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The response in the United States to the surge of violence between Palestinians and Israelis holds no surprises whatsoever.  The usual bipartisan contingent of pro-war figures in the political arena, the policy community, and the corporate news media presented a predictable narrative from the outset that quickly became dominant.  Proponents parroted familiar clichés that portrayed … Continue reading "Hawks Are Using Gaza Violence as a Pretext for War with Iran"

So wise up! With terrorism, as with all asymmetric political action, “the action is in the reaction of the opposition,” as Saul Alinsky, the leftist activist, put it in his book Rules for Radicals. This isn’t conspiracy stuff, nor impossible “4th dimensional chess” – it’s just plain, old 2-dimentional chess. That’s all: Hamas, al Qaeda, … Continue reading "It’s All About Provoking Your Reaction"

The bloodiest hand in the current slaughter of Palestinians and Israelis belongs, not to Hamas or the Netanyahu government, but to the West. Yes, Palestinian fighters carried out a brutal attack at the weekend on Israeli settlements on the edge of the Gaza Strip. But this attack did not emerge from nowhere, or without warning. It was … Continue reading "The Blood of Gaza Is on the West’s Hands as Much as Israel’s"

On October 5, Russian President Vladimir Putin addressed the plenary session of the Valdai International Discussion Club near Sochi, Russia. The session was attended by scholars and diplomats from forty-two countries. Putin spoke for half an hour and then answered questions for about three hours. Several interesting things were said. In western discourse it is … Continue reading "Putin’s Valdai Speech, What You Need to Know"

After an Israeli reserve soldier named David Ben Zion told a reporter Palestinian militants “cut [off] heads of babies,” Biden, Netanyahu, and the international media amplified the dubious claim. The Grayzone has identified Ben Zion as a fanatical settler leader who incited riots by demanding a Palestinian town be “wiped out.” An international outcry erupted when Israel’s Foreign Ministry announced that Palestinian militants from the besieged Gaza Strip had killed 40 “babies,” and beheaded several of them during an incursion […]

==== Anti-war essays, poems, short stories and literary excerpts British writers on peace and war Aldous Huxley: Selections on war ==== Aldous HuxleyThe Perennial Philosophy The politics of those whose goal is beyond time are always pacific; it is the idolaters of past and future, of reactionary memory and Utopian dream, who do the persecuting […]

My old friend Gardner Goldsmith and I had fun recapping the FBI’s latest mischief on the David Knight Radio Show. We also talked about Thomas Macaulay and his forgotten lessons for freedom. 25 minutes at — INTERVIEW James Bovard: FBI Expands "Terrorist" Definition, Targets Trump Supporters In the process of expanding the FBI's reach against […]

When Israel’s ambassador to the United Nations spoke outside the Security Council on Sunday, he said: “This is Israel’s 9/11.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu had often boasted about the readiness of his army to deal with, and to eliminate all threats to Israel’s “security.” The Israeli military, too, has contributed to the Israeli hasbara that Tel Aviv would be able to face several threats at all fronts, from Gaza, to the West Bank, to … Continue reading "The Gaza War is Lost: But Will Netanyahu Concede?"

==== Anti-war essays, poems, short stories and literary excerpts British writers on peace and war ==== Nevil ShuteA Town Like Alice At the end of that time a convoy of three trucks came down the road; the driver of the second one, Joe Harman, was recognized by the sergeant immediately, and brought before Jean at […]