Reflections

Andrew Ross’s Stone Men: The Palestinians Who Built Israel (Verso; 2019)
 

Istanbul Elections: a Turkish Constitutional Crisis? Davutoglu’s Manifesto
 

[Prefatory Note: Theodor Adorno’s unforgettable remark of 1983 continues
to challenge and even haunt: “to write poetry after Auschwitz is barbaric.”
When I first encountered such a startling sentiment II was grateful to be reminded
that to engage normally involves turning a blind eye toward acute and massive
suffering, at least briefly. Today there are many horrors inflicted on innocent decent people

Barr-bed Wire: A Puzzle
 
In the tidal waves of mainstream coverage of the Barr Performance(stonewalling; no show; legalistic hairsplitting; evasion and lies), there is a huge elephant in the room that as far as I can tell has been ignored:
THE RUSSIANS DID EVERYTHING THEY COULD DO TO HELP TRUMP WIN
THE 2016 PRESIDENTIAL ELECTIONS.
 

Is the Overthrow of el-Bashir in Sudan a Sign of a Second Arab Spring?
 

On Taking Controversial Public Positions: A Reflection      
 

Julian Assange: Criminal or Benefactor?
 
I suppose it is of interest that Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton have found something to agree about—the criminal indictment of Julian Assange.  Trump is acutely vulnerable to the exposure of truth and Clinton blames her electoral defeat in 2016 partly on what WikiLeaks disclosed about her improper use of a government computer to send private emails. Such are the perverse ways of the deeply unjust.
 

[Prefatory Note:  Interview with Samu Tamás Gergő, a Hungarian journalist, April 9, 2019, on conditions of peace for the Palestine/Israel, with some initial emphasis on my experience as UN Special Rapporteur addressing human rights in Occupied Palestine on behalf of the Human Rights Council in Geneva.]
 
 
 

My recommendation of Joan Mellen’s Blood in the Water: How the U.S. and Israel Conspired to Ambush the USS Liberty
 
If you are able read just one book in 2019 I urge it to be Joan Mellen’s Blood in the Water: How the U.S. and Israel Conspired to Ambush the USS Liberty.
 

I want to recommend Rest in My Shade: A Poem About Roots by Nora Lester Murad and Danna Masad. It is a beautifully crafted story of the Palestinian ordeal as understood through a primary metaphor of the olive tree, so bound up with Palestinian identity, both because of the rootedness to place of olive trees and the life nurturing qualities of olive oil. The book is a brilliant collaboration between its authors and a group of world class Palestinian painters. The lyric words of the text give clear meanings to the vibrant beauty of the visual art.