Home > English > Website archives > Rainbow of Crisis
Rainbow of Crisis
Articles in this section
-
6 March 2009, by KATHLEEN and BILL CHRISTISON
U.S. Military Aid to Israel
In these days of economic crisis, budget overruns, earmarks, and multi-billion dollar bailouts, when Americans are being forced to tighten their own belts, one of the most automatic earmarks—a (…) -
6 March 2009, by Tariq ALI
The drift into the hands of extremists
The intention of the attack on Sri Lanka’s cricket team was to send a clear message to Washington: Pakistan is ungovernable -
5 March 2009, by FRANKLIN LAMB
Grumbles as the Country Heads into the Elections
Haret Hreik, South Beirut. In Lebanon rapt attention is focussed on the probable, but not certain, June Parliamentary elections, variously described as “the most important in Lebanon’s (…) -
4 March 2009, by Abu Yussef
Can the international community do something?
The aim of these recommendations is to advise world leaders of what needs to be done or changed if the dream of regional peace is to be realized in the near future. It is a plea for understanding, (…) -
4 March 2009, by CONN HALLINAN
Ethnic cleansing
One of the more disturbing developments in the Middle East is a growing consensus among Israelis that it would acceptable to expel—in the words of advocates “transfer”—its Arab citizens to either (…) -
3 March 2009, by Saul Landau
The Crisis Unseen
The medical dictionary defines crisis as "the turning point of a disease for better or worse." Doctors with cool heads understand their procedures may produce recovery or death for their patients. (…) -
2 March 2009, by Eyal Weizman
Lawfare in Gaza: legislative attack
The emerging landscape of "lawfare" allows military operations to remake international humanitarian law. Israel’s assault on Gaza both exposes the dangers and suggests the need for a response that (…) -
1 March 2009, by Ahmad Jaradat
The Palestinian Issue: A Strong and Important Presence at the World Social Forum in Belem, Brazil
One Hundred Twenty thousand representatives of social movement from all over the world gathered in order to dialogue and discuss about the problems and needs of humanity in the 21st Century. The (…) -
1 March 2009, by Michael T. Klare
A Planet at the Brink
The global economic meltdown has already caused bank failures, bankruptcies, plant closings, and foreclosures and will, in the coming year, leave many tens of millions unemployed across the (…) -
1 March 2009, by Mike Whitney
“A Whole New Kind of Struggle is Emerging”
John Bellamy Foster is editor of Monthly Review and professor of sociology at the University of Oregon. He is the coauthor with Fred Magdoff of The Great Financial Crisis: Causes and Consequences, (…) -
28 February 2009, by Michael Warschawski
Why Must Meretz & Peace Now Also be Criticized?
Peace Now and Meretz both supported the Israeli military attack on the Gaza Strip. Several readers of the Alternative Information Center’s website have asked why, during the Israeli massacre in (…) -
27 February 2009, by Paul Rogers
A misread war
The war in Afghanistan is reaching a pivotal moment. A range of diplomats, politicians and military strategists from dozens of countries is now paying the conflict the intense and concentrated (…) -
27 February 2009, by JONATHAN COOK
Military Mephistopheles
It is not entirely surprising that Amos Gilad, an Israeli general who once sued his own government for “irreversible mental damage” caused by his role in the 1982 invasion of Lebanon, has publicly (…) -
26 February 2009, by CHRIS SANDS
Chaos Central
As the summer of 2005 began its slow fade into autumn, a piece of newspaper wrapped around a kebab said Osama bin Laden had moved to Iraq. It seemed everyone had forgotten there was a war on here. (…) -
25 February 2009, by CHRIS FLOYD
Obama’s Non-Withdrawal Withdrawal Plan
It would be superfluous in us to point out that a plan to "end" a war which includes the continued garrisoning of up to 50,000 troops in a hostile land is, in reality, a continuation of that war, (…) -
24 February 2009, by Amy Goodman
Behind the news: The great crime
The very existence of Israel is based on a refusal to treat the Palestinians on fair or equal terms, writes Arthur Goodman Israel is obviously willing to kill and wound thousands of people, (…) -
24 February 2009, by Mouin Rabbani
Out of the Rubble?
Speaking to his people on January 18, hours after Hamas responded to Israel’s unilateral suspension of hostilities with a conditional ceasefire of its own, the deposed Palestinian Authority prime (…) -
24 February 2009, by Stephen Kristoff
Questions on media coverage
Reporting independently from the front lines of war is an increasingly rare engagement for journalists working for major international media outlets. From Iraq to Afghanistan, reporters are (…) -
23 February 2009, by PATRICK COCKBURN
The new war
A new war is threatening Iraq just as the world believes the country is returning to peace. While violence is dropping in Baghdad and in the south of the country, Arabs and Kurds in the north are (…) -
23 February 2009, by Ines Gramigna
Avigdor Lieberman or “Ivet the Terrible”
Avigdor Lieberman is head of the rightwing Israel Beytenu Party, who calls, among other things, for an "oath of loyalty" law and for the transfer of Palestinian citizens of Israel to the (…) -
23 February 2009, by The Guardian
The real story is in the West Bank
It is quite likely that you have not heard of the most important developments this week in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. In the West Bank, while it has been "occupation as normal", there have (…) -
22 February 2009, by I. A. Rehman
Shariah Zone: One Solution for Pakistan?
The civil war underway in the tribal areas and a large part of the Frontier province, including Swat, presents the biggest challenge Pakistan has ever faced. At stake is not only the integrity of (…) -
22 February 2009, by Ramzy Baroud
A New Nightmare
When US envoy to Afghanistan, Richard Holbrooke met with Afghanistan’s ‘democratically’ installed President Hamid Karzai in Kabul on February 14, he may have just learned of the historic (…) -
21 February 2009, by Leo PANITCH
The Financial Crisis and American Power
Workers’ Liberty. What is your assessment of the relationship between this serious financial crisis emerging foremost in the U.S. and American power and economic decline? I don’t think that (…) -
20 February 2009, by Michel WARSCHAWSKI
Nine Remarks on the Israeli Elections
A polling station in Jerusalem during the most recent national elections in Israel. 1. Less than a month after the Gaza massacre, Israeli democracy worked as if nothing had happened; Right and (…) -
20 February 2009, by Paul Rogers
The "AfPak" war: Washington’s three options
The United States’s strategic predicament in Afghanistan and Pakistan is deepening. What will Barack Obama do? -
19 February 2009, by Amal Ghazal
Complicity with Israel
One of the major achievements of the Israeli revisionist historians has been to break down Israeli myths surrounding the establishment of the State of Israel. A key myth has been the claim that (…) -
19 February 2009, by M. SHAHID ALAM
Into the Chasm
As the United States prepares to escalate its eight-year war against the Taliban, it might be useful to weigh its chances of success. Consider, first, the fate of three previous invasions of (…) -
18 February 2009, by MICHAEL HUDSON
Finance Capitalism Hits a Wall
The financial “wealth creation” game is over. Economies emerged from World War II relatively free of debt, but the 60-year global run-up has run its course. Finance capitalism is in a state of (…) -
17 February 2009, by John Bellamy Foster and Robert W. McChesney
A New New Deal under Obama?
With U.S. capitalism mired in an economic crisis of a severity that increasingly brings to mind the Great Depression of the 1930s, it should come as no surprise that there are widespread calls for (…) -
17 February 2009, by Phyllis Bennis
RISE OF THE RIGHT
In its recent elections Israel has witnessed the rise of the right, the extreme right, and the fascist right. -
17 February 2009, by PATRICK COCKBURN
The Greatest Fraud in US History?
In what could turn out to be the greatest fraud in US history, American authorities have started to investigate the alleged role of senior military officers in the misuse of $125bn (£88bn) in a US (…) -
17 February 2009, by Pierre BEAUDET
The chain broke at the weakest link
Last time we talked, you said that out of this crisis we will see more directive oversight by capitalist states, and we might even see something you called “the social-democratisation of (…) -
16 February 2009, by Derrick O’Keefe
Obama: Imperialism with a Human Face
With President Obama set to visit Ottawa this Thursday, Feb. 19, renowned writer and anti-war campaigner Tariq Ali shares his thoughts on the new administration’s foreign policy. In his recently (…) -
15 February 2009, by Sergio Yahni
Irish Trade Unions Launch Boycott
The Irish Congress of Trade Unions (ICTU) launched a report on Israel and Palestine compiled by senior members who visited the troubled region. Trade unionists are to launch a boycott of Israeli (…) -
15 February 2009, by BRIAN M. DOWNING
On the Brink
Pakistan might collapse. It faces regional insurgencies, political failures, rising Islamism (in the public and army alike), and reprisals from India over the Mumbai attacks of last November. The (…) -
12 February 2009, by John PILGER
Obama – The politics of bollocks
Supporters of the new US president refuse to admit that the “man of change” is, in fact, changing very little. It’s time the Obama lovers grew up. Growing up in an Antipodean society proud of (…) -
11 February 2009, by Sergio Yahni
Elections Results
Avigdor Liberman demands that citizenship will depend on loyalty The elections to the 18th Israeli Knesset were called due to multiple corruption cases connected to Prime Minister Ehud Olmert. (…) -
11 February 2009, by Walden Bello
The Coming Fury
As goods pile up in wharves from Bangkok to Shanghai, and workers are laid off in record numbers, people in East Asia are beginning to realize they aren’t only experiencing an economic downturn (…) -
11 February 2009, by Joost R Hiltermann
After the Elections
The Iraqi local elections were held on 31 January 2009, with 440 seats being contested in fourteen of the country’s eighteen provinces. The results, most of which were released on 5 February, (…) -
10 February 2009, by Pierre BEAUDET
The endless war: challenge and opportunities
When George W. Bush declared the endless war back in September 2001, the world was taken aback. However, retroactively, it becomes apparent that it did not start on that fatidic date. For years (…) -
10 February 2009
After Gaza
What are the larger implications of the current ceasefire between Gaza and Israel and why do you think it happened right now? The timing of the cease-fire agreement has two reasons. One, a (…) -
9 February 2009, by NATIONAL LAWYERS GUILD
Strong Indications of Israeli War Crimes
We are a delegation of 8 American lawyers, members of the National Lawyers Guild in the United States, who have come here to the Gaza Strip to assess the effects of the recent attacks on the (…) -
9 February 2009
Gaza And Its Aftermath
For more than three weeks, starting December 27th, Gaza and its 1.5 million people bore the brunt of a massive Israeli military campaign, supported and abetted by the US government. While Israel (…) -
9 February 2009, by Siddharth Varadarajan
ICC should prosecute Israeli leaders for Gaza
With Palestine accepting the International Criminal Court’s jurisdiction, Israel should realise there is a price to pay for committing war crimes -
8 February 2009, by Naomi Klein
Public Revolt Builds Against Rip-off Rescue Plans for the Economy
Watching the crowds in Iceland banging pots and pans until their government fell reminded me of a chant popular in anti-capitalist circles in 2002: "You are Enron. We are Argentina." Its (…) -
8 February 2009, by Tauseef-ur-Rahman
Militarization and Talibanization
Who are Taliban and what is their agenda in the Swat valley? Afrasyab Khattak: The extremist insurgency in Swat is not an isolated phenomenon; it is connected with the militancy that has its (…) -
6 February 2009, by PATRICK COCKBURN
The Iraqi Elections
The Iraqi Prime Minister, Nouri al-Maliki, who seemed weak and isolated a year ago, appears to have won a sweeping victory in the Iraqi provincial elections that will strengthen his hold on (…) -
4 February 2009, by Mustafa Barghouthi
“…and he stood steadfast before Goliath.”
What is Steadfastness? When I was asked about Palestinian identity, one idea kept coming to mind. I wondered how this idea would translate into English, and I was told that it would be (…) -
3 February 2009, by RANNIE AMIRI
Gaza and the Crimes of Mubarak
As staggering as the statistics detailing Gaza’s destruction may be, they still do not present a complete picture of the unique travesties and tragedies suffered by individuals, families, (…) -
2 February 2009, by Robert P. BRENNER and Seongjin JEONG
On the Current World Crisis
SEONGJIN JEONG Most media and analysts label the current crisis as a ‘financial crisis’. Do you agree with this characterization? ROBERT P. BRENNER It‘s understandable that analysts of the (…) -
1 February 2009
No Change
January 24, 2009 — Press TV: Professor Chomsky, we better start with Pakistan. The White House not commenting on the killings of people [in cross-border drone attacks from Afghanistan into (…) -
31 January 2009, by Abu Yusef
The Myth of Disengagement
‘Gaza is a prison; and Israel seems to have thrown away the key.’ John Dugard, UN Special Rapporteur on Human Rights In 2004, former Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon announced to the world (…) -
31 January 2009, by Mouin Rabbani and Chris Toensing
Palestine: The Continuity of Obama’s Change
President Barack Obama’s campaign pledge that his administration would begin working for peace in the Middle East from its first day in office is one that he almost met. On January 21, a mere 24 (…) -
31 January 2009, by Reidar Visser
A Litmus Test
Former Iraqi Prime Minister Ibrahim al-Jaafari arrived in Basra on January 24. His mission in the southern oil port was to stump for his Reformist Front, a breakaway faction of the Da‘wa Party of (…) -
29 January 2009, by NORMAN FINKELSTEIN
Behind the bloodbath
Early speculation on the motive behind Israel’s slaughter in Gaza that began on 27 December 2008 and continued till 18 January 2009 centered on the upcoming elections in Israel. The jockeying for (…) -
26 January 2009, by Noam Chomsky
Obama on Israel-Palestine
Barack Obama is recognized to be a person of acute intelligence, a legal scholar, careful with his choice of words. He deserves to be taken seriously - both what he says, and what he omits. (…) -
26 January 2009, by Michel Warshawski
Israeli Attacks: Both Reckless and Failed
One single, solitary thing will be noted to Ehud Barak’s credit: in contrast to many others, he did not dub the bullying rage of the Israeli army in Gaza as a “war”, but made due with the term (…) -
26 January 2009
Why the Gaza disaster is not 3 weeks old and has not stopped along with the bombs
Following the latest Israeli aggression on Gaza that started late December 2008, the eyes of the world have been opened to the reality of the daily lives of the people of Gaza; or the reality that (…) -
26 January 2009, by Gabriel KOLKO
Understanding Gaza
How will history describe the Israeli war against the Palestinians in Gaza? Another Holocaust, this time perpetrated by the descendants of the victims? An election ploy by ambitious Israeli (…) -
25 January 2009, by Robert Fisk
Arab peoples will not forget
The front page of the Beirut daily As-Safir said it all yesterday. Across the top was a terrible photograph of the bloated body of a Palestinian man newly discovered in the ruins of his home while (…) -
24 January 2009, by Walden Bello
The end of an era
MANILA, Jan (IPS) As the US recession drags Asia down, there has been much speculation about a regional response to the crisis. Seemingly lending substance to this have been a trilateral summit of (…) -
23 January 2009
How to confront a genocidal war
Interview with Sergio Yahni, Program Director of the Alternative Information Center (AIC) and member of Alternatives International Governance Board. -
23 January 2009, by Michel Warshawski
Israeli Attacks on Gaza: Both Reckless and Failed
Michael Warschawski One single, solitary thing will be noted to Ehud Barak’s credit: in contrast to many others, he did not dub the bullying rage of the Israeli army in Gaza as a “war”, but (…) -
22 January 2009, by Noam Chomsky
“Exterminate all the Brutes”: Gaza 2009
On Saturday December 27, the latest US-Israeli attack on helpless Palestinians was launched. The attack had been meticulously planned, for over 6 months according to the Israeli press. The (…) -
21 January 2009
“Resistance Should be our Strategic Choice”
What is going on in the West Bank in relation to the Israeli attack on Gaza? Why is the reaction not so strong? The reaction in the West Bank is strongly affected by the internal Palestinian (…) -
20 January 2009, by Abu Yusef
This Unilateral Cease-Fire is no Cease-Fire at all
What has been sold to the international community as a show of Israeli mercy - in the form of a ceasefire - is only one more political ploy by Israel’s soon-to-be-criminally-indicted leadership. -
20 January 2009, by KEVIN ALEXANDER GRAY
Time for a New Divestment Campaign
Barack Obama’s inauguration coming as we celebrate of Martin Luther King Day predictably draws linkages between the two. Many use Obama’s election to claim a realization of the “dream.” Others (…) -
19 January 2009, by Haim Baram, Hagada Hasmalit
Components of Power: An Israeli’s Argument Against the Attack on Gaza
During the entire week I read a majority of the responses in the major (Hebrew language) websites and the letters to the editor in the three major Israeli newspapers. There were sensitive and (…) -
18 January 2009, by Jonathan Cook
The Plot Against Gaza
Israel has justified its assault on Gaza as entirely defensive, intended only to stop Hamas firing rockets on Israel’s southern communities. Although that line has been repeated unwaveringly by (…) -
17 January 2009, by Ramzy Baroud
A New Middle East Indeed
As Israel unleashed its military fury against Lebanon for several weeks in July-August 2006, it had one major objective: to permanently ‘extract’ Hezbollah from the South as a fighting force, and (…) -
16 January 2009, by Gilbert Achcar
Beyond the crisis
Daniel Finn: What do you think are the chief goals of Israeli strategy at present in their assault on the Gaza strip? Gilbert Achcar: Well that’s a complicated question actually, because there (…) -
15 January 2009, by Alternative Information Center
Emergency, Humanitarian Aid to Gaza Strip Counterproductive without Political Aid
The Israeli military assault on the Gaza Strip has resulted in the deaths of hundreds, injury of thousands and long-term physical and psychological harm to hundreds of thousands of Palestinians. (…) -
15 January 2009, by Khaled Hroub
Hamas after the Gaza war
"The Palestinians must be made to understand in the deepest recesses of their consciousness that they are a defeated people", said Moshe Yaalon, the then Israel Defence Forces (IDF) chief-of-staff (…) -
14 January 2009, by Sergio Yahni
Israelis and the Israeli War on Gaza
We could explain this position as an expression of the colonial ideology that feeds Zionism. However, this explanation represents Israeli society as being homogenous and devoid of contradictions, (…) -
14 January 2009, by NORMAN FINKELSTEIN
The facts about Gaza
The record is fairly clear. You can find it on the Israeli website, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs website. Israel broke the ceasefire by going into the Gaza and killing six or seven Palestinian (…) -
13 January 2009, by JONATHAN COOK
The «Third stage»
As Israel rejected the terms of the proposed United Nations ceasefire at the weekend, Israeli military analysts were speculating on the nature of the next stage of the attack on Gaza, or the (…) -
11 January 2009, by Issam Aburaiya
The colonial war
The slaughterhouse that the Israeli army is creating in the Gaza Strip is part of a colonial war. Original artwork for the AIC by Yussef Katalo The slaughterhouse that the Israeli army is creating (…) -
8 January 2009
Solidarity Movements On the Go
Since Israel commenced military attacks against the Gaza Strip on 27 December 2008, international civil society has mobilised against these war crimes. Groups with differing political, religious (…) -
5 January 2009, by Shiv Hever
War of the Tunnels—Economic Aspects of the Israeli Attack on Gaza
Irrational War? As the massive bombardment of the Gaza Strip continues into its second week, onlookers may wonder about Israel’s short memory and how little Israeli leaders have learned from (…) -
5 January 2009, by Abu Yusef
The Inevitable War?
Yesterday, news agencies world-wide were waiting with baited breath. ‘Will Israel invade the Gaza Strip?’ they asked, ‘or will the government consider a brief ceasefire?’ Personally, I am not (…) -
5 January 2009, by Gideon Levy
And there lie the bodies
The legend, lest it be a true story, tells of how the late mathematician, Professor Haim Hanani, asked his students at the Technion to draw up a plan for constructing a pipe to transport blood (…) -
4 January 2009, by Ilan Pappe
Israel’s righteous fury and its victims in Gaza
My visit back home to the Galilee coincided with the genocidal Israeli attack on Gaza. The state, through its media and with the help of its academia, broadcasted one unanimous voice — even louder (…) -
4 January 2009, by Sergio Yahni
Before the Next Stage
Destroyed homes following an Israeli air strike on the Rafah refugee camp in the southern Gaza Strip. The stated objective of Israel’s offensive on Gaza is to force Hamas to accept Israeli (…) -
4 January 2009, by Corey Balsam
The Lebanonization of Gaza
If it seems like Israel is treating Gaza much like it has treated Lebanon in the past, that’s because it is. Over 400 killed, over 2000 injured in only a couple of days—these are proportions that (…) -
4 January 2009, by Azmi Bishara
Israel can be defeated
In an escalation of the ongoing attacks against the Palestinians of the Gaza Strip, Israeli ground forces entered into the Gaza Strip on the evening of 3 january 2009. *There is continuity between (…) -
3 January 2009, by GRAHAM USHER
Where the Generals and the ISI Draw Their Lines
On December 7 security forces in Pakistan Kashmir (PK) closed a camp linked with Lashkar-e-Taiba (LT), the Pakistan militant group India says was behind the killings in Mumbai. The government then (…) -
2 January 2009, by URI AVNERY
Molten Lead in Gaza
Just after midnight, Aljazeera’s Arabic channel was reporting on events in Gaza. Suddenly the camera was pointing upwards towards the dark sky. The screen was pitch black. Nothing could be seen, (…) -
2 January 2009, by MERIP Editors
Cast Lead in the Foundry
A stopped clock, the saying goes, is right twice a day. The "senior Bush administration official" who chatted with the Washington Post on December 28 was right that Israel is "not trying to take (…) -
30 December 2008, by Paul Rogers
America’s 2009 world: change and continuity
The United States’s security policy under Barack Obama may be less of a departure from that of his predecessor than many hope. The Barack Obama administration which will take effect after the (…) -
30 December 2008, by Mustafa Barghouthi
Palestine’s Guernica and the Myths of Israeli Victimhood
The Israeli campaign of ’death from above’ began around 11 am, on Saturday morning, the 27th of December, and stretched straight through the night into this morning. The massacre continues Sunday (…) -
29 December 2008, by Michel WARSCHAWSKI
Israeli Massacre in Gaza—Last Moment before Obama and Israeli Election Spin
"The death of one Israeli victim justifies the killing of a hundred Palestinians. One Israeli life is worth a hundred Palestinian lives. This is what the Israeli State and the world media more or (…) -
29 December 2008, by Connie Hackbarth
Violence as Policy for Israel in the Gaza Strip
Palestinian wounded following Israeli airstrikes on the Gaza Strip Early in 1989, Defence Minister Yitzhak Rabin ordered Israeli soldiers to break the Palestinians’ bones in order to quell the (…) -
29 December 2008, by Phyllis Bennis
THE GAZA CRISIS
VIOLATIONS OF INTERNATIONAL LAW The Israeli airstrikes on the Gaza Strip violate important tenants of international humanitarian law, including violations of the Geneva Conventions. The (…) -
29 December 2008, by Dan Freeman-Maloy
Israeli Slaughter, International Culpability
There is every reason to be outraged. But despite the severity of Israeli atrocities in Gaza, we have little right to act surprised. Whatever else can be said, Israel has made it abundantly clear (…) -
28 December 2008, by Walden BELLO
The Coming Capitalist Consensus
Not surprisingly, the swift unraveling of the global economy combined with the ascent to the U.S. presidency of an African-American liberal has left millions anticipating that the world is on the (…) -
28 December 2008, by Michel WARSCHAWSKI
Suspend Israel from the international institutions! Indict Barak, Livni and Olmer for war crimes!
140 dead, after the first hour of the criminal Israeli attack on the civilian population of Gaza. “It is just the beginning” said Israeli senior officials, vowing to continue the air strikes on (…) -
17 December 2008, by John PILGER
Beware of Obama’s Groundhog Day
One of the cleverest films I have seen is Groundhog Day, in which Bill Murray plays a TV weatherman who finds himself stuck in time. At first he deludes himself that the same day and the same (…) -
16 December 2008, by WAJAHAT ALI and AHMED RASHID
Indian Muslims
Although the smoldering fires from the Mumbai attacks illuminate hateful violence, the spread of Islam in India came at the benevolent, inclusive hands of Sufi Muslims instead of the oppressive (…) -
14 December 2008, by ROY Arundhati
The monster in the mirror
The Mumbai attacks have been dubbed ’India’s 9/11’, and there are calls for a 9/11-style response, including an attack on Pakistan. Instead, the country must fight terrorism with justice, or face (…)