Sheldon Richman

The Palestinians’ deteriorating conditions in the West Bank and Gaza Strip makes even long-term optimism difficult. Neither a one-liberal-state nor two-state resolution seems in the offing because (if for no other reason) either would seem to spell political suicide for any foreseeable Israeli government. The one-staters have a good argument against the two-staters and vice … Continue reading “A Glimmer of Hope in Bleak Palestine”

One might have thought that, in the wake of the Nazi regime’s systematic crimes against humanity last century, dehumanization would have become unthinkable once and for all. Unfortunately, this has not been the case. It has shamefully continued unabated, the assorted perpetrators including, with tragic irony, those who themselves were victims of Nazi dehumanization. Dehumanization … Continue reading “Depopulating Palestine, Dehumanizing the Palestinians”

The United States and Russia remained at odds, continuing military exercises along the borders of NATO, undermining the Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces Treaty (INF), upgrading their nuclear arsenals, and eschewing arms control negotiations. ~ It’s Two Minutes to Midnight,” Bulletin of Atomic Scientists I, for one, was much disappointed by the Trump-Putin summit – but not … Continue reading “Trump and Putin – How about Getting Rid of Your Nukes?”

The Trump administration’s “Deal of the Century” for the Palestine-Israel has, predictably, gone over like a lead balloon. So it’s shifting gears. The Washington Post reports, “With President Trump’s promised Middle East peace plan stalled, administration officials are focusing on improving conditions in the impoverished Gaza Strip – a move that could put political pressure … Continue reading “Trump Turns to Gaza as Middle East Deal of the Century Collapses”

Here’s a shocker: Donald Trump and his Palestine-Israel fixers think they can buy a peaceful and permanent settlement of the 70-year conflict by getting Arab governments to pressure the Palestinians into forgetting the “politicians’ talking points” – you know, superficial things like independence from the routine abuses and indignities of colonial oppression (that’s right; the … Continue reading “The Trump-Kushner Delusion on Palestine”

Why does Palestine matter? It’s a question I ask myself nearly every day. Another way to put it is, “Is the devotion of major attention to the plight of the Palestinians an obsession worthy of suspicion or an appropriate response to a grave historic and continuing injustice? No one will be surprised when I reply … Continue reading “Why Palestine Matters”

As one of the original settlers of the sparsely populated territory situated between the deranged and warring states of Antitrumplandia and Philotrumplandia, I’m breathing easier today. Anyone who longs for peace and an end to the big-power nuclear threat can only welcome what Trump and Kim did in Singapore this week. It’s just the beginning, … Continue reading “Trump, North Korea, and Iran”

Whenever I write about Palestine, Israel, and Zionism – especially when I point out that American Reform Jews en masse gagged on the thought that America was not their “homeland”; they insisted they were Jewish Americans not American Jews – I am lectured on Facebook about how “keeping to one’s own kind” is a natural … Continue reading “Separation, Not Association, Requires Force”

Shlomo Sand, a remarkable scholar who studies how “peoples,” including the Jewish people, have been invented through myths propagated by court historians and politicians, makes a startling yet obvious connection in his book The Invention of the Land of Israel (2014): In fact, it was the United States’ refusal, between the anti-immigration legislation of 1924 … Continue reading “How the US Created Israel and a Whole Lot of Trouble”

From April 1950, nearly two years after the Zionists in Palestine unilaterally declared independence for the state of Israel, to March 1951, three bombs exploded among Jews in Baghdad, Iraq: one each outside a cafe on Abu Nawwas Street; at the US Information Centre, a popular reading place for young Jewish Iraqis; and outside the … Continue reading “The Abused Jews of Iraq”