Ramzy Baroud

John Bolton is a tarnished character. The once United States Ambassador to the United Nations is now promoted as a “scholar” in the pro-Israel lobby group, the American Enterprise Institute (AEI). Bolton is not a peacemaker, nor, in his defense, did he ever try to appear as if one. When he was appointed as the … Continue reading “Beware ‘Sunni-Stan’: Neocons Are Back and Their ‘Vision’ Is Darker Than Ever”

Throughout her hunger strike, that of exactly 47 days, Hana Shalabi never slept consistently for a number of hours. In the first few days of her strike, she would doze off only to wake up with the sudden fear that someone was trying to hurt her. But after the first week of the hunger strike, … Continue reading “Hungry Warrior: The Untold Story of Hana Shalabi”

When Egypt decided to open the Rafah border crossing which separates it from Gaza for two days, December 3 and 4, a sense of guarded relief was felt in the impoverished Strip. True, 48 hours were hardly enough for the tens of thousands of patients, students and other travelers to leave or return to Gaza, … Continue reading “Open Rafah Now: Siege on Gaza Is a Cruel Failure”

Israeli commentators, Yaron Friedman, of "Ynet News" and Haviv Rettig Gur, of the "Times of Israel" are clueless about the driving force behind the Palestinian mobilization and collective struggle. In two recent articles, and with unmistakable conceit, they attempted to highlight what they perceive as the failure of the current Palestinian uprising, or "Intifada." Gur … Continue reading “Reclaiming Palestine: How Israeli Media Misread the Intifada”

I still remember that smug look on his face, followed by the matter-of-fact remarks that had western journalists laugh out loud. “I’m now going to show you a picture of the luckiest man in Iraq,” General Norman Schwarzkopf, known as “Stormin” Norman, said at a press conference sometime in 1991, as he showed a video … Continue reading “Forget ISIS: Humanity Is at Stake”

Writing in the New York Times in an article entitled, "Myanmar Generals Set the State for Their Own Exit", Thomas Fuller expressed his and the media’s failure to recognize the total fraud that is Burmese democracy. "The official results are still being tabulated," he wrote, "but all signs, so far, point to that rarest of … Continue reading “Rohingya and the Burmese Generals: How To Fake a Democracy”

US Secretary of State, John Kerry, is often perceived as one of the “good ones” – the less hawkish of top American officials, who does not simply promote and defend his country’s military adventurism but reaches out to others, beyond polarizing rhetoric. His unremitting efforts culminated partly in the Iran nuclear framework agreement in April, … Continue reading “Remaking the Middle East: How the US Grew Tired and Less Relevant”

There is a possibility that you have heard of the famed British author, J K Rowling, writer of the popular fantasy series Harry Potter. While I knew of her books –through my teenage kids – I knew little about the author herself, until recently. Under an oblique title, “Israel needs cultural bridges, not boycotts”, Rowling, … Continue reading “Coexistence With Apartheid? JK Rowling Owes Palestinians an Apology, Not an Explanation”

Saeb Erekat is an enigmatic character. Despite minimal popularity among Palestinians, he is omnipresent, appears regularly on television and speaks with the moral authority of an accomplished leader whose legacy is rife with accolades and an astute, unwavering vision. When Palestinians were polled by the Jerusalem Media and Communications Center (JMCC) in August, just prior … Continue reading “Confronting the Obvious Truth: Palestinian Authority vs. the People”

When my book Searching Jenin was published soon after the Israeli massacre in the Jenin refugee camp in 2002, I was quizzed repeatedly by the media and many readers for conferring the word “massacre” on what Israel has depicted as a legitimate battle against camp-based “terrorists”. The interrogative questions were aimed at relocating the narrative … Continue reading “Of Course, It Is an Intifada: This Is What You Must Know”