- June 9, 2025
Articles
Politics of Death: Can Human Life Be Devalued Like Currency?
By Ramzy Baroud How many Egyptians have been killed since the January 2011 revolt? My pursuit for exact figures has proven to be futile. Various sources suggest all sorts of numbers, some scrambled in such a way as to make a political point. It is as if the life of the ordinary Egyptian doesn’t matter […]
Egypt’s Unanswered Question
By Ramzy Baroud What is happening in Egypt? How is it possible that in a matter of two years a perceived evil can become virtuous? And how could those who shed many tears over the beating to death of Khaled Saeed at the hands of the Egyptian police in June 2010, justify with disheartening ferocity the […]
On Egypt’s Class-Struggle: Rabias of the World Unite
By Ramzy Baroud “Lord! You know well that my keen desire is to carry out Your commandments and to serve Thee with all my heart, O light of my eyes. If I were free I would pass the whole day and night in prayers. But what should I do when you have made me a […]
The Un-Revolution: Yemen’s Mediocre Transition
By Ramzy Baroud Considering the off-putting reality, one fails to imagine a future scenario in which Yemen could avoid a full-fledged conflict or a civil war. It is true that much could be done to fend off against this bleak scenario such as sincere efforts towards reconciliation and bold steps to achieve transparent democracy. There […]
Plotting Elites: Old Middle East Paradigm Will Change
By Ramzy Baroud The seismic shift under way in the Middle East continues to widen, but it is not expressed so lucidly in our media through its polarised language: pro-regime, anti-regime, Islamists, secularists, Mursi supporters or otherwise. Some want you to believe that it was all a devilish plan hatched years in advance with the […]
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 […]
Back to Square None: Netanyahu, Abbas to Resume ‘Peace Process’ that Never Was
By Ramzy Baroud The political peddlers, think-tank experts and media professionals are all back in full force. They want us to believe that US Secretary of State John Kerry has done what others have failed to do. On his sixth trip to the Middle East during his post, and following intense shuttle diplomacy likened to […]
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 […]
On Hamas, Fatah and the Squandered Years: When ‘Unity’ Loses Its Meaning
By Ramzy Baroud When Hamas and Fatah representatives met in Gaza on June 04, there was little media fanfare. In fact, neither party expected much attention to their ‘unity talks’ aside from the occasional references to ‘national reconciliation’, ‘building bridges’ and the ‘obstacles’ along the way. And since then, there was yet more proof that […]
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, […]
Rohingya Population Control: The Onslaught in Burma Continues
By Ramzy Baroud On April 21, the BBC obtained disturbing video footage shot in Burma. It confirmed extreme reports of what has been taking place in that country, even as it is being touted by the US and European governments as a success story pertaining to political reforms and democracy. The BBC footage was difficult […]
No More Tunnels Please: Gaza Held Hostage to Egypt’s Turmoil
By Ramzy Baroud Air of uncertainty is engulfing most matters related to Egypt. Since the Egyptian revolt started over two years ago, the country remains hostage to a barefaced power struggle with many destructive implications that have polarized society in unprecedented ways, perhaps in all of Egypt’s modern history. And while in Egypt itself nothing […]
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.” […]
Church of Scotland and Hawking: Challenging Israel
By Ramzy Baroud The global Boycott, Divestment, and Sanctions (BDS) movement has scored two major victories in May starting with a groundbreaking report issued by the Church of Scotland. It was followed by an equally courageous decision by internationally renowned cosmologist and physicist Stephen Hawking to boycott an Israeli conference. These two important developments have […]
Israel, Hawking and the Pressing Question of Boycott
By Ramzy Baroud It is an event “of cosmic proportions”, said one Palestinian academic, a befitting description regarding Stephen Hawking’s decision to boycott an Israeli academic conference slated for next June. It was also a decisive moral call which was communicated on May 8 by Cambridge University, where Hawking is a professor. Hawking is a […]
Of Boston Bombings and Twisted Logic
By Ramzy Baroud We still do not know much about the Boston Marathon bombings on April 15, apart from information passed on by the media — citing mostly official sources. If the past was of value then it is fair to conclude that the official narrative could be misleading, dotted with inconsistencies and as was […]
The Pain of Bangladesh: T-shirts Made with Blood and Tears
By Ramzy Baroud As they spoke to a BBC correspondent in their run-down room which they call home in Dhaka, Bangladesh, a man sobbed as his 12-year-old daughter sat close to him. His face, wrinkled before its time, was a picture of utter anguish. It could only be understood by a parent whose child was […]
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 […]
Hungering for Freedom at Guantanamo: Obama’s Legacy of Broken Promises
By Ramzy Baroud The Guantanamo Bay prison is a glaring attestation to the state of political indecision which the United States has experienced since President Barack Obama’s first day in office. While his second term is unlikely to deliver much of the ‘change’ he had so industriously promised, skeletal men continue to sink into utter […]
A Hundred Deir Yassin and Counting: Beit Daras and the Buried History of Massacres
By Ramzy Baroud Few with any sense of intellectual or historical integrity would still question the bloody massacre that took place in the village of Deir Yassin 65 years ago, claiming the lives of over 100 innocent Palestinians. Attempts at covering up the massacre have been dwarfed by grim details by well-respected historians, including some […]
Gaza’s Siege Intensifies: The Plan to ‘Moderate’ Hamas, Control Gaza
By Ramzy Baroud On September 17, 2012, Ismail Haniyeh, Prime Minister of the Hamas government in Gaza, made another appeal to his Egyptian counterpart Hisham Kandil to consider setting up a free trade area between Gaza and Egypt. The reasonable idea would allow Egypt to support Gaza’s ragged economy while sparing Cairo the political fallout […]
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 […]
After Obama’s Israel Visit: What’s Left for Palestinians?
By Ramzy Baroud ‘Obama didn’t accomplish much of substance,’ is how Dana Milbank characterized US President Barack Obama’s 3-day visit to Israel and the Middle East. In an opinion piece in the Washington Post on March 22, Milbank outlined ‘substance’ as “obvious progress toward talks with the Palestinians (..) new ground in deterring Iran’s nuclear […]
Obama’s Peace Antics in Israel – Four More Years of This?
By Ramzy Baroud At the precise moment US President Barack Obama’s Air Force One touched down at Ben Gurion Airport on March 20, persisting illusions quickly began to shatter. And as he walked on the red carpet, showered with accolades and warm embraces of top Israeli government and military officials, a new/old reality began to […]
Of Hope and Pain: Rachel Corrie’s Rafah Legacy
By Ramzy Baroud ‘Hi Papa .. Don’t worry about me too much, right now I am most concerned that we are not being effective. I still don’t feel particularly at risk. Rafah has seemed calmer lately,’ Rachel Corrie wrote to her father, Craig, from Rafah, a town located at the southern end of the Gaza […]
