- June 8, 2025
Articles
Spot the Difference: Trump and Obama, in Their Own Words
By Ramzy Baroud The nature of the rhetoric in Donald Trump’s first speech at the United Nations General Assembly was largely predictable. Even his bizarre threat to “totally destroy North Korea” was consistent with his overall style and previous warnings. But how different was his speech, if compared with the first and last UN speeches of President Barack Obama? A 19th […]
Courting the Global South: Will Israel Become a UN Security Council Member?
By Ramzy Baroud There is a great irony in the fact that Israel is seeking a seat at the United Nations Security Council (UNSC). Since its establishment atop the ruins of Palestinian cities and villages in 1948, Israel has had the most precarious relationship with the world’s largest international body. It has desperately sought to […]
The Genocide of the Rohingya: Big Oil, Failed Democracy and False Prophets
By Ramzy Baroud To a certain extent, Aung San Suu Kyi is a false prophet. Glorified by the west for many years, she was made a ‘democracy icon’ because she opposed the same forces in her country, Burma, at the time that the US-led western coalition isolated Rangoon for its alliance with China. Aung San […]
Three Years after the War: Gaza Youth Speak Out
By Ramzy Baroud “At bedtime, I am afraid to turn the lights off. I am not a coward, it is just that I worry that this bulb hanging from the ceiling is the last light that remains (shining) in my life.” Soon after he penned these words, Moath Alhaj, a young artist from a Gaza refugee […]
The Terror Next Time: The Daesh Story Is Not Ending
By Ramzy Baroud Iraq’s second largest city, Mosul, has been reduced to rubble. It has been finally conquered, snatched back from the notorious group, Daesh, after months of merciless bombardment by the US-led war coalition, and a massive ground war. But ‘victory’ can hardly be the term assigned to this moment. Mosul, once Iraq’s cultural […]
Nuclear Apocalypse: Trump and Kim Should Not Hold the World Hostage
By Ramzy Baroud Not too far away from Seattle, Washington there are eight ballistic-missile submarines carrying the world’s large shipments of nuclear weapons. The 560-foot-long black submarines are docked at the Naval Base Kitsap-Bangor, hauling what is described by Rick Anderson in a recent Los Angeles Times article as “the largest concentration of deployed nuclear weapons in […]
Al-Araqeeb Village: Palestinian Bedouins Refuse to Surrender 116 Times
By Ramzy Baroud On August 1, the Palestinian Bedouin village of Al-Araqeeb was destroyed for the 116th time. As soon as Israeli bulldozers finished their ugly deed and soldiers began evacuating the premises, the village resident immediately began rebuilding their homes. 22 families, or about 101 residents, are estimated to live here. By now, they are […]
‘The Palestine Exception’: War on BDS is Now a War on American Democracy
By Ramzy Baroud There is something immoral in Washington D.C., and its consequences can be dire for many people, particularly for the health of US democracy. The US government is declaring war on the Palestinian Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) movement. The fight to defeat BDS has been ongoing for several years, but most notably […]
Power to the People: Why Palestinian Victory in Jerusalem is a Pivotal Moment
By Ramzy Baroud Neither Fatah nor Hamas have been of much relevance to the mass protests staged around Al-Aqsa Mosque compound in Jerusalem. Neither have American pressure, half-hearted European ‘concern about the situation’ or cliché Arab declarations made one iota of difference. United Nations officials warned of the grim scenarios of escalation, but their statements were mere […]
The Curse of Mohammed Dahlan: Hamas Should Not Trade Resistance for Its Own Survival
By Ramzy Baroud “We have made mutual efforts with our brothers in Hamas to restore hope for Gaza’s heroic people,” Mohammed Dahlan told Palestinian lawmakers gathering in Gaza on Thursday, July 27. He spoke via satellite from his current exile in the United Arab Emirates. The audience clapped. True, Gaza has been pushed to the brink of […]
Fear and Trepidation in Tel Aviv: Is Israel Losing the Syria War?
By Ramzy Baroud Israel, which has played a precarious role in the Syrian war since 2011, is furious to learn that the future of the conflict is not to its liking. The six-year-old Syria war is moving to a new stage, perhaps its final. The Syrian regime is consolidating its control over most of the […]
The Story behind the Jerusalem Attack: How Trump and Netanyahu Pushed the Palestinians into a Corner
By Ramzy Baroud Early October 2016, Misbah Abu Sbeih left his wife and five children at home and then drove to an Israeli police station in Occupied Palestinian East Jerusalem. The 39-year-old Jerusalemite was scheduled to hand himself over to serve a term of 4 months in jail for, allegedly, trumped up charges of ‘trying […]
Fighting the Wrong Enemy: Why Americans Hate Muslims
By Ramzy Baroud Two officers sought me from within a crowd at the Seattle-Tacoma International Airport. They seemed to know who I was. They asked me to follow them, and I obliged. Being of Arab background, often renders one’s citizenship almost irrelevant. In a back room, where other foreigners, mainly Muslims, were holed for ‘added […]
‘The World is (Not) Flat’: ‘Trumpism’ is a Symptom of Decades-long Imperial Arrogance
By Ramzy Baroud No matter how hard White House officials try, they cannot construct a coherent ‘Trump doctrine’ that would make sense amid the chaos that has afflicted US foreign policy in recent months. However, this chaos is not entirely the making of President Donald Trump alone. Since 1945, the United States has vied for […]
Pushing Gaza to Suicide: The Politics of Humiliation
By Ramzy Baroud Mohammed Abed is a 28-year-old taxi driver from the village of Qarara, near the town of Khan Younis in the Gaza Strip. He has no teeth. Lack of medical care and proper dentistry work cost him all of his teeth, which rotted and decayed at a very young age. Yet, his dire […]
Israel vs. the United Nations: The Nikki Haley Doctrine
By Ramzy Baroud The United States Ambassador to the United Nations, Nikki Haley, seems to be championing a single cause: Israel. When Haley speaks about Israel, her language is not merely emotive nor tailored to fit the need of a specific occasion. Rather, her words are resolute, consistent and are matched by a clear plan […]
Journalism, History and War: Sit, Type and Bleed
By Ramzy Baroud The typical newsroom set-up, where journalists chase headlines dictated by some centralized news gathering agency – often based in some western capital – does not suffice any more. In the case of the Middle East, the news narrative has been defined by others and dictated on Arab journalists and audiences for far […]
CounterPunch: A People’s Historian: Ramzy Baroud on Journalism and History and Why ‘Palestinians Already Have a Voice’
By Romana Rubeo Palestinian-American historian, journalist and author, Dr. Ramzy Baroud, speaks on his upcoming book, just-released digital media project – Palestine in Motion – and why Palestinian history has to be urgently retold. When it comes to Palestine, we often see a dichotomy between mainstream media platforms – which are essentially molded out of […]
The Unwanted ‘Bride’: Can the 1967 War Offer Opportunity for Peace?
By Ramzy Baroud There is a saying that goes: “Be careful what you wish for, for you may get it.” This has been Israel’s dilemma from the very beginning. The Zionist movement, which held its first conference in Basel, Switzerland 120 years ago, wanted Palestine but not the Palestinians. They achieved this objective 50 years […]
Trump’s Visit to Israel: How Palestine Disappeared from US Media Coverage
By Ramzy Baroud As if he has, overnight, been transformed into a master politician, Donald Trump’s 27-hour trip to Israel has left many analysts mystified. Quoting former Israeli political adviser, Mitchell Barack, the New York Times referred to Trump as the “Liberace of world leaders”, in reference to flamboyant, piano player, Wladziu Valantino Liberace. The latter, known […]
Fear as an Obstacle to Peace: Why Are Israelis Afraid?
By Ramzy Baroud Bat-Hen Epstein Elias’s long article on Iranian Jews is interesting. Parts of it, in fact, are heartwarming. Yet, despite the lack of any serious evidence, the story is entirely framed in the language of fear. Entitled, “All the Jews there live in fear that their telephones are tapped,” the story in ‘Israel […]
Ramzy Baroud: Nakba Forever Internalized among Exiled Palestinians
By Ramzy Baroud – Al Jazeera At 76, Tamam lives in the same refugee camp to which her family fled after their exile from Palestine during the Nakba in 1948. At least 750,000 Palestinians were ethnically cleansed between 1947 and 1948, as more than 500 Palestinian villages and towns were demolished to make room for Jewish […]
Árabes y judíos deben desafiar juntos al pasado oficial de Israel
Ramzy Baroud Israel ha recurrido principalmente a tres estrategias para reprimir las demandas de Palestina de justicia y derechos humanos, incluido el derecho al retorno de los refugiados. Una de ellas es reescribir la historia; otra intentar distraer la atención de las realidades presentes; y la tercera intenta reclamar la historia palestina como una versión […]
Jewish Nation-State Bill: Israel’s Precarious Identity is Palestine’s Nightmare
By Ramzy Baroud The Israeli Knesset (parliament) has hurriedly passed a new bill that defines Israel as the “national home of the Jewish people.” Although the association between Jewishness and Israel goes back to the foundation of the state, the new law also carries clear discriminatory elements that target the country’s Arab communities, numbering nearly […]
Should Hamas Rewrite the Past?
By Ramzy Baroud Now that the Palestinian Islamic Movement, Hamas, has officially changed its Charter, one should not immediately assume that the decision is, in itself, an act of political maturity. Undoubtedly, Hamas’ first Charter, which was released to the public in August 1988, reflected a degree of great intellectual dearth and political naïveté. “Allah […]
Baroud in Al Jazeera: How Israel’s Violent Birth Destroyed Palestine
By Ramzy Baroud – Al Jazeera As Israel celebrates the Palestinian Nakba as its triumphant independence on May 1, it is preparing for a massive celebration for the 50th anniversary of its occupation of East Jerusalem, the West Bank and Gaza. Two dates are often used to frame the so-called Palestinian-Israeli conflict: Nakba Day on […]
The Prisoners’ Revolt: The Real Reasons behind the Palestinian Hunger Strike
By Ramzy Baroud Gaza is the world’s largest open air prison. The West Bank is a prison, too, segmented into various wards, known as areas A, B and C. In fact, all Palestinians are subjected to varied degrees of military restrictions. At some level, they are all prisoners. East Jerusalem is cut off from the […]
Palestinian and Jewish Voices Must Challenge Israel’s Past Together
By Ramzy Baroud Israel has resorted to three main strategies to suppress Palestinian calls for justice and human rights, including the Right of Return for refugees. One is dedicated to rewriting history; another attempts to distract from present realities altogether and a third aims at reclaiming the Palestinian narrative as essentially an Israeli one. The […]
When Daesh is Defeated: Who Will Fill the Intellectual Vacuum in the Arab World?
By Ramzy Baroud Back in the Middle East for a few months, I find myself astounded by the absence of the strong voices of Arab intellectuals. The region that has given rise to the likes of Michel Aflaq, George Habash, Rached Al-Ghannouchi, Edward Said and numerous others has marginalised its intellectuals. Arab visionaries have either been […]
