Blog
Israel’s lack of options – sympathy with the devil? After weeks of rumors, speculations and not so veiled threats, Israel has finally begun its assault on the Gaza strip. Predictably, it began with F-16 airstrikes at “Hamas targets” and, equally predictably, the hospitals in Gaza are filling up with many casualties (190+ killed and many more wounded). Actually, this is the “least-bad” strategy for Israel as it makes it possible
al-Manar reports: Israeli Army Gets Green Light for Gaza Operation The Israeli defense establishment is currently preparing for a military move against Hamas targets in Gaza after it received the green light Wednesday from the Israeli Cabinet. During a cabinet meeting about the situation in and outside the Gaza Strip, a senior Israeli occupation army officer gave ministers in attendance an overview of the potential retaliatory moves that the defense
This will appear in the next issue of Al-Ahram Weekly http://weekly.ahram.org.eg/ Sense is returning to East-West relations, despite the US and NATO, affirms Eric Walberg 2008 will be remembered as a turning point in Russia’s relations with the West. It was a tumultuous year, with Kosovo, missiles in Europe and NATO’s seemingly relentless march eastward like thunderclouds gathering on Russia’s horizon, which finally burst 8 August over South Ossetia, bringing
Press TV reports: Islamabad says should war break out with New Delhi, the option of using nuclear weapons would not even be on the table in Pakistan. Pakistani Defense Minister Chaudhary Ahmed Mukhtar said on Monday that Islamabad wants peace with India but would defend itself if New Delhi thrusts war. “The Indians would never want war because if war breaks out, then God forbid the situation might develop into
Press TV reports: Indian military has prepared operations against targets in Pakistan and awaits the signal to go forward, a US intelligence report says. “These most likely would take the form of unilateral precision strikes inside Pakistan-administered Kashmir, along with special forces action on the ground in Pakistan proper,” Global Intelligence Service, Stratfor said in its latest report. “Sources have indicated to Stratfor that New Delhi is going through the
From Palestine Think Tank Recently I have been corresponding with Sid Shniad (1), a founding member of Canadian Independent Jewish Voice (Canadian IJV) (2). Those who are familiar with my writing are well aware of the fact that I am highly critical of any form of Jewish political activism, for I consider it to be a racially orientated discourse. Yet, as much as I am interested in elaboration on the
Al-Manar reports: Action to end the inhumane Gaza siege has started from Lebanon… Lebanon, the country of Resistance and patriotism, raised on Friday the voice in response to Hezbollah Secretary General Sayyed Hasan Nasrallah’s call, expressing solidarity with the Palestinian people amid a “suspicious” Arab and international calm. On Monday, Hezbollah Secretary General Sayyed Hasan Nasrallah called upon all Arabs and Muslims to start actions against the siege. His eminence
Press TV reports: The Indian military says it has killed a senior military commander of banned Pakistani group Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT) in Kashmir region. The militant commander was identified as Iqbal Malik, the LeT’s southern Kashmir commander, the military said in a statement released on Friday. It added that Malik and two other insurgents were killed earlier in the day as they were trapped in a cave during an exchange of
Little did I know that when I would open my own IRC channel it would yield such amazing possibilities as interviewing somebody at length from inside a war zone! (In fact, I had no idea that my blog was read in such places…). Taimur agreed to be interviewed in very bad conditions, the electricity supply on his side was iffy, and the 10 hours difference means that he was typing
Press TV reports: The Palestinian resistance movement Hamas, has announced the cessation of the six-month-old ceasefire with Israel in the Gaza Strip. “The calm, which was reached with Egyptian sponsorship on June 19 and expires on December 19, is finished because the enemy did not abide by its obligations. The calm is over,” Hamas official, Ayman Taha, said on Thursday. The announcement raises the prospect of an escalation in cross-border
Israel has a long history of ‘spitting’ at the United Nations. From the 1996 and 2006 Israeli artillery assaults on the UN position in Qana, Lebanon, to the refusal to let a UN investigate the Jenin massacre, the Israelis have never been shy about showing their utter contempt for international law (or any kind of law, for that matter) and the United Nations. This time, it is an American Jew
Dear friends, Here is the transcript of an interview via IRC which I made this morning with ‘anticapitalista’, the author of the article “Days of Rage” which I posted yesterday: ——- The Saker: Hi again Anticapitalista: – can you update us on what happened this week? Anticapitalista: Yes. On Monday school students started to occupy their schools and university students had mass meetings to do the same The Saker: what
by ‘Anticapitalista’ reporting from Thessaloniki for the Vineyard The murder of 15 year old schoolboy, Alexis Grigoropoulos by a police special guard on the evening of Saturday, 6 December saw a huge explosion of rage across the whole of Greece leading to 8 days of riots, looting, attacks on police stations, mass demonstrations, student occupations and strikes all over the country with at least 400 people being detained (the vast
Dear friends, While I am very happy with the gradual strengthening of my community of friends, I have gradually begun to feel that something else was needed. Formal article publications and discussions are not enough, I think. Simply put, I wanted to “meet” you in an informal way and, no less importantly, I wanted you, my friends and readers, to have the opportunity to “meet” each other informally and chat
Press TV reports: People from around the world have rejoiced in the glory of a frogmarched Iraqi reporter and vow to make him rich and eternally famous. World eyes were fixed on Sunday on looped video of Iraqi journalist Muntadhar al-Zaidi throwing his two shoes at President George W. Bush during a press conference. It seems, however, that world fascination over the shoe attack will live on. In Saudi Arabia,
After a lengthy break from making interviews, I am finally returning to this aspect of my work with what I consider one of the most interesting interviews I ever made. One of my readers (thanks RC!) pointed me to the website and work of Robert Tucker, truly an immensely interesting and courageous person whom I consider to be the living proof of the fact that no amount of propaganda and
Press TV reports: A senior Iranian official says Egyptian support for Israel makes Cairo accountable for any crime committed in the Gaza Strip. “Egypt has closed the Rafah crossing and tightened the siege (of Gaza),” said Ayatollah Seyyed Ahmad Khatami, a member of the Iranian Assembly of Experts, at Tehran’s Friday prayers. Tel Aviv placed the Gaza Strip under a blockade after the democratically-elected Palestinian government of Hamas took control
by Arundhati Roy for Tom Dispatch We’ve forfeited the rights to our own tragedies. As the carnage in Mumbai raged on, day after horrible day, our 24-hour news channels informed us that we were watching “India’s 9/11.” And like actors in a Bollywood rip-off of an old Hollywood film, we’re expected to play our parts and say our lines, even though we know it’s all been said and done before.
The former head of the Pakistani ISI was interviewed by CNN’s Fareed Zakaria recently. He had interesting things to say. Here is the transcript of the interview: ZAKARIA: General Gul, you know that the United States has given four names to the United Nations of ISI officers whom it would like to place on an international terrorist list. You are one of those four names. What’s your reaction to that.
