International

The myth of Israel’s “democracy”

Israel cannot be a colonial power and a democracy

Interview by Chris Hedges* with Ilan Pappé**

(29 February 2024) Israeli historian Ilan Pappé reframes ‘the only democracy in the Middle East’ as a colonising force that is inherently undemocratic due to its necessary subjugation of Palestinians.

Israel’s status as a bona fide democracy is often taken to be a self-evident truth, but a more critical look at the history and reality of Zionism calls this into question. After all, how can a democracy exist in a country constitutionally defined as an ethno state that can only exist through the suppression and gradual elimination of its Others?

Israeli historian Ilan Pappé joins The Chris Hedges Report for a discussion on Israel as an inherently colonial, and therefore anti-democratic, project.

Julius Malema, Nathalie Yamb and the new African radicality

by Guy Mettan,* Geneva

(29 February 2024) A blind angle in the global media for decades, the African continent has become fascinating to observe since the Covid crisis because mind-blowing events are constantly happening there and there is a kind of confusing excitement that is difficult to decipher, but very exhilarating.

A nuclear “Armageddon” by Western elites?

by Robert Seidel

(23 February 2024) The opinion that “elites” or “experts”, plutocrats, “blue bloods” or “global young leaders” can make better decisions per se than the public has proven to be a mistake time and again. The current wars are planned, initiated, waged, or “merely” tolerated by small elite circles who think they know better. This is a mockery of every human being and every democracy – after all, in the nuclear age, everyone is affected by these decisions. It is a fatal mistake to want to rely on the “common sense” of these elites these days.

China, Russia pip US to the Taliban hearth

by M. K. Bhadrakumar,* India

(16 February 2024) The diplomatic recognition of the Taliban government in Afghanistan on January 31, 2024 by China must be bracketed with two other far-reaching regional policy moves by Beijing in the post-cold war era – the Shanghai Five in 1996 – later renamed as Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO) in 2001– and the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) announced by President Xi Jinping in 2013.

Israel Cannot Hide From the International Court of Justice

by Jeffrey D. Sachs,* USA

(9 February 2024) It is easy to be cynical about the international rule of law. No sooner had the International Court of Justice (ICJ) found1 that Israel is plausibly committing genocide against the Palestinian people than the U.S. State Department declared, “We continue to believe that allegations of genocide are unfounded and note the court did not make a finding about genocide or call for a ceasefire in its ruling…” Israeli leaders declared the case to be “outrageous” and “antisemitic”. Yet the risks for Israel of the ICJ ruling, and its follow-up in the next year or two, are profound. If Israel spurns the Genocide Convention, it imperils its place within the community of nations.

U.S. Claims No Alternative to Larger Middle East War

by “Moon of Alabama”*

(2 February 2024) (Ed.) In the USA, too, readers of leading media outlets are guided in their opinion-forming with selected information on foreign policy. The investigative platform “Moon of Alabama” takes the time to scrutinise a recent analysis by Peter Baker, chief White House correspondent for the “New York Times”. Is it necessary to bomb in Yemen or maintain military bases in Syria or Iraq? It becomes clear that Baker's selective choice of information makes the US government's policy appear to have no alternative: “There is no alternative”.