What I'd really like to do is to tell you some good news for a change, that something has changed, and changed for the better, but I'm afraid that, by the lights of this column, there's not much of that on the go. 'Airstrip One,' inasmuch as it has a theme, is all...
The Meaning of Jenin
Jenin – the name is now a synonym for the brutality of the Israeli war machine, and for the heroism of the Palestinian people as they seek to defend themselves against a merciless assault. The Israelis and their amen corner aren't going to spin their way out of...
Oracle At Jenin
p align="left">On Wednesday I left the wasteland of Gaza and came to East Jerusalem where it is easier to base oneself for traveling. For two days I stayed in the Jenin refugee camp, returning only late this evening. I know I will have to write about it soon in much...
In Times of War Crimes
"That such remoteness from reality and such thoughtlessness can wreak more havoc than all the evil instincts taken together which, perhaps, are inherent in man – that was, in fact, the lesson one could learn in Jerusalem." (Hannah Arendt, Eichmann in...
Smearing Alex Cockburn
At the end of every edition of The McLaughlin Group, the panelists are called upon to make their predictions. On a recent broadcast of the show, Pat Buchanan looked into his crystal ball and saw the following: "A huge Israeli spy ring using alleged art students...
Meeting Robert Fisk
I wasn't sure what to expect when I learned that I had the opportunity to meet with Robert Fisk, the British journalist, who was in Southern California last Friday for a speaking engagement at Chapman University in Orange. Of course, I knew his work, in part because...
The Founding Fathers Were Right About Foreign Affairs
Last week I appeared on a national television news show to discuss recent events in the Middle East. During the show I merely suggested that there are two sides to the dispute, and that the focus of American foreign policy should be the best interests of America...
Straws In the Wind
Completely by accident I found myself at my first anti-war demonstration on Saturday. I was walking up from St James's Park towards the West End, specifically Soho, when I heard, as I passed Horseguards Parade, the fairly familiar sound of a rally taking place in...
Beware the Red Heifer
While the American secretary of state shuttles back and forth between Yasser Arafat and Ariel Sharon, trying desperately to cobble together a) a ceasefire, and b) some basis for a settlement of the world’s most tiresome perpetual crisis, it behooves us to examine...
Liberventionism Rides Again
A while back I coined the word "liberventionism" as shorthand for "libertarian interventionism." I take the latter to be something of a contradictio in adjecto. Nevertheless, there are those who claim to be, and have been seen as, libertarians, who...