After its far-right election victory in late 2022, the Netanyahu cabinet’s newly-appointed justice minister, Yariv Levin, claimed that “judicial activism” had ruined public trust in the legal system and made it impossible for the government to rule effectively....
When I first met Amos Oz amid the 1982 Lebanese War, which we both condemned, he was an internationally renowned novelist and co-founder of the “Peace Now” movement. I was one of the translators of his book on the settler-induced divides, In the Land of Israel (1983)....
In early April, the Philippines responded with “guarded optimism” to US President Donald Trump’s sweeping tariffs, saying higher rates placed on its neighbors could present an opportunity. Hit with Trump’s reciprocal levy of 17%, the Department of Trade and Industry...
The Israel/US Iran offensive is not about nuclear weapons. It is about Iran’s abundant oil and gas reserves. It is a joint effort to overthrow Iranian leaders to restore pre-1979 rule. After just a month in the office, it was abundantly clear that the Trump...
Ironically, Iran is a member of the Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT), which Israel shuns. As shown by The Fall of Israel (2025), the US/Israeli path to the carnage across the Middle East was paved almost 60 years ago. Yom Kippur War Israel first crossed the nuclear...
Last week, Philippine and US Marines demonstrated “lethal firepower in two separate live fire exercises” the Philippine Marine Corps portrayed as “defense partnership.” It went hand in hand with high-profile, high-cost military deals. These follow Manila’s flirting...
President Trump’s new round of reciprocal and universal tariffs will escalate trade tensions, lower investment, hit market pricing, distort trade flows, disrupt supply chains, and undermine consumer, business and investor confidence. It will certainly penalize global...
Until recently, the West has pledged in the name of a two-state model in the partitioned Israel/Palestine. But it has been replaced by a unitary state that is decreasingly secular and democratic. In retrospect, the two-state solution died in Jerusalem on September 17,...
After the Hamas-led offensive of October 7, 2023, it was portrayed as “Israel’s 9/11,” which came out of the blue. Yet, this assumption is not supported by verified facts, including ignored intelligence, abandoned hostages and neglected Israeli communities around...
In early 2023, the most far-right cabinet in Israel’s history launched its war for “judicial reforms” to replace democracy with autocracy. In fall 2023, it began an obliteration war against Gaza. Now it is readying to decimate the last human rights defenders in...
