• December 24, 2024
  •  

Global Affairs

Articles Global Affairs Palestine/Israel

On Palestine, Obama and Trump Are All the Same

By Ramzy Baroud There are only a few weeks standing between us and January 20, when United States President-elect Donald Trump becomes ‘President Trump’. But many are still clinging onto some hope, however desperate, that this period of time, albeit rather short, will bring about a sea change. One of these persisting hopes is that […]

Articles Global Affairs Palestine/Israel

What Should Palestinians Expect – Can Trump Be Any Worse?

By Ramzy Baroud  Fear and trepidation are slowly building up, as US President-elect, Donald Trump, is fortifying his transitional team with people capable of bringing about a nightmare scenario, not only for Americans but for the rest of the world, as well. For Palestinians, however, the signs are even more ominous. From former New York […]

Articles Global Affairs Palestine/Israel

The War on UNESCO: Al-Aqsa Mosque is Palestinian and East Jerusalem is Illegally Occupied

By Ramzy Baroud Did Italian Prime Minister, Matteo Renzi, actually read the full text of the UNESCO resolution on Palestine and Israel, before he raved with anger? “I think this is a mistaken, inconceivable resolution,” he said. “It is not possible to continue with these resolutions at the UN and UNESCO that aim to attack […]

Articles Global Affairs Middle East

Why is the Truth on Syria Difficult to Decipher?

By Ramzy Baroud “The United States has the power to decree the death of nations,” wrote Stephen Kinzer in the Boston Globe. Kinzer’s article was entitled: “The media are misleading the public on Syria.” In his piece, the scholar at a Brown University Institute contested that his country’s media misinformation on Syria is leading to […]

Articles Global Affairs Palestine/Israel

Ban Ki-moon’s Legacy in Palestine: Failure in Words and Deeds

By Ramzy Baroud Ban Ki-moon’s second term as UN secretary-general is ending this December, he was the most ideal man for the job as far as the United States and its allies are concerned. Of course, there will always be other Ban Ki-moons. In fact, the man himself was a modified version of his predecessor, […]

Articles Global Affairs Palestine/Israel

The Native American, the Palestinian: A Spirited Fight for Justice

By Ramzy Baroud Thousands of Native Americans resurrected the fighting spirit of their forefathers as they stood in unprecedented unity to contest an oil company’s desecration of their sacred land in North Dakota. Considering its burdened historical context, this has been one of the most moving events in recent memory. The standoff, involving 5,000-strong Native […]

Articles Global Affairs Middle East

My Response to Bill Clinton: On (My) Liberty and (Your) America

By Ramzy Baroud Donald Trump wants to keep us out of the country altogether. But Bill Clinton, former president and husband of a Democratic presidential nominee, does not mind us staying, as long as we – Muslims – behave ourselves. Welcome to America where racial profiling is the country’s most popular idea, and where citizenship […]

Articles Global Affairs Middle East

France’s Doomed War on ‘Islamist Terrorism’

By Ramzy Baroud Days after a truck ploughed its way into throngs of people celebrating Bastille Day in Nice, France, the Los Angeles Times reported that “[Daesh or the self-proclaimed Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant] later claimed indirect responsibility for the attack”. The clearly deliberate act killed 84 people, many of whom were […]

Articles Global Affairs Middle East

From Nice to the Middle East: The Only Way to Challenge ISIS

By Ramzy Baroud  I visited Iraq in 1999. At the time, there were no so-called ‘jihadis’ espousing the principles of ‘jihadism’, whatever the interpretation may be. On the outskirts of Baghdad was a military training camp, not for ‘al-Qaeda’, but for ‘Mojahedin-e-Khalq’, an Iranian militant exile group that worked, with foreign funding and arms, to […]

Articles Global Affairs Middle East

Being Black Palestinian: Solidarity as a Welcome Pathology

By Ramzy Baroud Last year, I wrote an article that made many readers unhappy. As soon as it was published, I began receiving messages of abuse and angry, threatening calls. I hesitated about reporting the threats to the local police in Washington State and, in the end, I resolved to file the unpleasant experience under […]

Articles Global Affairs Palestine/Israel

Will Brexit Help the Palestinian Cause in the EU?

By Ramzy Baroud  After months of anticipation, the United Kingdom has decided to leave the European Union (EU). Although, the results were fairly close – 51.9% voted to ‘Leave’ vs. 48.1% elected to ‘Remain’ – the consequences of the decision will be far-reaching. Not only will the Brits negotiate their exit from the EU (thus, […]

Articles Global Affairs Palestine/Israel

Paris Conference a Tired and Cliched Failure

By Ramzy Baroud Matthew Duss is right. The Paris Peace Conference is different, and the fact that the United States’ stronghold of supposedly trying to resolve conflicts in the Middle East is being challenged, is a point worth noting. Yet, this is hardly important. “The multilateral nature of the conference is a Palestinian strategic victory, […]

Articles Global Affairs Palestine/Israel

The Paris Peace Gambit: Everyone Gains except the Palestinians

By Ramzy Baroud In their defense, the Israelis seem to have figured out the whole thing and opted out. But the hapless Palestinian leadership, along with their Arab League partners, joined by the French, EU and UN representatives, and even US Secretary of State, John Kerry, decided to play along. However, the French peace initiative-turned-conference […]

Articles Global Affairs Palestine/Israel

A Palestinian Perspective on Britain’s ‘Anti-Semitic’ Controversy

By Ramzy Baroud There is a witch-hunt in the British Labour Party. Britain’s Opposition party leader, Jeremy Corbyn, is being hounded for not rooting out alleged anti-Semitism in his party. Those leading the charge are pro-Israel Zionists and their supporters within the party, members who are mostly allied with the former Prime Minister, the largely […]

Articles Global Affairs Palestine/Israel

The Spirit of Nelson Mandela in Palestine: Is His Real Legacy Being Upheld?

By Ramzy Baroud I had mixed feelings when I learned that Palestine has erected a statue of Nelson Mandela, the iconic South African anti-Apartheid leader. On the one hand, I was quite pleased that the unmistakable connection between the struggles of Palestinians and South Africans is cemented more than ever before. On the other hand, […]

Articles Global Affairs

Politics Not as Usual: Is This the Age of American Fascism?

By Ramzy Baroud Regardless of the outcome of the American presidential primaries, or even the result of the general elections next November, a frightening phenomenon is under way. The US has decidedly moved to the Right, in fact the Ultra-Right; class differences are more pronounced than ever before, thanks to decades of neoliberal policies, the […]

Articles Global Affairs Middle East

Why We Must Transcend the Clinton-Sanders Debate: The Middle East in US Foreign Policy

By Ramzy Baroud  As US liberals and some leftists are pulling up their sleeves in anticipation of a prolonged battle for the Democratic Party Presidential nomination, the tussle becomes particularly ugly whenever the candidates’ foreign policy agendas are evoked. Of the two main contenders, Hilary Clinton is the obvious target. She is an interventionist, uncompromisingly, […]

Articles Global Affairs Middle East

An Open Letter to Young Muslims Everywhere: The Seed of Triumph in Every Adversity

By Ramzy Baroud  When I was a little boy, I used to dream of being reborn outside the hardship of the Refugee Camp in Gaza, in some other time and place where there were no soldiers, no military occupation, no concentration camps and no daily grind – where my father fought for our very survival, […]

Articles Global Affairs Middle East

Beware ‘Sunni-Stan’: Neocons are Back and Their ‘Vision’ is Darker than Ever

By Ramzy Baroud  John Bolton is a tarnished character. The once United States Ambassador to the United Nations is now promoted as a ‘scholar’ in the pro-Israel lobby group, the American Enterprise Institute (AEI). Bolton is not a peacemaker, nor, in his defense, did he ever try to appear as if one. When he was […]

Articles Global Affairs Middle East

Forget Daesh: Humanity is at Stake

By Ramzy Baroud I still remember that smug look on his face, followed by the matter-of-fact remarks that had western journalists laugh out loud. “I’m now going to show you a picture of the luckiest man in Iraq,” General Norman Schwarzkopf, known as ‘Stormin’ Norman, said at a press conference sometime in 1991, as he […]

Articles Global Affairs

Rohingya vs the Generals: How To Forge A Democracy And Get Away With It

By Ramzy Baroud Writing in the New York Times in an article entitled “Myanmar generals set the stage for their own exit,” Thomas Fuller expressed his and the media’s failure to recognise the total fraud that is Myanma democracy. “The official results are still being tabulated,” he wrote, “but all signs so far point to […]

Articles Global Affairs Middle East

Remaking the Middle East: How the US Grew Tired and Less Relevant

By Ramzy Baroud  US Secretary of State John Kerry is often perceived as one of the “good guys”, the less hawkish of top American officials, who does not simply promote and defend his country’s military adventurism but reaches out to others, beyond polarizing rhetoric. His unremitting efforts culminated partly in the Iran nuclear framework agreement […]

Articles Global Affairs Media Middle East

Misreading the Refugee Crisis

By Ramzy Baroud So far this year, “nearly one quarter of a million migrants have crossed the Mediterranean to Europe”, reported Al Jazeera’s Inside Story, citing the International Organisation for Migration. The situation is indeed bleak, not only because the number of refugees is constantly on the rise, but also because Europe appears rather disinterested […]

Articles Global Affairs

Western Legacy in Libya Leaves a Hole Filled by Migrants Fleeing for Europe – Interview with Ramzy Baroud

By Sputnik International The scale of the crisis in the Mediterranean can’t be ignored. Two thousand migrants have died already this year on their journey to Europe. Fifty migrants remain unaccounted for after their rubber dinghy sank, this came just days after 200 migrants were presumed dead after their boat capsized off the coast of […]

Articles Global Affairs Middle East

War Begets War Refugees: The Moral Bankruptcy of Italy and NATO

By Ramzy Baroud On April 26, 2011, a meeting that can only be described as sinister took place between the then Italian Prime Minister, Silvio Berlusconi, and French President, Nicolas Sarkozy. The most pressing issue discussed at the meeting in Rome was how to deal with African immigrants. Sarkozy, who was under pressure from his […]

Articles Global Affairs Media

No ‘Crisis in Islam’: Just Apathy of So-called ‘Historians’

By Ramzy Baroud On the “BBC This Week” program, historian Tom Holland labored to counter the argument that the so-called Islamic State should not be labeled as such: “The Islamic State”. Holland’s logic in the program seemed more philosophical, concerned with dialectic and logic of language, and hardly situated in any proper historical context. His […]

Articles Global Affairs Middle East

The B Vocabulary: The Western Left and Its Sterile ‘Field of Ideas’

By Ramzy Baroud Over the year, I realized that the term ‘left’ is not exclusive to a political ideology, but a mode of thinking championed mostly by self-tailored ‘leftist’ western intellectuals. I grew to dislike it with intensity. But that has not always been the case. My father was a communist, or so he called […]

Articles Global Affairs

Beyond the Middle East: The Rohingya Genocide

By Ramzy Baroud “Nope, nope, nope,” was Australia’s Prime Minister Tony Abbott’s answer to the question whether his country will take in any of the nearly 8,000 Rohingya refugees stranded at sea. Abbott’s logic is as pitiless as his decision to abandon the world’s most persecuted minority in their darkest hour. “Don’t think that getting […]

Articles Global Affairs

An Interview with Ramzy Baroud: The Rise of Religious Powers and the Failure of the Left in The Middle-East

Souad Sharabani: In the past three decades or so, Communists, trade unionists and secular nationalist movements like pan Arabism were replaced by religious and ethnic dividers as the forces that mobilize, galvanize and divide the people in the Middle-East. We see the same results in every country with different circumstances. What are the factors that […]

Articles Global Affairs Middle East

The Collapse of the Obama Doctrine: Yemen War as an Opportunity?

By Ramzy Baroud To suggest that the United States policies in Yemen were a “failure” is an understatement. It implies that the US had at least attempted to succeed. But “succeed” at what? The US drone war had no other objective aside from celebrating the elimination of whomever the US hit list designates as a terrorist. But […]