Jonathan Cook

The BBC’s The Holy Land and Us, a two-part exploration of Israel’s founding that concluded this week, has been what pundits like to call “brave television.” The first episode featured testimony of a notorious massacre by a Zionist militia of more than 100 Palestinians, many of them women and children, in early 1948, weeks before … Continue reading “The Holy Land and Us: BBC Nakba Series Obscures Ethnic Cleansing of Palestine”

A sustained violent attack by hundreds of Jewish settlers on the Palestinian town of Huwwara last Sunday – as well as the response of Israel’s new far-right government – has divided Jewish opinion in Israel and deeply discomfited Jews abroad. The Board of Deputies, which claims to represent Britain’s Jewish community and is usually a … Continue reading “It’s Not Just the Settlers – or Israel – Responsible for the Torching of Huwwara”

The US Congress last tried to grapple with what the country’s ballooning security services were up to nearly half a century ago. In 1975, the Church Committee managed to take a fleeting, if far from complete, snapshot of the netherworld in which agencies such as the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA), Federal Bureau of Investigations (FBI) … Continue reading “How Social Networks Became a ‘Subsidiary’ of the FBI and CIA”

US President Joe Biden’s administration relented last Thursday and finally lifted sanctions on Syria. The change of policy came after four days of relentless and shocking footage from the disaster zone in southern Turkey and northern Syria caused by a 7.8 magnitude earthquake. It seems as if Washington felt it could no longer sustain its … Continue reading “In Syria, the West’s Humanitarian Claims Crumble to Dust”

Almost as soon as major NATO countries, led by the US, promised to supply Ukraine with battle tanks, the cry went up warning that tanks alone would be unlikely to turn the war’s tide against Russia.  The subtext – the one western leaders hope their publics will not notice – is that Ukraine is struggling … Continue reading “Russia-Ukraine War 2.0: First Tanks, Then F16s. Where Does This End?”

Hindsight is a particularly powerful tool for analyzing the Ukraine war, nearly a year after Russia’s invasion. Last February, it sounded at least superficially plausible to characterize Russian President Vladimir Putin’s decision to send troops and tanks into his neighbor as nothing less than an “unprovoked act of aggression.” Putin was either a madman or … Continue reading “How the US Paved the Way to Moscow’s Invasion of Ukraine”

Israel’s new national security minister, Itamar Ben-Gvir, lost no time in demonstrating who is boss. On Tuesday, days after Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s government was sworn in, the ultra-nationalist politician marched straight in to the Al-Aqsa Mosque complex in the occupied Old City of Jerusalem – probably the most incendiary site in the Middle East. … Continue reading “Is Ben-Gvir Preparing a Holy War Against the Palestinians?”

Faced with criticism on whether the United States should trumpet its “unbreakable bond” with an incoming Israeli government headed by fascist parties, lawbreakers and homophobes, the Biden administration has squirmed. US Secretary of State Antony Blinken observed defensively this month that Washington would “gauge the government by the policies and procedures, rather than individual personalities”. … Continue reading “How Netanyahu Handed Ben-Gvir the Gun to Start an Annexation War”

There is a good reason why Gadi Eisenkot, a former head of the Israeli military, expressed alarm last week as Benjamin Netanyahu awarded unprecedented powers over the occupation to a far-right settler party in his new government. Eisenkot claimed that the army was in danger of “falling apart” if Netanyahu so openly politicized its role. … Continue reading “How Ben-Gvir Blows Apart the ‘Security’ Story of Israel’s Occupation”

The most disturbing outcome of Israel’s general election this week was not the fact that an openly fascist party won the third-biggest tally of seats, or that it is about to become the lynchpin of the next government. It is how little will change, in Israel or abroad, as a result. Having Religious Zionism at … Continue reading “Extreme Right in Netanyahu’s Government Won’t Dent Western Support”