By Ramzy Baroud

Nearly two weeks ago, Palestinians around the world commemorated the Deir Yassin Massacre which took place on April 9, 1948. In Palestinian consciousness, the massacre which claimed the lives of more than 100 innocent people, epitomised the ugly face of Zionism — the ideological foundation upon which the state of Israel was established. Over the year

By Ramzy Baroud – The National

Those who watched Emad Burnat's 5 Broken Cameras were perhaps reminded of Palestinian cartoonist Naji Al Ali's iconic character, Handala - a barefooted boy whose role in Al Ali's drawings is to stand and bear witness to the tragedy that transpires before him.

His hands are folded behind him, and he barely ever participates in the

By Ramzy Baroud

An Israeli-Turkish rapprochement is unmistakably underway, but unlike the heyday of their political alignment in the 1990s, the revamped relationship is likely to be more guarded and pose a greater challenge to Turkey rather than Israel.

Israeli media last week referenced a report by Turkish newspaper Radikal regarding secret talks between Turkey and

By Ramzy Baroud
 
Soon after the joint US-British bombing campaign ‘Operation Desert Fox’ devastated parts of Iraq in Dec 1998, I was complaining to a friend in the lobby of the Palestine Hotel in Baghdad.
 
I was disappointed with the fact that our busy schedule in Iraq – mostly visiting hospitals packed with injured or Depleted

By Ramzy Baroud

Reform movements in the Arab world are indicative of the rise of new players in a political game historically reserved for the locals and their western benefactors.

On January 25, Egyptians commemorated the second anniversary of their revolution. Some spoke of historic achievements, others bemoaned lost opportunities and many more were just not sure

By Ramzy Baroud

'Popular resistance' is a progressively unifying force among Palestinian civil society groups, political factions and society at large. While the discussion regarding its political viability is somewhat new, Palestinian history of popular resistance is as old as the British, then Zionist colonial projects in Palestine which started nearly a century ago. It

By Ramzy Baroud

US elections are manifestly linked to the Middle East, at least rhetorically. In practical terms, however, US foreign policies in the region are compelled by the Middle East’s own dynamics and the US’s own political climate and economic woes, or ambitions. There is little historic evidence that US foreign policy in the Arab world has been guide

By Ramzy Baroud

'We expected a greater Turkish response than this, but you know, every country has its own special affairs.' Taken alone, the remarks by Bashir Hajjo, introduced by BBC Arabic TV last Thursday as the spokesperson of the Tawhid Brigade, are no cause for alarm, except, of course, when placed within context. By “we”, Hajjo was referring to the Taw

By Ramzy Baroud

Come November 6, American voters will decide whether to extend Obama's mandate by four more years, or hand the former Massachusetts Governor the fate of a country that has long crossed the line of economic recession into territories uncharted since the Great Depression in 1929. Romney, the archetypal American elite with ample wealth, lifestyle and language

By Ramzy Baroud

Editors representing many Asian newspapers stood in a perfect line. They were nervous and giddy at the prospect of meeting Li Changchun, China’s powerful member of the Communist Party's Politburo Standing Committee. Personally, the Great Hall of the People and the fortitude of Chinese society mesmerized me. Despite its challenges and repeated accusat

By Ramzy Baroud

A neighbor of mine, of many years ago from a Gaza refugee camp, was a sacrilegious person par excellence. Unemployed like most inhabitants of the camp, he was extremely poor. His family responsibilities were daunting, yet prolonged Israeli military curfews made it impossible for him to find a job, let alone venture outside his miserable one-bedroom house t

By Ramzy Baroud

The official position of Arab nations is unambiguous: solidarity with Palestine is paramount. But facts on the ground point to a disturbingly different reality, one in which Palestinians are mistreated beyond any rational justification in various Arab countries. The worst-fated among them are stateless refugees, who have for decades been granted only preca

By Ramzy Baroud

Somewhere in my home I have a set of photo albums I rarely go near. I fear the flood of cruel memories that might be evoked from looking at the countless photos I took during a trip to Iraq. Many of the pictures are of children who developed rare forms of cancer as a result of exposure to Depleted Uranium (DU), which was used in the US-led war against Iraq

By Ramzy Baroud

In US political circles, the Syria conflict is increasingly being presented as a discussion pertaining to Israeli interests. This attitude is not substantially different from the way US politicians and media weighed in on the Egyptian January 25 revolution and its aftermath. Egypt mostly matters because of the US-brokered Camp David treaty of 1979, which b

By Ramzy Baroud

Two Toyota Land Cruisers filled with about 15 well-built gunmen in ski masks and all-black outfits appear seemingly out of nowhere. Behind them is vast, open desert. They approach a group of soldiers huddled around a simple meal as they prepare to break their Ramadan fast. The gunmen open fire, leaving the soldiers with no chance of retrieving their weapon

By Ramzy Baroud

The neoconservatives are back with a vengeance. While popular uprisings in Tunisia, Egypt, Yemen and other Arab countries had briefly rendered them irrelevant in the region, Western intervention in Libya signaled a new opportunity. Now Syria promises to usher a full return of neoconservatives into the Middle East fray.

“Washington must stop su

By Ramzy Baroud

Northern Mali promises to be the graveyard of scores of innocent people if African countries don't collectively challenge Western influence in the region.

Mali is fast becoming the Afghanistan of Africa.

The tragic reality is that Mali - a large but sparsely populated country, with around 15.5 million inhabitants - was until a few months ago pa