Jonathan Cook

Jonathan Cook is a writer and journalist based in Nazareth, Israel. His latest books are Israel and the Clash of Civilizations: Iraq, Iran, and the Plan to Remake the Middle East (Pluto Press) and Disappearing Palestine: Israel's Experiments in Human Despair (Zed Books). Visit his Web site.

Will Crisis-Plagued Netanyahu Start a War To Save His Skin?

A favored tactic of Israeli prime ministers in trouble is to provoke a confrontation, or at least overreact to ensure one develops, and then send in the army. Wars can be expected to unite Israelis behind a failing government and silence the opposition while winning uncritical support from Jews overseas and knee-jerk sympathy from western … Continue reading “Will Crisis-Plagued Netanyahu Start a War To Save His Skin?”

Why the Media Don’t Want to Know the Truth About the Nord Stream Blasts

Reprinted from Mint Press News with the author’s permission. No one but the terminally naïve should be surprised that security services lie – and that they are all but certain to cover their tracks when they carry out operations that either violate domestic or international law or that would be near-universally rejected by their own … Continue reading “Why the Media Don’t Want to Know the Truth About the Nord Stream Blasts”

Al-Aqsa Raid: How BBC Coverage Is Enabling Israeli Violence

The late Archbishop Desmond Tutu, a Nobel laureate and tireless campaigner against South African apartheid, once observed: “If you are neutral in situations of injustice, you have chosen the side of the oppressor.” For decades, the BBC’s editorial policy in reporting on Israel and Palestine has consistently chosen the side of the oppressor – and … Continue reading “Al-Aqsa Raid: How BBC Coverage Is Enabling Israeli Violence”

Israel’s Long War Between the Generals and Extremists Is Not Going Away

Israel edged closer to civil war over the weekend than at any point in its history. By Monday night, in a bid to avert chaos, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu agreed to put a temporary halt to his plans to neuter the Israeli courts. By then, city centers had been brought to a standstill by angry … Continue reading “Israel’s Long War Between the Generals and Extremists Is Not Going Away”

The Holy Land and Us: BBC Nakba Series Obscures Ethnic Cleansing of Palestine

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”

It’s Not Just the Settlers – or Israel – Responsible for the Torching of Huwwara

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”

How Social Networks Became a ‘Subsidiary’ of the FBI and CIA

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”

In Syria, the West’s Humanitarian Claims Crumble to Dust

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”

Russia-Ukraine War 2.0: First Tanks, Then F16s. Where Does This End?

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?”

How the US Paved the Way to Moscow’s Invasion of Ukraine

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”