. Pervez Musharraf seized power in Pakistan eight years ago, claiming that the army had to step in to save the country from corrupt and incompetent politicians. Since then, he has run both the (…) -
17 November 2007, by Jime Miles
Treacherous Alliance
As the prospects of a limited ‘strike’ or a full out attack on Iran become more and more familiar in the media, and as the end date for the Bush-Cheney regime in the United States draws ever (…) -
16 November 2007, by NAYAR Kuldip
The beginning of Musharraf’s end
The good news that filters through the emergency-cum-martial law clamped on Pakistan is that thousands of people are coming out on the streets in protest. Lawyers, doctors and journalists are in (…) -
16 November 2007, by Phyllis Bennis
Middle East Talks in Annapolis: Photo-Op or Talk-Fest
** There is one thing certain about the international (or regional or bilateral) Middle East peace conference (or meeting or get-together) called by Condoleezza Rice (or George Bush or Elliott (…) -
15 November 2007
Repression againts Trade Unionists
The International Federation of Chemical, Energy, Mine General Workers Unions (ICEM) deplores the arrest, tw days after the emergency decree in Pakistan, of Deput General Secretary Rana Ayub Aki (…) -
13 November 2007, by Ahmed Rashid
Musharraf, clinging to power, embitters the electorate and threatens regional instability
The United States has long considered Pakistani President-General Pervez Musharraf an essential ally in its war on terror and provides more than $1 billion in annual foreign aid, most of which (…) -
12 November 2007, by Immanuel Wallerstein
LastCall for Two States Solution
The prevailing worldwide view of how to resolve politically the conflict of two nationalisms in Israel/Palestine is the so-called two-state solution - that is, the creation of two states, Israel (…) -
12 November 2007, by Sergio Yahni (AIC)
Can the US-drafted Roadmap Serve as a Basis for Israeli-Palestinian Peace?
On Thursday, 8 November, in a prelude to the upcoming Annapolis conference, the Israeli government and Palestinian Authority agreed to stipulations that “any implementation of agreements in the (…) -
10 November 2007
One Week of the State of Emergency
General Pervaiz Musharraf, Chief of the Army Staff and the President of Pakistan on November 3rd, 2007 imposed a state of emergency through out the country and promulgated a Provisional (…) -
9 November 2007, by Ahmad Jaradat, Alternative Information Center (AIC)
The Bitter Harvest
Every year at this time, Palestinians begin their olive harvest. Throughout history, this activity has been a very important and special occasion in Palestine. A decade ago, schools and (…) -
7 November 2007, by ALI Mahir
Musharraf’s Second Coup
After months of feverish speculation, Pakistan’s President Pervez Musharraf, in his capacity as chief of the army staff, carried out what appeared, on the face of it, to be a coup against his own (…) -
6 November 2007, by AZMI Razi
Flawed and failed
It’s happened again. With the present proclamation of emergency, President Pervez Musharraf has maintained without blemish Pakistan’s perfect record of not allowing any government to complete its (…) -
5 November 2007, by Michel Warshavski
War Crimes
A few years ago, Ariel Sharon’s former adviser, Dov Weisglass, threatened to impose “a diet” on the Palestinians, i.e. to organize a siege aimed at making them hungry, while not completely (…) -
5 November 2007, by Tarik Ali
Deeperinto the Abyss
For anyone marinated in the history of Pakistan yesterday’s decision by the military to impose a State of Emergency will hardly comes as a surprise. Martial Law in this country has become an (…) -
1 November 2007, by Fawwaz Traboulsi
The Partition Plan
In the United States much of the criticism of the Iraq war, whether from the left or from the right, is focused on the mismanagement and corruption that "has been at the center of the entire (…) -
29 October 2007, by Jack Miles
End Game for Iraqi Oil
The oil game in Iraq may be almost up. On September 29th, like a landlord serving notice, the government of Iraq announced that the next annual renewal of the United Nations Security Council (…) -
28 October 2007
Left Groups Talking in Gaza
Senior member of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP) in Gaza, Rabah Mhanna, revealed today that a four-way meeting was held yesterday between representatives of the PLFP, the (…) -
27 October 2007, by Tarik Ali
After 60 Years
October 4, 2007 — Pakistan is best avoided in August, when the rains come and transform the plains into a huge steam bath. When I lived there we fled to the mountains, but this year I stayed put. (…) -
26 October 2007, by Michel Warshavski
It is not a Peace Conference
A group of Palestinian and Israeli NGOs recently issued a statement entitled "Message from Palestinian and Israeli Civil Society to the International Conference on the Middle Eastern Conflict". (…) -
25 October 2007
The World Needs to Pressure Israel
Former Palestinian minister and chairman of the Palestinian National Initiative party, Mustafa Barghouti, called Thursday on the European Union to pressure the Israeli government for halting human (…) -
25 October 2007, by SHERRY WOLF
Six Years Later
THE U.S. launched its first assault in the “war on terror” in Afghanistan six years ago. Today, the country remains one of the poorest places on earth, ruled by a corrupt warlord elite. Here, (…) -
24 October 2007, by Sergio Yahni
Notes on Predictable Failure
The impasse in the Israeli-Palestinian peace process began already in 1995, a few months before the Israeli Prime Minister, Yitzhak Rabin, was assassinated. As a response to the collapse of the (…) -
23 October 2007, by Michel Warschawski
Not a Peace Meeting But a War Conference
In order to understand what a conference is about, one usually believes that the main question to be asked concerns who is attending. I think, however, that the real question should always been (…) -
21 October 2007, by Pervez Hoodbhoy
It is our war
THE war in Pakistan’s tribal areas is being fought by Pakistan’s army under America’s gun and on its orders. Many innocents have tragically died from bombardment from the skies. Therefore, not (…) -
20 October 2007
No Partner for Peace
Palestinian Legislator, secretary-general of the Palestinian National Initiative, Dr. Mustafa Marghouthi, stated on Friday that Israel is trying void fundamental issues from the negotiations (…) -
17 October 2007, by Dalia Karpel
The one who makes people talk
"We - Israeli soldiers - were put there to punish the Palestinians," says Ilan Vilenda, an Israeli soldier who served in Rafah during the first Intifada. Ilan is the only soldier of 21 who agreed (…) -
16 October 2007, by Sergio Yahni
Another Peace Process
Less than two weeks and more than 12,000 miles will separate the Middle East peace conference, to be held at a US naval base located at Annapolis, Maryland, from the Forum for a Just Peace in the (…) -
13 October 2007, by Ben White
Non Violent Resistance Against the Occupation
Popular struggle, like violent resistance, is not an end in and of itself; it is a method, a strategy. It is the end goal, decolonization and liberation from occupation and Zionist apartheid. -
11 October 2007, by Hasan Afif El-Hasan
Eluvise Peace
The Palestinian people are desperate for having peace with justice, but they are afraid the conference will lead only to protracted negotiations rather than the end of occupation. -
9 October 2007, by Scott Ritter
The Big Lie
Iran has never manifested itself as a serious threat to the national security of the United States, or by extension as a security threat to global security. At the height of Iran’s “exportation of (…) -
8 October 2007, by Nancy Hawker
Debating Boycott
Boycotting Israel: New Pariah on the Block,” the 13 September article in The Economist, is ostensibly a balanced piece that presents the positions of those who support and those who oppose (…) -
8 October 2007, by Aunohita Mojumdar
Women in Jail
Each year the festival of Eid that ends the month-long Ramadan holiday season is commemorated in Afghanistan with presidential pardons for prisoners. -
7 October 2007, by PATRICK COCKBURN
Six Years Later
Six years after a war was launched to overthrow the Taliban, British solders are still being killed in bloody skirmishing in a conflict in which no final victory is possible. -
6 October 2007, by Ramzy Baroud
Haider Abdul-Shafi: Passing Undefeated
Unlike Abbas, Abdul-Shafi didn’t fail his people, despite all of the hardships he had to endure. He did all that a single person can do on his own, and more. -
1 October 2007, by Seymor Hersh
Shifting Targets
In a series of public statements in recent months, President Bush and members of his Administration have redefined the war in Iraq, to an increasing degree, as a strategic battle between the (…) -
1 October 2007, by Uri Avnery
What if?
A RESPECTED American paper posted a scoop this week : Vice-President Dick Cheney, the King of Hawks, has thought up a Machiavellian scheme for an attack on Iran. Its main point : Israel will start (…) -
26 September 2007
Haidar Abdel Shafi has passed away
Haidar Abdel Shafi, one of the original founder of the PLO, medical doctor, long-time President of the Gaza Red Crescent Society, former member of the Palestinian Legislative Council, passed away (…) -
23 September 2007, by Mohammed Khatib
Our Struggle Continues
On September 4, after nearly three years of nonviolent protests by our village of Bil’in, the Israeli Supreme Court ruled that Israel’s wall here must be moved further west, returning 250 acres of (…) -
21 September 2007, by Majda Hassan
The ‘Osloization’ of the Palestinian Left
In spite of its rich revolutionary tradition, the Left has been hijacked by right-wing cabals, whose interest is intertwined with that of the political elite of Oslo. -
20 September 2007
GAZA : appel à action urgente
Le Comité Israélien contre la destruction d’habitations (ICADH) déplore la décision unanime du cabinet israélien d’imposer des sanctions sur la distribution d’électricité, de fioul et autres biens (…) -
18 September 2007
International Civil Society Call for Action
We in civil society meet at a moment of acute and rising crisis in the Middle East, with grave humanitarian, political, economic and social consequences. In response, we make the following (…) -
18 September 2007, by Sergio Yahni, Bryan Atinsky and Michael Warschawski
Bil’in: Celebrating a Victory
Since 2005, the Palestinian village of Bil’in in the occupied West Bank, has been cut off from large swathes of its agricultural land by a barbed wire “security barrier,” built ostensibly to (…) -
17 September 2007, by CHENOY Kamal Mitra, CHENOY Anuradha M
India’s Foreign Policy: Shifts and the Calculus of Power
There is a shift in India’s foreign policy from non-alignment to alignment; from the goal of creat- ing a multipolar world to endorsing the US concept of a unipolar world. The strategic (…) -
16 September 2007, by Franklin Lamb
A Letter to Janet
Janet Lee Stevens was born in 1951 and died on April 18, 1983, at the age of 32, at the instant of the explosion which destroyed the American Embassy in Beirut. -
14 September 2007, by Sergio Yahni (AIC)
Can the Peace Process Be Revived ?
We are at the midst of a new round in the Middle East peace process. Seven years after the Oslo peace process collapsed, the political conditions in Israel and the Palestinian Authority, as well (…)