- February 24, 2025
Middle East
The Arab Turmoil: Where Do We Stand?
By Ramzy Baroud Seasons come and go, yet Arab countries are in ongoing turmoil. They called it an ‘Arab Spring’, but even if that ‘spring’ had ever existed in the shape and form that the media portrayed it to be, it never really lasted. It has now morphed into something far more complex. But it […]
Hated in Egypt: How the Palestinian Bogeyman Resurfaced Like Never Before
By Ramzy Baroud When I left Gaza for the first time on my own, twenty some years ago, I was warned of a notorious officer who headed Egypt’s State Security Intelligence at the Rafah border. He “hates Palestinians,” I was told. My friends and neighbors in Gaza warned me not to greet him with ‘Assalamu […]
On Leaks and Pseudo-Reality: The US’ Futile Search for ‘World Domination’
By Ramzy Baroud Those enchanted by pseudo-reality must have been at the edge of their seats as they watched ‘Zero Dark Thirty’, a Hollywood account of how US SEAL Team Six killed Osama Bin Laden on May 1, 2011. But a recently leaked report shows that the ‘riveting’ Hollywood account of the ‘greatest manhunt of […]
ElBaradei’s Democracy: How Egypt’s ‘Revolution’ Betrayed Itself
By Ramzy Baroud ‘The revolution is dead. Long live the revolution,’ wrote Eric Walberg, a Middle East political expert and author, shortly after the Egyptian military overthrew the country’s democratically elected President Mohammed Morsi on July 3. But more accurately, the revolution was killed in an agonizingly slow death, and the murders were too many […]
From Tahrir to Taksim: West Reserves Right to Interfere
By Ramzy Baroud The distance between Cairo’s Tahrir Square and Istanbul’s Taksim Square is impossibly long. There can be no roadmap sufficient enough to use the popular experience of the first in order to explicate the circumstances that lead to the other. Many have tried to insist on the similarities between the two since it […]
Maids for Sale: Child Exploitation Bonanza
By Ramzy Baroud Last night at the hotel lobby of an Arab Gulf country, a family walked in aiming for the westernized café that sells everything but Arabic coffee. The mother seemed distant as she pressed buttons on her smart phone. The father looked tired as he buffed away on his cigarette, and a whole […]
Sectarianism and the Irrational New Discourse: Why Arabs Must Worry
By Ramzy Baroud My friend Hanna is Syrian and also happens to be Christian. The latter fact was rarely of consequence, except whenever he wished to boast about the contributions of Arab Christians to Middle Eastern cultures. Of course, he is right. The modern Arab identity has been formulated through a fascinating mix of religions, […]
Syria as a Game-Changer: US Political Impotence in the Middle East
By Ramzy Baroud In an article published May 15, 2013, American historical social scientist Immanuel Wallerstein wrote, “Nothing illustrates more the limitations of Western power than the internal controversy its elites are having in public about what the United States in particular and western European states should be doing about the civil war in Syria.” […]
Boston, Brazil and Islam: Irrational Rhetoric, Illegal Wars
By Ramzy Baroud During his talk sponsored by the New American Foundation in March 2008, author Parag Khanna addressed the rising challenges facing the US’s global hegemony. According to Khanna, China and the European Union are the new contenders with the battlefield being a global ‘geopolitical marketplace.’ Aside from Khanna’s insight, one statement particularly puzzled […]
Time for a Credible Narration of History
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 […]
Turkey’s Unsustainable Politics in the Middle East: Israel vs. The Rest
By Ramzy Baroud ‘Confused’ may be an appropriate term to describe Turkey’s current foreign policy in the Middle East and Israel in particular. The source of that confusion – aside from the appalling violence in Syria and earlier in Libya – is Turkey’s own mistakes. The Turkish government’s inconsistency regarding Israel highlights earlier discrepancy in […]
Changing Nature of Palestine’s Struggle Caught on Five Cameras
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, […]
Turkey Cornered into Israeli Embrace
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 […]
Iraq at the Brink: A Decade after the Invasion
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 Uranium […]
Arab Springboard for Intervention? Two Years of Revolution and War
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 […]
‘The Iranians Are Coming’: The Imagined, ‘Sinister’ Iranian Threat in Latin America
By Ramzy Baroud Reading the text of a bill that was recently signed into law by US President Barack Obama would instill fear in the hearts of ordinary Americans. Apparently, barbarians coming from distant lands are at work. They are gathering at the US-Mexico border, cutting fences and ready to wreak havoc on an otherwise […]
‘Popular Resistance’ in Palestine: Beyond Political Doublespeak
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 […]
Rhetorically Speaking: US Election and the Middle East
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 […]
Much at Stake for Turkey: Border Violence Meant to Be a Defining Point
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 […]
No Election Fervor, But Much at Stake
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 […]
The Empire Trapped: The US’ Unpromising Role in the New Middle East
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 […]
A Defining Moment: Anti-Muslim Films, Cartoons and My Gaza Neighbor
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 […]
Palestinian Refugees from Syria Lost and ‘Betrayed’
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 […]
The Children Are Still Dying: Violence is Not News
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 […]
US Realists, Neocons and the War in Syria
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 […]
Shifting Truths in Sinai: Who Stands to Gain from Carnage?
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 […]
Neocons vs. the ‘Arab Spring’: Back on the Warpath
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 […]
Why is Mali Spiraling out of Control?
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 […]
Lurking Danger: Palestinian Refugees in Syria
By RamzyBaroud ‘The flames are quickly approaching Yarmouk (as) someone is trying to drag the Palestinians into the fire,’ reported Palestinian commentator Rashad Abu Shawar (as cited in Israeli Jerusalem Post, July 20). Yarmouk is the largest Palestinian refugee camp in Syria. Its inhabitants make up nearly a quarter of Syria’s entire refugee population of […]
Democracy and Slaughter in Burma: Gold Rush Overrides Human Rights
By Ramzy Baroud The widespread killings of Rohingya Muslims in Burma – or Myanmar – have received only passing and dispassionate coverage in most media. What they actually warrant is widespread outrage and decisive efforts to bring further human rights abuses to an immediate halt. “Burmese helicopter set fire to three boats carrying nearly 50 […]
