Spring 2006 The Middle East
Contents
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Adam Hanieh
‘Democracy Promotion’ and Neo-Liberalism in the Middle East“Democracy – understood in the narrow sense of regular electoral competitions between different sections of the elite – is necessary to prevent ‘coups or revolutions’ and is aimed at providing popularly sanctioned legitimacy for neo-liberal economic measures.”
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J A Miller
Madness and Monotheism: Palestine as Psych Ward for the West“Western progressives must understand, expose and combat the pernicious role their religion has in creating and maintaining the injustice and violence committed against the Palestinians.”
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Ramzy Baroud
At Last, a Real Middle East Democracy Project“Wouldn’t it be odd for a Hamas-led government to declare its commitment to peace on the same day that top Israeli officials declare that elected Palestinian ministers are not immune to assassination?”
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William Cook
For Whom the Bell Tolls In Our Time: The Hamas Challenge to Israel“Israel pays no attention to the international community even as it obsequiously slithers into the UN attempting to gain a seat on the Security Council. What irony that a state that defies the UN to the tune of 160 resolutions should sit on a council judging other states.”
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Omar Barghouti
Boycotting Israeli Apartheid: Evoking South Africa’s Legacy“Those who imagine they can wish away the conflict by suggesting some forums for rapprochement, détente, or ‘dialogue’ – which they hope can lead to authentic processes of reconciliation and eventually peace – are clinically delusional or dangerously deceptive.”
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John Petrovato
Producing National Identity: Museums, Memory and Collective Thought in Israel“Israeli citizens have been trained not to ‘see’ Palestinians. It is not that they are not there but political, visual, cultural, and legal barriers have been erected that obscure the view.”
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James Brooks
The Entwined Fates of Palestine and America“Many Americans have come to vaguely understand ‘occupation’ as a situation in which Israel administers the territory until the Palestinians have grown up enough to run it for themselves.”
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Mahir Tan
A Short Conversation with Sheik Hassan Zargani, Representative of the Sadr Movement“If the U.S. refuses to withdraw from Iraq the Sadr Movement and its Mahdi Army will once again resort to armed struggle against the occupation forces.”
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Tanner Mirrlees
Imperialist Communication and Culture Wars“As the U.S. promises to establish political transparency and freedom of speech in Iraq, they finance propaganda to mythologize their hated occupation.”
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Ron Jacobs
The Long Struggle of Washington against Tehran“The current crisis over Iran’s nuclear energy program is a crisis contrived by Washington in its drive to return Iran back to Washington’s fold – a drive that began even before the Shah was overthrown back in 1979.”
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Elaheh Rostami Povey
The Reality of Life in Afghanistan since the Fall of the Taliban“Afghan people are resentful of the fact that after four years they do not have access to electricity, gas and clean water, while foreigners in their country enjoy these facilities.”
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Cihan Aksan
An Interview with Gilbert Achcar“The victory of Hamas in Palestine is also a major victory for Iran, for Syria, for all the adversaries of the United States.”
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Cihan Aksan & Jon Bailes
Iraq and its Aftermath: An Interview with Tony Benn“I think it’s very simple. If you want change you do it yourself. All progress historically has come from below.”
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Cihan Aksan & Jon Bailes
An Interview with Abdel Bari Atwan“Osama Bin Laden told me, ‘I can’t fight the Americans on the American mainland. It is too far. But if I succeed in bringing the Americans where I can find them, where I can fight them on my own terms, on my turf, this will be the greatest success.’”
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Cihan Aksan
An Interview with Dahr Jamail“The longer the US stays in Iraq and continues to pit the sects and ethnicities against one another the greater the chances of civil war.”
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Stephanie McMillan
Minimum Security (Cartoon) -
Ron Jacobs
A Golf Course and A Swimming Pool: Infidels and Imperialists on Pakistani Land“Looking out the bus windows at devastated buildings followed by untouched villages where life went on as it had for thousands of years. Then more destruction. That’s when I realized that it was the Pakistani and Indian civilians who were really getting the worst of the war, not us Americans.”
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John Stanton
Refute the Policies of Bush and Clinton Declare War on the Nationalist-Globalist Class“As the public listens to the beat of the war drums, the political and economic assassination of social programs is taking place. By the time Americans turn their attention to the rape and pillage of pensions and benefits, it will be too late.”
