Middle East Watch

475 Article

• Iranian Elections: The ‘Stolen Elections’ Hoax

  by James Petras
  "Change for the poor means food and jobs, not a relaxed dress code or mixed recreation... Politics in Iran is a lot more about class war than religion." Financial Times Editorial, June 15 2009 Introduction There is hardly any election, in which the White House has a significant stake, where the electoral defeat of the pro-US candidate is not denounced as illegitimate by the entire political and mass media elite. In the most recent period, the White House and its camp followers cried (…)  continue
  

• The Iranian Elections and the Hysterical Media

  15 June 2009, by Ron Jacobs
  Here comes the hysteria and bold-faced lies. In the wake of the Iranian election, various commentators and so-called reporters in the United States are reacting as if the end of the world was at hand. Although nobody knows for certain and everyone only has the words of western press pundits and an angry candidate to go by, virtually every mainstream US news source is calling the re-election of Ahmadinejad the result of fraud. There has been no verification of this from any objective (…)  continue
  

• Gaza: Bombs, Missiles, Tanks And Bulldozers

  19 June 2009, by James Carter
  Director of UNRWA operations John Ging, thank you for inviting me to Gaza. Distinguished guests, children of Gaza, I am grateful for your warm reception. I first visited Gaza 36 years ago and returned during the 1980s and later for the very successful Palestinian elections. Although under occupation, this community was relatively peaceful and prosperous. Now, the aftermath of bombs, missiles, tanks, bulldozers and the continuing economic siege have brought death, destruction, pain, and (…)  continue
  

• The Case of Netanyahu and the Curious Incident

  18 June 2009, by Uri Avnery
  "You must be celebrating,” the interviewer from a popular radio station told me after Netanyahu’s speech. “After all, he is accepting the plan which you proposed 42 years ago!” (Actually it was 60 years ago, but who is counting?) The front page of Haaretz carried an article by Gideon Levy, in which he wrote that “the courageous call of Uri Avnery and his friends four decades ago is now being echoed, though feebly, from end to end (of the Israeli political spectrum).” I would be lying if (…)  continue
  

• Why Is the U.S. Continuing to Tell the Lebanese How to Vote?

  by Stephen Zunes
  In recent visits to Lebanon, both Vice President Joe Biden and Secretary of State Hillary Clinton made clear that the United States would react negatively if the March 8th Alliance — a broad coalition of Islamist, Maronite, leftist, nationalist, and pan-Arabist parties — won the upcoming parliamentary elections. These not-so-subtle threats have led to charges of U.S. interference in Lebanon’s domestic affairs. What prompts U.S. concerns is that the largest member of this coalition is (…)  continue
  

• State of "Caged" Palestinians

  7 June 2009, by Lina Suleiman
  American rhetoric is full of devious political Language. The Secretary of State Hillary Clinton in an interview with Al Jazeera in May 19 confirmed that “the US is going to be pushing for a two-state solution which, by its very name, implies borders that have to be agreed to”. But why the borders should be negotiated and agreed to? Aren’t they fixed by the UN resolutions? Do resolutions drop by the reason of time elapsing? Shouldn’t the US and their western allies push for the (…)  continue
  

• Obama wins an election in the Middle East

  10 June 2009, by Juan R. I. Cole
  President Barack Obama’s speech in Cairo last Thursday may already have borne fruit. His call for political moderates in the Muslim world to fight extremism may have helped tip the weekend’s parliamentary elections in Lebanon to the anti-Syrian March 14 Alliance. Obama did not explicitly call for the defeat of Hezbollah in the elections, but the Lebanese already knew where the administration’s sympathies lay. His speech came three weeks after a Beirut visit by Vice President Joe Biden in (…)  continue
  

• Our Convoy to Gaza

  5 June 2009, by George Galloway
  "Where is the ummah; where is this Arab world they tell us about in school.” Those words will forever remain etched on my brain. They were spoken by a 10 year old girl in a bombed out ruin in Gaza in March. She had lost her almost her entire family in the 22-day Israeli bombardment earlier this year. The second time she spoke, it was to the back of my head. I had to turn away; what answer could you give her? While Hugo Chavez expelled the Israeli ambassador to Venezuela, the leaders of (…)  continue
  

• The Grim Picture of Obama’s Middle East

  5 June 2009, by Noam Chomsky
  A CNN headline, reporting Obama’s plans for his June 4 Cairo address, reads ’Obama looks to reach the soul of the Muslim world.’ Perhaps that captures his intent, but more significant is the content hidden in the rhetorical stance, or more accurately, omitted. Keeping just to Israel-Palestine — there was nothing substantive about anything else — Obama called on Arabs and Israelis not to ’point fingers’ at each other or to ’see this conflict only from one side or the other.’ There is, (…)  continue
  

• Why Boycott Veolia?

  The Veolia parent company is Veolia Environnement, a French multinational. Veolia Transport, a subsidiary of Veolia Environnement, is a leading partner in the CityPass consortium, contracted to build a light rail tramway system linking west Jerusalem to illegal Jewish settlements such as Pisgat Ze’ev, French Hill, Neve Ya’akov and Gilo in occupied east Jerusalem. Once built, the rail system will help to cement Israel’s hold on occupied east Jerusalem and tie the settlements even more (…)  continue