Tag: current affairs – international

As Gaza is bombed and starved, the Arab world watches a relentless injustice

There is something about the pro-Palestine anger that isn’t really about Palestine at all, but what the entire state of the Palestinians represents. The protests are increasingly an immersive cathartic state of mourning for all the losses that many have to reconcile themselves with; the weakness and lack of solidarity and compact between a large… Read More As Gaza is bombed and starved, the Arab world watches a relentless injustice

Dilip

Saudi prince slams Hamas, Israel with India praise: ‘Prefer civil disobedience’

NB: I am not an admirer of the Saudi regime, which I believe to be a brutal pseudo-religious despotism; but I appreciate this statement by their former intelligence chief. I couldn’t agree with him more. On the West’s shameless hypocrisy and double standards; their irredeemable racism and practice of collective vengeance on subjugated peoples; the… Read More Saudi prince slams Hamas, Israel with India praise: ‘Prefer civil disobedience’

Dilip

Peacekeepers, Fatah or anarchy: what would follow an Israeli ‘victory’ in Gaza?

Emma Graham-Harrison, Julian Borger and Ruth Michaelson in Jerusalem For two weeks Israel has pounded Gaza with missiles, as it gathers tanks and troops for a ground invasion with one stated goal, to destroy Hamas. It is a deceptively simple target, one which sounds urgent and necessary to many in a nation profoundly traumatised by the massacres of 7 October,… Read More Peacekeepers, Fatah or anarchy: what would follow an Israeli ‘victory’ in Gaza?

Dilip

We owe it to humanity to see the rules of war are observed – no matter how tough a test the Israel-Hamas conflict proves

George Monbiot We owe it to humanity to see the rules of war are observed – no matter how tough a test the Israel-Hamas conflict proves George Monbiot For almost 4,000 years, some governments have insisted that if wars must be fought, there should be rules. The first known code, by the Babylonian king Hammurabi,… Read More We owe it to humanity to see the rules of war are observed – no matter how tough a test the Israel-Hamas conflict proves

Dilip

Toxic Netanyahu could drag Biden down in his fight for political survival

Simon Tisdall Is that it? Is that the best western leaders can do as the midnight hour approaches? Kindly Joe Biden doled out sympathy and dollars in a seven-hour visit to Israel. Tiny amounts of aid are dribbling into Gaza. Two hostages out of 200 have been released. But there is no ceasefire, no “humanitarian… Read More Toxic Netanyahu could drag Biden down in his fight for political survival

Dilip

‘We have a chance to change Poland’: how young voters shaped the election result

Turnout in this election was 74.3%, a record that exceeded even the turnout of 1989, a vote that triggered the collapse of the Soviet-backed communist system. Key to that was the mobilisation of youth The last time anyone other than the Law and Justice party (PiS) ruled Poland, Aleksandra, a sociology student in Warsaw, was 10.… Read More ‘We have a chance to change Poland’: how young voters shaped the election result

Dilip

Biden’s Historically Illiterate and Hypocritical Speech on Ukraine and Gaza

JUAN COLE Ann Arbor (Informed Comment) – The Biden administration’s foreign policy is a mess and lacks any real consistency. This messiness was on full display in the president’s brief address on Thursday evening, a plea for Congressional funding of both the US struggle to get Russia back out of Ukraine and of support for the extremist… Read More Biden’s Historically Illiterate and Hypocritical Speech on Ukraine and Gaza

Dilip

United Nations Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide

Adopted by Resolution 260 (III) A of the United Nations General Assembly on 9 December 1948 Article 1: The Contracting Parties confirm that genocide, whether committed in time of peace or in time of war, is a crime under international law which they undertake to prevent and to punish. Article 2: In the present Convention, genocide… Read More United Nations Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide

Dilip