Published articles – Page 7

The Saudi War on Democracy

My latest piece for Jacobin Magazine; on Yemen.

So if Iranian influence isn’t the overriding factor, what is really behind the Saudi war on Yemen? The former United Nations envoy to Yemen, who was responsible for negotiations in the country until recently, revealed that the warring factions were on the brink of a power-sharing deal just before the war began. The Saudi-led war on the country aborted those talks.

As Jamal Benomar told the Wall Street Journal, “When this campaign started, one thing that was significant but went unnoticed is that the Yemenis were close to a deal that would institute power-sharing with all sides, including the Houthis.”

…

According to an anonymous diplomat speaking to the Wall Street Journal, “the Saudis also intervened to prevent a power-sharing deal that would include the Houthis and that would give 30% of the cabinet and parliament to women.”

Hadi, on the other hand, came to power in an election in which he was the only candidate.

Read the whole thing here.

Saudi Arabia is helping al-Qaeda invade Syria

On recent events in Syria:

A March offensive led to the armed opposition capturing the city of Idlib, a north-western provincial capital. Although only a small city, this victory, and the subsequent occupation of Jisr al-Shughour on Saturday are significant, since they bring al-Qaeda closer to Lataqia, the coastal heartland of support for the regime.

Although supporters of the Syrian opposition have lauded this as a “liberation” of Idlib, it is clear that the assault was spearheaded by Jabhat al-Nusra, al-Qaeda’s affiliate in Syria. To say the least, this is a group in no way interested in democracy and human rights.

Read the rest over at MEMO.

My review of The Racket

An important new book which blows the whistle on the global system of capitalist control:

With this, his second book, Matt Kennard has announced his presence on the scene as the next generation’s John Pilger.

A former Financial Times investigative reporter, Kennard has spent years interviewing those intimately involved in running what he terms the racket, the corporations and their political servants that really run our world in their own interests, and that of their global hegemony. But he also talks to its victims. As he mentioned at his book launch earlier this month, The Racket has essentially been ten years in the making.

Read the whole thing over at MEMO.

Britain’s deep state breaks cover at Southampton University

On our very own deep state:

There are powerful institutions in this country that work behind the scenes in a highly undemocratic manner, especially the spy agencies like MI5 and MI6. We often know very little about how they operate, and that’s why it’s so fascinating when we get a fleeting glimpse of them, peering over the parapets.

This week, organisers of a conference about Israel at Southampton University went to the High Court to challenge a university decision to cancel their event. I was in court, and reported the day’s events for The Electronic Intifada. The organisers failed. The judge, in rather Orwellian language, ruled that the applicants could exercise their academic freedom “elsewhere”.

Read the rest over at MEMO.

Israel moves to cover-up its alliance with al-Qaeda in Syria

As totally sceptical as I am about the propaganda system that is the mainstream media, it still surprises me that this story is getting almost zero media attention. Israel has admitted being in active military alliance with a group considered one of the Western world’s greatest terrorist threats. And all purely to make sure Syria bleeds for as long as possible:

Al-Maqet was detained without access to a lawyer for ten days, and the military court eventually ruled that he must use a lawyer with a high-level security clearance (in other words he has to use a former Israeli military officer as a lawyer … as his defender in a military court).

The amount of trouble that Israel’s Deep State is going to in order to shut this man up is deeply emblematic of the state’s fundamentally anti-democractic nature. It also shows that, the more press coverage there is of Israel’s alliance with al-Qaeda in Syria (it has been pretty much ignored by mainstream media to date) the more Israel is sensitive to the facts being exposed.

After all, by aiding al-Qaeda in Syria, Israel is by providing material support to a group that it itself defines as a terrorist organization, as do the US and British governments.

Read the whole column over at MEMO.

The persistence of the Palestinian Authority

On some of the reasons the PA has not yet been overthrown:

As the first two intifadas were largely unpredicted, it has since become a fairly regular occurrence for pundits to predict a “third intifada”. Usually alongside this prediction comes another: that its first target will be the Palestinian Authority. This makes a certain logical sense, as the PA is – as Edward Said said it would be – little more than a Palestinian subcontractor for the Israeli occupation regime.

And yet, years later, the Palestinian Authority endures. Despite occasional murmurous of discontent and even demonstrations against the PA (such as 2012’s brief surge of protest against the neoliberal policies of unelected former Prime Minister Salim Fayyad), the West Bank seems largely under the control of the PA – and hence of Israel. What accounts for this?

Read the whole thing over at MEMO.

Saudi aggression in Yemen will fail

On the Saudi war against Yemen:

Saudi Arabia is an absolutist monarchy which does not even have the pretence of fixed elections. The two regimes are very different in many ways, but similar in some key respects. Both are systematic human rights abusers. Although in rather different ways, both have religious fundamentalism at the heart of their state institutions. Both did their level best to destroy and hijack the democratic uprisings that broke out in the Arab world in 2011.

Both are fêted in Western capitals. And both invade surrounding countries and start wars of aggression – although Israel does this far more.

And so to Yemen, which Saudi Arabia, backed by other regional despots has just launched a murderous war against.

Read the whole thing over at MEMO.

Netanyahu’s lies

On Netanyahu’s Sorry-not-sorry:

But in fact Netanyahu did not even apologise for his comments as claimed in the headlines. If you check the actual quote, it’s clear that what he said was that he was sorry that Israel’s Palestinian Arab citizens took offence at his racism: “I know that my comments last week offended some Israeli citizens and offended the Arabs of Israel … I’m sorry about that”.

Read the whole thing here.

Israel’s elections: a festival of all-party racism

On the racism of all Zionist political parties:

A brilliant and incisive post-election analysis published this week by Adalah, a civil rights group run for Palestinian citizens of Israel, shows that such racist views went right across the political spectrum in this election, with the exception of the non- and anti-Zionist Joint List of mostly-Arab political parties (which came in third place).

Read the whole piece here.

Cameron buries Muslim Brotherhood report to please Gulf tyrants

Yet another delay, probably for good this time:

Reports in the British press suggest that Sir John has cleared the Brotherhood of any violent extremist tendencies. It is “not a terrorist organisation but should be more open about its dealings,” is how The Independent summarised the findings on Monday, when the report failed to materialise.

Read the full story here.

Israeli army admits aiding al-Qaeda in Syria

On the Israel/al-Qaida alliance in Syria:

“We don’t ask who they are, we don’t do any screening,” the unnamed Israeli military official told the paper of the hospital treatment of al-Qaeda fighters. “Once the treatment is done, we take them back to the border [sic – ceasefire line] and they go on their way [in Syria],” he said.

An unnamed military official also said there is an “understanding” between Israeli forces and al-Qaeda fighters there and that “there is a familiarity of the [al-Qaeda] forces on the ground”.

Read the full article at MEMO.

Israel an ‘apartheid state’, says South African Muslim MP they tried to woo

On Israel’s disastrous PR operation in South Africa:

Even someone their officials perceive as a “good Muslim” like Cassim, is treated in a racist manner at the airport. This apparently happened to Cassim too.

“I believe I was targeted and it was clear racial profiling that was taking place, being stopped even before going into the airport and being interrogated and searched and having my bags turned inside and out,” Cassim told Radio Islam.

Full article over at MEMO.