Lamenting Funk Street

Throughout China there exist dirty alleys and streets lined with decrepit old one-story houses harboring strange and amazing odors. A smorgasbord of goods are hawked in these streets underneath the shadows of new apartment buildings and towering Bank of China complexes: full goats, rice and spices, candy and bicycles, condoms and magazines, phone cards – … Continue reading “Lamenting Funk Street”

Will the Real Hitler Please Stand Up?

President Bush is justifying his proposed pre-emptive war against Iraq on the grounds that Saddam has weapons of mass destruction, and that this dangerous dictator has ties to the international terrorists, Al Qaeda. Some say that this U.S. justification for pre-emptive war is unprecedented in U.S. history. But whether or not that is true, such … Continue reading “Will the Real Hitler Please Stand Up?”

9/11: WHAT DID ISRAEL KNOW?

Israel had foreknowledge of 9/11 – that was Carl Cameron’s explosive contention, made last year in a blockbuster series of reports on Fox News exposing an Israeli spy ring in the U.S. New evidence confirms his story – and points to a rather ominous conclusion…. Reporting the round-up and deportation of scores of Israeli agents … Continue reading “9/11: WHAT DID ISRAEL KNOW?”

The Unbearable Futility of Voting

Results of the Serbian presidential vote this past weekend were entirely predictable, and Vojislav Kostunica is likely to win come the October 13 runoff. And while any outcome of the vote will make little difference in the grand scheme of things – for the future of Serbia is not decided at the ballot box, but … Continue reading “The Unbearable Futility of Voting”

Deadly Mistakes: A Chronology of Failure

The following article by Oliver Schrom is over a year old, but it certainly has relevance in light of the revelations about the U.S. government’s pre-9/11 perception of the threat posed by Al Qaeda. Schrom’s piece is a chronology of failure – our government’s failure to carry out its only legitimate function, which is protecting … Continue reading “Deadly Mistakes: A Chronology of Failure”

WHY JIM McDERMOTT IS A HERO

There was Colette Avital, a Labor Party member of the Israeli Knesset, on a trip to Capitol Hill, worried about the prospect of war in the Middle East. Rep. Tom Lantos, the ranking Democrat on the House Committee on International Affairs, took her by the hand, and, according to Ha’aretz, tried to reassure her with … Continue reading “WHY JIM McDERMOTT IS A HERO”

Looking Behind Ha’aretz’s Liberal Image

A new Israeli web-site, supported by two major settlers’ sites from the West Bank and Gaza Strip, is dedicated to the holy cause of "encouraging and supporting the employment of Jews only". It is already listing dozens of Israeli firms that do not employ "Gentiles". In the first months of the Intifada, Israeli racists initiated … Continue reading “Looking Behind Ha’aretz’s Liberal Image”

A Hunger For War Criticism?

All right, it was San Francisco, which is not exactly the heartland. But the reception last Tuesday for Harper’s magazine editor Lewis Lapham and a panel of four other journalists (including yours truly) willing to criticize the new permanent condition of war was heartening and heartwarming. It was as if most of those people (there … Continue reading “A Hunger For War Criticism?”

THE LIE MACHINE

The lovely and personable Peggy Noonan wants us to have an "epochal" debate over going to war with Iraq, and disdains the personal attacks that have characterized the discussion so far: "In the past 48 hours we have witnessed Bush vs. Daschle, Hitchens vs. Cockburn, Democrats vs. Republicans, The American Conservative vs. The Weekly Standard … Continue reading “THE LIE MACHINE”

India In a Trap on Iraq

As the beat of America’s war-drums against Iraq gets louder, the Indian government finds itself in an untenably contradictory situation: should it support a United Nations-endorsed attack against Iraq’s "terrorist" Saddam Hussein regime, as part of US President George W. Bush’s "global war against terrorism", which it zealously and unconditionally welcomed a year ago? Or … Continue reading “India In a Trap on Iraq”