Egypt’s Complex Presidential Politics
Interviewee: Steven A. Cook, Hasib J. Sabbagh Senior Fellow for Middle Eastern Studies, Council on Foreign Relations Interviewer: Bernard Gwertzman, Consulting Editor, CFR.org With Egypt’s presidential elections due to occur in little more than a month, there is tremendous agitation going on over the principal candidates for office, says Steven A. Cook,CFR’s top Egypt expert. He says the [...]
US – Israeli Relations: No More Have One’s Cake and Eat it
Last week’s meeting between President Barack Obama and Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu demonstrated a fundamental disagreement between the United States and Israel. While Obama made it crystal clear that he is committed to a two-state solution as the only framework for solving the Arab-Israeli conflict, Netanyahu kept refusing to spell out that formula. This is [...]
The F-35 Stealth Fighter Program – How the War Economy Contributes to Exacerbating the Social Crisis
There is mounting controversy regarding the purchase of the F-35 stealth fighter jet from US defence giant Lockheed Martin. The Pentagon has commissioned the purchase of 2,443 aircraft “to provide the bulk of its tactical airpower for the US Air Force, Marine Corps and Navy over the coming decades”. This massive procurement of advanced weapons [...]
OUR MEN IN IRAN? By Seymour M. Hersh
From the air, the terrain of the Department of Energy’s Nevada National Security Site, with its arid high plains and remote mountain peaks, has the look of northwest Iran. The site, some sixty-five miles northwest of Las Vegas, was once used for nuclear testing, and now includes a counterintelligence training facility and a private airport [...]
How the West Used Libya to Hijack the Arab Revolts
Vijay Prashad talks neoliberal economics, the uprisings in Egypt and Tunisia and why NATO’s intervention in Libya marked a new chapter in the story of the Arab revolts. At first glance, the revolt in Libya against Muammar Gaddafi seemed to be a continuation of the Arab uprisings that began in Tunisia in late 2010. But [...]
Why Israel Should Learn to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb
The Israeli nuclear facility in the Negev Desert outside Dimona. The debate over Iran’s nuclear program has made clear that when it comes to nuclear deterrence, Israeli strategic thinking is flawed. In the 1960s, Israel developed a nuclear capability as the ultimate security guarantee, a last resort to be used if the country’s very existence [...]
The Politics of Evangelicalism
How Washington is Leaving the Faithful Behind Human beings need narratives. They provide purpose, explanation, and meaning. They underlie religions and nations alike. To be sure, they sometimes reinforce preordained categories that prohibit nuance and leave listeners less willing to grapple with others’ narratives. Many people end up reading and watching “analysis” that only convinces [...]
At the end of his new book, “The Crisis of Zionism,” Peter Beinart offers two controversial proposals to mend the relationship between Israel and American Jews, or at least liberal American Jews. His call for a targeted consumer boycott of Israeli settlements has unleashed a torrent of anxious response, some of it insightful, most of it [...]
Chomsky: How the Young Are Indoctrinated to Obey
Forty years ago there was deep concern that the population was breaking free of apathy and obedience. Since then, many measures have been taken to restore discipline. Public education is under attack around the world, and in response, student protests have recently been held in Britain, Canada, Chile, Taiwan and elsewhere. California is also a [...]
FBI Taught Agents They Could ‘Bend or Suspend the Law’
The FBI taught its agents that they could sometimes “bend or suspend the law” in their hunt for terrorists and criminals. Other FBI instructional material, discovered during a months-long review of FBI counterterrorism training, warned agents against shaking hands with “Asians” and said Arabs were prone to “Jekyll & Hyde temper tantrums.” These are just [...]
