Month: April 2002

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 about whether … Continue reading “Introducing Ameroscepticism”

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 this one, and they know it. Here’s … Continue reading “The Meaning of 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 greater detail than here, even … Continue reading “Oracle At Jenin”

"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 Jerusalem, a Report on the Banality of Evil.) Even when some of the atrocities … Continue reading “In Times of War Crimes”

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 was broken up last year. The story will surface."Well, … Continue reading “Smearing Alex Cockburn”

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 Antiwar.com features it regularly and the Register used … Continue reading “Meeting Robert Fisk”

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 – not Palestine or Israel. I argued that … Continue reading “The Founding Fathers Were Right About Foreign Affairs”

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 Trafalgar Square. So, being curious (and always interested to know … Continue reading “Straws In the Wind”

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 the issue of … the red heifer. Say what? You heard me, … Continue reading “Beware the Red Heifer”

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 throw themselves into the breach to support this or that initiative of the U. S. … Continue reading “Liberventionism Rides Again”