Today's Stories

August 7 - 9, 2009

Alexander Cockburn
It Pays to Have a Nuke

August 6, 2009

Ishmael Reed
Let's All Have a Beer

Paul Craig Roberts
The Expiring Economy

William Blum Assassinations and Coups: Keeping Track of the Empire's Crimes

Michael Donnelly
Rod Coronado: the Hardest Working Man in Animal Rights "Terrorism"

Jonathan Cook
Rabbis Ban Marriage for Israeli "Untouchables"

Dave Lindorff
The Health Care Reform Sell-Out

Ellen Brown
The Public Option in Banking

Website of the Day
Ellsberg on Hiroshima

August 5, 2009

Dedrick Muhammad /
Barbara Ehrenreich
The Destruction of the Black Middle Class

Norman Solomon
The Incredible, Shrinking Health Care Plan

William Blum
The Myths of Afghanistan: Past and Present

Gareth Porter
The ISI and the Taliban: US Officials Are Protecting Pakistani Aid to Taliban

Mary Lynn Cramer
The Myth of Medicare for All

Jim Goodman
Obama Needs to Take a Stand on Trade

Nadia Hijab
Playing From Strength in the Middle East

Gretchen Kroth
Guatemala's Garbage Dump Education System

Steve Macek /
Scott Sanders
Privatizing the Airwaves

Sarah Lazare
Inside G.I. Resistance

Website of the Day
The Locavore Myth

August 4, 2009

Mike Whitney
Bernanke's Shell Game

Dave Lindorff
The Recession Isn't Over, By a Long Shot

Patrick Cockburn
Did British Bomb Attacks in Iran Provoke Hostage Crisis?

Jonathan Cook
Israel's Campaign to Silence Human Rights Groups

Jeff Sher
Making a Mess of Health Care Reform

Dean Baker
Why Don't We Globalize Health Care?

Andy Worthington
Gitmo as Hotel California

Uri Avnery
A Jeremiad

Mark Weisbrot
U.S.-Brokered Mediation in Honduras Has Failed

Alvaro Huerta
Hold That Dustbin! So Much for the "End of Racism"

Website of the Day
Pentagon to Ban Facebook and Twitter?

August 3, 2009

Pam Martens
Millions of Americans Pushed Into No-Law System by Colluding Banks

Anthony DiMaggio
Media Backlash: Obama and the Settlements

Udi Aloni
And Who Shall I Say is Calling? A Plea to Leonard Cohen

Mike Roselle
See the Mountains of WestVirginia ... Before They're Blown Up!

Dr. Susan Block
Beat It! Sex, Death and Michael Jackson

Roy Bourgeois / Margaret Knapke
School of Coups

Joe Bageant
A Yard Sale in Chernobyl

Dina Jadallah
Hiding the State

Dave Lindorff
Of Blue Dogs and Jellyfish

Martha Rosenberg
Grand Closings in Evanston: How the Recession is Hitting Illinois

Website of the Day
Why We Can't "Afford" Health Care

July 31 - August 2, 2009

Alexander Cockburn
The Biden and Clinton Mutinies

Gabriel Kolko
Searching For Enemies

John Prados
The Intelligence Oversight Mess

Joe Bageant
The Bastards Never Die

Tim Wise
Rationalizing Racial Oppression

Carl Ginsburg
Frist First: Follow the Money (and Find the Plump Heart of "Health Care")

Michael Fox
The Honduran Coup as Overture

John Lindsay-Poland
Revamping Plan Colombia

Michael Winship
Pay-to-Play: Washington's Sport of Kings

Rev. William Alberts
White Men Can Jump ... to Conclusions

Andy Worthington
Judge Orders Release of Tortured Gitmo Prisoner

Steve Breyman
Counting the Unemployed

Cyrus Bina
Racism, Class and Profiling

Missy Beattie
Promises Ignored

Ron Jacobs
Into the Vapid: Consuming the Cultural Product

Willie L. Pelote, Sr.
Party of Concessions: Democrats Never Learn

Lucia Alvarez
Fall of the House of Kirchner? Return of the Right in Argentina

Dave Lindorff
David Brooks' White Guy Nightmare

Lawrence R. Velvel
Madoff: What Should be Done Now?

Omar Barghouti /
Sid Shniad
United for Freedom and Universal Justice

James L. Secor
The Name of the Game is Wipe-Out

Belén Fernández
Zelaya in Nicaragua: Has Another Constitution Been Violated?

Jeffrey St. Clair
Frank Lloyd Wright in Hollywood: the Ennis House as Imperial Ruin

David Yearsley
Beauty in Dark Places: Berlin's Olympic Stadium

Brian J. Foley
Pre-Eating: a Threat to Restaurants Everywhere

Alan Cabal
Onward, Into the Fog: Thomas Pynchon's
"Inherent Vice"

Kim Nicolini
The Way War Feels

Lorenzo Wolff
The Way It Felt the First Time: the Jump Rope Magic of the Shangri-Las

Poets' Basement
Four Poems From the Chinese

Website of the Weekend
Obama's Ex-Doc Knocks ObamaCare

July 30, 2009

Patrick Cockburn
Victims of a Covert Tit-for-Tat War

Gareth Porter
Afghanistan's US-Backed Child-Raping Police

Saul Landau
Summer of Denial

Greg Grandin
Honduran Coup Over?

Diane Farsetta
Pentagon Pundits Get a Pass

Stephen Soldz
The King Case, the APA and the Missing Ethics Investigation

Alan Farago
Learning How to Survive in a Depression From "Weeds"

David Macaray
Cops and Labor Unions

Mike Howells /
Jay Arena
Volunteerism Will Not Rebuild the Gulf Coast

Christopher Brauchli
Oatmeal Envy

Website of the Day
Changing the SOFA

July 29, 2009

Carl Ginsburg
Our Crisis, Their Gain

Clifton Ross
From Tegucigalpa to El Paraiso: a Voyage From Curfew to State of Siege

Paul Craig Roberts
How Fake is the "Recovery"?

Franklin C. Spinney
Winning Hearts and Minds, Pentagon Style

James Bovard Lackawanna Six: Bogus Charges and Martial Law

Anthony DiMaggio
Health Care, the Media and Public Opinion

Bouthaina Shaaban
How Will Arabs Wake Up?

Greg Moses
A Catch and Trade Policy for Labor Costs

Wajahat Ali
No Racism in Obama's Post-Race America?

Gary Leupp
Beer Will Not Solve This

Ayesha Ijaz Khan
Musharraf, Imran Khan and Overseas Pakistanis

Website of the Day
Why Single-Payer Gets No Respect

July 28, 2009

Jean Bricmont
Bombing for a Juster World?

Uri Avnery
Obama, Netanyahu and the Settlements

Dean Baker
Right to Rent: a Remedy for the Foreclosure Crisis

Heather Gray
Stupid Cop Tricks: Driving Too Close to a White Female and Other Episodes in Racist Policing

Jonathan Cook
Can an "Arab Soul" Yearn for Israel's Anthem?

Winslow T. Wheeler
Beyond the F-22: the Future of Pentagon Reform

Belén Fernández
Thomas Friedman Does Afghanistan

Carl Finamore
The Hotel Workers' Kickass Local 2

Eli Jelly-Schapiro
Striking the World Cup

Harvey Wasserman
We All Stand Before Peltier's Parole Board

Website of the Day
Behind the Wheel

July 27, 2009

Ishmael Reed
Gates: Post-Race Scholar Yells Racism

Patrick Cockburn
Elections Shake Kurdistan

Roger Burbach
Hillary and Obama Nix Change in Honduras

Steve Breyman
Bomber Joe and Russia: Why is Biden Channeling Cheney?

Ramzy Kysia
Gaza: On the Right of Resistance

Stephen Soldz
Will the American Psychological Association Renounce the Nuremberg Defense?

Raymond J. Lawrence
Sexual Hocus Pocus in the Episcopal Church

Greg Moses
The Color Line is Black

Binoy Kampmark
Swine Flu Panic

Kim Ives
Lavalas and Haiti's Student Union Unite

Website of the Day
Meet the Paid Assassins of Health Care

July 24-26, 2009

Alexander Cockburn
"A Damned Murder, Inc."

Clifton Ross
Surreal Honduras

Patrick Cockburn
Party of "Change" Challenges Old Guard in Kurdistan

William Polk
Report Card on Obama From a New Frontiersman

David Sterritt
Screening the Politics Out of the Iraq War

Ray McGovern
Hooded in Bush's Hood

David Lindorff
Cops Gone Wild

Hannah Mermelstein
"The War is With the Arabs"

Carl Ginsburg
The Actually Existing Health Care System

Helen Redmond
The Selling of Single-Payer Features

John Ross
The Song of the Guerrilla

Bill Simpich
Fair Play for Cuba and the Cuban Revolution

Mark Weisbrot
Learning From China on How to Beat the Recession

Lee Sustar
U.S. Labor in Crisis

David Macaray
Union Workers Forced to Accept Massive Cuts

Felipe Matsunaga
Obama's Slow (and Familiar) Dance With Cuba

Sara Mann
Why Health Care Will Kill My TV

Martha Rosenberg
Which is Worse? Germs in Our Food or the Antibiotics That Kill Them?

Missy Beattie
Cha-ching Culture

David Ker Thomson
Empty Nest: a Natural History of Now

Ron Jacobs
United4Iran, a Footnote

Stephen Martin
The Crying of Lots 1 Thru 50

David Yearsley
Psst, I Show You a Feelthy Gluck

Gilad Atzmon
Bruno: a Glimpse Into Zionism?

Kim Nicolini
Guilty Laughter in the Dark: Seeing Brüno Twice

Poets' Basement
Kakak and McLellan

Website of the Weekend
Dead Prez: Summertime

July 23, 2009

Jeffrey St. Clair
The Masters of Perfidy: AIG and the System

Saul Landau /
Nelson Valdés
Hypocrisy and the Honduran Coup: Term Limits Only Apply When Governments Help People

Jonathan Cook
The Reality of Israel's "Open" Jerusalem

Nadia Hijab
Israeli Warships in the Red Sea

Dave Lindorff
Living in a Police State: the Gates Incident

Laura Carlsen
21st Century Coups d'Etat

Steve Breyman
Bankers Beware?

Ellen Brown
How California Could Turn Its IOUs Into Dollars

Norman Solomon
Spinning Health Care

Jorge Mariscal
Youth Activists Demand Military-Free Schools

Website of the Day
Copy-Editing Sarah Palin

July 22, 2009

Bernard Chazelle
How to Argue Against Torture

Nikolas Kozloff
The Coup and the U.S. Airbase in Honduras

Carl Ginsburg
The Recovery, Phase Two

Clifton Ross
Back to the Future? Return to El Salvador

Anthony DiMaggio
Health Care, Media and the Case for Socialized Medicine

Michael Donnelly
The Whoppers Behind WOPR

Nadia Hijab
Memoirs of a Lost Arab World

Dedrick Muhammad
Structural Inequality: News Not Fit to Print?

Charles Thomson
Cronyism at the Tate

Alan Farago
Ted Williams and the Florida Keys

Website of the Day
Himmelstein: Howard Dean is a Liar

July 21, 2009

Sasan Fayazmanesh
The Iranian Election and Its Aftermath

Uri Avnery
Breaking the Silence on Israeli War Crimes

Dean Baker
Séance on Wall Street

Jonathan Cook
Team Twitter: Israel's Internet War

Dave Lindorff
Saving Private Bergdahl

Andy Worthington
Interrogating the Uighurs

David Macaray
Heat, Dust and OSHA

Carl Finamore
The Deferential Party

Harvey Wasserman
Cronkite and Three Mile Island

Walter Brasch
The Marie Antoinettes of Health Care

Website of the Day
Linebaugh: Magna Carta and the Commons

July 20, 2009

Pam Martens
Judicial Apartheid

Nikolas Kozloff
Honduras and the Big Stick: Obama's Bullish Behavoir in Latin America

Paul Craig Roberts
Threatening Iran

Deepak Tripathi
Obama's Policy on China and Iran

Ira Glunts
Netanyahu's Time Bomb: Building in the Vineyard of the Mufti

P. Sainath
Put Your Money Down, Boys

Binoy Kampmark
The Moon Landing and the Cold War

Stephen Fleischman
The First Anchorman

Norman Solomon
Cronkite and Vietnam: Beyond the Hype

Andy Worthington
Predictable Chaos as Gitmo Trials Resume

Ron Jacobs
Out of the Haze, Into the Darkness: Recalling 1979

Website of the Day
Why Publishing Can't be Saved (as it is)

July 17-19, 2009

Alexander Cockburn
"Watch What We Do, Not What We Say"

Nikolas Kozloff
Chiquita in Latin America: From Arbenz to Zelaya

Joanne Mariner
CIA Apples: Bad at the Top of the Tree

Joe Bageant
America's White Underclass

Jonathan Cook
Israeli Road Signs: Wiping Arabic Names Off the Map

Saul Landau
Why So Much Sympathy for Madoff's Dupes and So Little for the Poor?

John Ross
Jurassic Fallout in Mexico

Sue Sturgis
Senator Sessions, Race and Impartiality

Anita Sinha /
Daniel Farbman
The Ricci Case and the Myth of Special Treatment

Peter Morici
Obama's Donut Economics

Pervez Hoodbhoy
Whither Pakistan? A Five-Year Forecast

Ramzy Baroud
Gaza and the Language of Power

Greg Moses
The Real Demand Crisis

Kia Mistilis
The Niger Delta Crisis

Missy Beattie
The Placebo President

David Ker Thomson
How Not to See: Things to Tell Your Eyeballs

James G. Abourezk
Evil Spirits: the Booze Strip in Indian Country

Paul Richards
Why Does Jon Tester Want to Log Wild Montana?

Dave Lindorff
Dark Days for Working People (With Three Small Rays of Light)

Marc Levy
Just Like Hanoi Jane

Matt Siegfried
The Good War Goes Hot

Stephen Martin
Panopticon Blues

Ben Sonnenberg
Sembène's Faat Kiné

David Macaray
Casablanca: When Melodrama Trumped History

Charles R. Larson
A Pakistani, Victorian Novel Celebrating Women

David Yearsley
That's Women for You: Abbas Kiarostami's Così

Lorenzo Wolff
Death Rattle and Roll: the Sound From England's Gutters

Poets' Basement
Payne, Anderson and Williams

Website of the Weekend
Hitler Learns of Sarah Palin's Resignation

July 16, 2009

Paul Craig Roberts
What Economy?

Afshin Rattansi Iranian Planes and the Hidden Toll of Economic Sanctions

Gregory V. Button
The Search for Environmental Justice in Perry County, Alabama

Evan Knappenberger
Profile of a Deserter

Michelle Bollinger
Why is Leonard Peltier Still in Prison?

Russell Mokhiber
White House to ABC News: No Obama Single-Payer Doc

Belén Fernández
Iranian Penetration, Oh My!

Alice Walker
What is Torture Like? A Letter to Obama

Nicholas Dearden
Paying the Climate Debt: the G-8's Troubling Model

Albert Osueke
Sotomayor and the Identity Mountain

Website of the Day
Sotomayor for the Prosecution

July 15, 2009

Manuel Garcia, Jr.
The Assassination Bureau

Vijay Prashad
A Political Recession

Dean Baker
Stimulus Arithmetic

Ray McGovern
Cheney Sweating Bullets

Jonathan Cook
Jenin's Model of "Economic Peace"

David Rosen
Shouts From the Gallery: the Sotomayor Hearings and the Culture Wars

Eric Walberg
Uighurs vs. Afghans: a Study in Contrast

Greg Moses
Three Dimensions of a Complete Stimulus Plan

Sousan Hammad
Decolonizing Israel

Binoy Kampmark
The Trial of Charles Taylor

Tracy McLellan
The Story of My Arrest

Website of the Day
11 Days in Saudi Gitmo

July 14, 2009

Eamonn McCann
The Emperors of Bombast: Bono, U2 and the Crisis of World Capitalism

Joanne Mariner
Obama's New Euphemism

Franklin Spinney
The Taliban Rope-a-Dope

Steve Heilig
Walking Mount Tam: an Interview with Gary Snyder

Ali Abunimah
Hamas' Choice

Dave Lindorff
The End of "Nice" Health Care Reform

Nikolas Kozloff
The Politics of Destabilization: McCain and Honduras

Ellen Brown
From Golden State to Subprime State

Alice Slater
How US Missile Defense Plans Sabotaged Nuclear Disarmament Talks With Russia

Ron Jacobs
Protest U.S. Aggression

Joe Allen
The Fight to Save James Hickman in Jim Crow-Style Chicago

Website of the Day
Mel Brooks Does the French Revolution

July 13, 2009

Uri Avnery
The Essence of the Regime

Mike Whitney
The Deflating Economy

P. Sainath
How the World Depression Hits Orissa

Gareth Porter
A US / Iraq Conflict on Iran

Paul Moore
Rap in the Streets, Rap in the Suites

Tim Wise
Off the Deep End: Private Clubs, Public Prejudice

Andy Worthington Former Insider Shatters Credibility of Military Commissions

David Macaray
Cartoon Voices: Serf's Up in Hollywood

Cal Winslow
The Healthcare Worker War

Niranjan Ramakrishnan
Spring in the Time of Obama

Website of the Day
Washington's Deep Game with China

July 10-12, 2009

Alexander Cockburn
Obama's Biden Problem

José Pertierra
The Cuban Five: a Cold War Case in a Post-Cold War World

John Ross
After the Honduran Coup

Conn Hallinan
The Settlements and the Quartet

Nikolas Kozloff
C Street Band: Sex Scandals, Moral Hypocrisy and the Far Right Agenda in Latin America

Clifton Ross /
Marcy Rein
U.S. and Honduras: Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Good Neighbor

Carl Ginsburg
Summers' Clouded Crystal Ball

Michael Neumann
Say It Loud, Say It Proud: There is No God!

Gilad Atzmon
The Left and Islam: Thinking Outside of the Secular Box

Jeffrey St. Clair
The Parable of the Golden Parachute

Ellen Hodgson Brown
California Dreamin': How the State Can Beat Its Budget Woes

Jim Goodman
Rural America Needs More Than Listening Sessions

Christopher Bickerton
Europe's New Politics of Hard Times

Wendell Potter
Health Care Industry Adopts Tobacco Lobby's Tactics

Dave Lindorff
CIA Lies: Why Isn't Congress in Open Revolt?

David Ker Thomson
Switchbacking Toward Bastille Day

Anthony DiMaggio
The Michael Jackson Feeding Frenzy

Raymond Lawrence
Michael Jackson as Sexual Pervert: the Calumnies of Peter King

Walid El Houri
Neda and Marwa: a Tale of Two Murdered Women

Stephanie Westbrook
Yes, We Camp

Roger Gaess
The Shades of Highgate Cemetery

David Yearsley
Tara, America's Dream House

Kim Nicolini
Caution: Men at Work, Robbing Banks

Poets' Basement
Five Poems From the Japanese

Website of the Weekend
Free Tiga and Hugh!

Weekend Edition
August 7 - 9, 2009

Elections and Dissonance in the Middle East

Obama's Israel Albatross

By ELAINE C. HAGOPIAN

Obama came into office vowing to resolve the Palestine question. He also vowed to approach the ME with civility and diplomacy, especially Iran, to iron out issues of mutual concern.  The two-pronged plan was aimed at removing the Palestine question from the regional agenda, clearing the deck for improved relations with area states and resolution of existing US/ME issues. The February Israeli election yielded Netanyahu as Prime Minister presiding over an ultra right wing government.  Netanyahu rejected Obama’s call for establishing a Palestinian state.  He argued that Iran’s nuclear program with its assumed threat to Israel and to US interests was the primary issue to address, not Palestine.  With the June election of anti-imperialist, anti-Zionist, Holocaust denier Ahmedinejad, Netanyahu claimed that the danger Iran represents increased precipitously, and aggressive action was required. Therefore, Palestine should be put on the back burner. Public dissonance between the U.S. and Israel over Obama’s Palestine and Iran agenda amplified after Iran’s presidential election.  The dissonance threatens Obama’s efforts to defuse ME volatility. 

President Obama entered office with a promise of business not as usual.  Although American foreign policy objectives were not changed, Obama insisted on the priority of dialogue and diplomacy to realize them, Afghanistan (and Pakistan) notwithstanding. Obama articulated two immediate goals he sought in the Middle East:  1) to resolve the Palestinian/Israeli conflict in accordance with the international consensus for a two-state solution without significantly alienating Israel.  Israel is still considered important – wrongly as Mearsheimer and Walt  (“The Israel Lobby,” LRB, 23 March 2006) would have it – to securing American economic interests and political hegemony in that region.  As such, the US must guarantee key Israeli ME interests including area dominance.  And 2) to dissolve, or at least checkmate the only regional alliance challenging US/Israeli designs in the ME,  i.e., the alliance of Iran, Syria, Hezbollah, Hamas and political elements in Iraq.  Moving to resolve the Palestine question is seen by Obama as contributing to deflating the Iranian-led anti-US/Israel alliance by removing it as its cause célèbre, and thus making key alliance members amenable to American outreach. The thinking is that achieving these two interdependent goals would allow less hindered US maneuverability in taming Islamist movements in the region and prevailing in the energy grand game there.

To address the first goal, former Senator George Mitchell was appointed as special envoy to bring the sides together to resolve the conflict.  Mitchell was also charged with facilitating a comprehensive peace in the area that includes Lebanon and Syria’s issues with Israel. The second goal required other related and simultaneous initiatives: a) ensuring the parliamentary election of the pro-American March 14 coalition in Lebanon over the pro-Iranian/Syrian Hezbollah allied with General Aoun’s Free Patriotic Movement party; b) re-engaging Syria by announcing the return of a US Ambassador to Damascus, opening up the possibility of serious negotiations regarding the Israeli-occupied Syrian Golan, and removing piecemeal some of the US sanctions imposed by the Bush Administration; c) encouraging through media coverage the election of presumed reformist Mir Hossein Mousavi as President of Iran; and d) drawing on “experts” in unofficial organizations such as the Beirut Forum co-directed by former M 16 operative, Alastair Crooke, (Claude Kandiyoti, “The Boomerang Effect, Haaretz, July 17, 2009) who dialogue with national Islamist movements, i.e., Hezbollah and Hamas, with hopes of guiding them to “positive” relations with the West.  If all these initiatives were to succeed, the expected result would be weakened and less hostile regional actors intent on obstructing American interests and the “normalization” of a dominant Israel into the Middle East.  What is the record to date?

Resolving the Palestine Question

Immediately after Obama’s inauguration Senator Mitchell went to the Middle East for his first round assessment of the Palestine and area issues. In spite of Netanyahu’s return as Prime Minister after the February 2009 Knesset elections Mitchell continues his relatively unpublicized efforts to negotiate a two-state solution and open preliminary discussions with Lebanon and Syria.  While Netanyahu is bluntly uncooperative, his Palestine policy is not basically different from that of other Israeli party leaders.  His rhetoric however is far right conservative.  In any case, considering the fragmentation and diminution of Palestinian land through Israeli confiscation, the probability of achieving a Palestinian state seems to be nil.

Obama’s ability and willingness to employ substantial pressure on Israel to comply with the international consensus could possibly change the outcome.  However, Israel’s counter-pressure leverage through its American Lobby and perceived role in the Middle East is significant (Alexander Cockburn, “The Biden and Clinton Mutinies,” Counterpunch, July 31-August 2).  To date, Obama has not openly challenged that leverage.  Although Netanyahu did order a “freeze” in the construction of some 900 units in the East Jerusalem settlement of Pisgat Zeev, it was more symbolic than a gauge of cooperation to come (Toufic Haddad, “Sticks and Carrots: Israel’s ‘Settlement Freeze’”, Faster Times, August 2, 2009). It is not at all clear that Obama could in fact garner the needed Congressional support to challenge Israel’s seeming armlock on US ME policy.

Checkmating the Iranian-led Alliance: Hezbollah and Lebanon 

In Lebanon, Secretary of State Clinton, Vice President Biden and Assistant Secretary of State for the Near East, Jeffrey Feltman as well as the President’s Cairo speech made it abundantly clear the US wanted the pro-American March 14 coalition to win the June parliamentary election, and it did.  Nonetheless, the Hezbollah/FPM made a strong showing. And recently, Druze leader, Walid Jumblatt, dropped out of the March 14 coalition.  He has again warmed to Hizbollah and Syria.  As a result, the three Druze ministers in the upcoming Hariri cabinet and some nine parliamentarians from his bloc may join the opposition. In that case, the opposing March 8 alliance would be the majority in Parliament. (Sami Moubayed, “U-turn puts Hezbollah in the driving [sic] seat,” Asia Times, August 5, 2009).   Therefore, Hezbollah remains strong in the Lebanese equation and in the Iranian-led alliance. It also has official Lebanese backing regarding the remaining Israeli-occupied area of Shebaa Farms. 

Syria, Hezbollah and Hamas

After visits by US officials to Damascus, the Obama Administration announced it was reassigning an Ambassador to Syria.  More recently, the Obama Administration began lifting specific sanctions.  Syria has made it clear that it is interested in warmer relations with the US and hopes for help in regaining the Golan from Israel.  While it understands there is a US/Israeli quid-pro-quo involved, i.e., breaking off all ties with Iran, Hezbollah and Hamas, it does not appear likely that Syria would go that far (Marwan Al Kabalan, “Syria’s cautious approach,” Gulf News, July 30, 2009).  How far Syria would go to be in US favor and to see the Golan restored to Syria is not known, but it is not inclined to emulate Egypt.  Syria has made it clear on a number of occasions that it will not give up its insurance/leverage alliances simply for a slot in the American/Israeli orbit.  And Israeli officials have made it clear in any case that they will not give up the Golan.  To date, Syria has not conceded anything to the US that would weaken the alliance.

Iran and Western Media. 

Officially, the publicly anti-US, anti-Zionist, Holocaust denier Ahmedinejad, endorsed by the Supreme Leader Ayatollah Khamenei, was re-elected President of Iran over the alleged reformer, Mir Hossein Mousavi, favored by the U.S., and Iranian exiles.  He was also presumed to be the candidate of Iran’s privileged middle class although several scholars have challenged this.  Mousavi supporters cried fraudulent elections and took to the streets to demonstrate for a vote recount.  Khamenei and Ahmedinejad supporters cried foreign meddling in the instigation of public demonstrations. Media coverage was conducted primarily through twitter, facebook and cell phone cameras favoring the anti-Ahmedinejad demonstrators. Dept of State Senior Retired Foreign Officer, Terry Arnold, notes how difficult it is to evaluate the extent, source and impact of cyber interference in Iran that could “… incite a Chinese scale of Net paranoia in Iran.” He further notes that “[Scott] Ritter refers to such cyber activity as Obama’s ‘digital democracy gambit” (Terry Arnold, “The Modern Tools of Meddling,” online at Rense.com, July 22, 2009).

It was clear from media coverage that the US wanted Mousavi to win, believing without real foundation he would be more amenable to discussions on all regional issues including Iran’s nuclear program.  Israel, on the other hand wanted the hated Ahmedinejad to win so as to deflect attention away from Obama’s attempt to resolve the Palestinian question, and to fortify Israel’s claim that Iran is the greatest threat to US/Israel objectives in the region.  Israel prefers to reduce Iran by military means and to destroy any nuclear/military capability it could develop.  The Israeli end goals are to eliminate Iran as a competitive power player in the ME and to thereby isolate and defang Syria, Hezbollah, Hamas, and pro-Iranian Shi’a elements in Iraq.  The US shares the same goals, but the tone, style and means for achieving them differ greatly at present.  The US wants to separate countries in the Iran-led alliance via the Palestinian door using dialogue and diplomacy.  Israel wants to shatter that alliance through military might without going through the Palestinian door.   This is why it was essential for Israel that the demonized Ahmedinejad win the presidential election.  The win would make Israel’s case for military action against Iran and pressure the US to support that action.  In Israeli thinking, it would also put Palestine on the back-burner - forever if possible.

Although the question of who actually won the Iranian election is unresolved, it remains problematic for progressives and has split their ranks.  On the one hand, you have the internationally respected Arab public intellectual, Azmi Bishara who, while criticizing Ahmedinejad on his holocaust denial, tends to support Ahmedinejad’s claim of re-election and expresses admiration for his critique of Western colonialism and racism (Azmi Bishara, “An Alternative Reading,” Al Ahram, 25 June-1 July 2009, and Scott Ritter, “Learning to Live With the Devil We Know,” Truthdig, June 16, 2009).  On the other hand, Juan Cole believes that Mousavi most likely won, noting that the issue was culture wars not class (Juan Cole, “Class vs. Culture Wars in Iran Election,” Informed Comment, Sunday, June 14, 2009).  Hamid Dabashi has a different take.  He does not address the issue of who won the election but simply states that it has now become a perceived “social fact” that the election was rigged.  He believes that what is going on in Iran is an authentic civil rights movement by a broad class spectrum and women’s groups, not simply the so-called middle class, some of whom are considered monarchy admirers (Hamid Dabishi, “Left is Wrong on Iran,” Al Ahram, 15-22 July 2009).  He further believes that President Obama has been “pitch perfect”, i.e., discreet, in responding to the Iranian elections and subsequent demonstrations (in an Al-Jazeera panel program, Empire, July 2009).  Obama did not weigh in on who won the election.  He kept the door open to dialogue with Ahmedinejad or Mousavi, should he prevail, while expressing disconcertion about the way demonstrators were/are treated.  Nonetheless, Khamenei and Ahmadinejad insist that there was Western meddling, especially cyber interference, in Iran stimulating public protest.  American and various international progressive intellectuals insisted Ahmedinejad was elected and that the US was indeed meddling in Iran on behalf of Mousavi. They based their accusation on a long history of U.S. interference in Iran.

The 1953 American-engineered overthrow of Mossadegh in 1953 and return of the Shah to the throne are well known.  However, since the 1979 Khomeini revolution, there have been many attempts to undermine Iran’s Shia Theocracy.  What evolved over these years was an Israeli/Zionist factor added to the equation.  From its outset, Israel had identified three Arab nationalist countries which it saw as potential threats to Israeli colonization of Palestine and its ascent to regional political and economic hegemony.  These were Egypt, Iraq and Syria.  After the overthrow of the Shah’s regime, Israel added non-Arab Iran to its list of hostile challengers to its legitimacy and dominance in the area.  Egypt was smashed in the 1967 war and ultimately signed a peace agreement with Israel more than a decade later.  In March 2003 the US, with cheerleader prompting from Israel and its US supporters, invaded and subsequently destroyed Iraq physically.  Today Iraq is politically unstable and vulnerable to Iranian influence and regional interests. Iraqi Prime Minister Maliki has developed important relations with Iran.  Syria does not carry the political and military weight that Egypt and Iraq once did.  However, it still plays a pivotal role in the ME deriving its leverage from its alliance with Iran and the associated non-state Islamist movements of Hezbollah and Hamas.  Syria replaced its defunct (1991) USSR patron with Iran as the only regional anti-US/Israeli force in the region – the October 1980 surprise notwithstanding (Don Hopkins, “The October Surprise:  The Iranian Hostage Rescue Mission and the 1980 Presidential Election,” www.donhopkins.com, December 1998).  The rise of Iran was seen by Israel as a major threat, not to its existence though it claims that, but to its dominance in the region and its claims of legitimacy.  Hence, although Israel saw Egypt and Iraq ostensibly removed from the “battlefield”, the rise of Iran allied to Syria, Hezbollah, Hamas, and pro-Iranian elements in Iraq replaced the earlier Arab Nationalist challenge.

Consequently, AIPAC, American Enterprise Institute, Hudson Institute, Jewish Institute for National Security Affairs, Americans for Victory over Terrorism, Washington Institute for Near East Policy, Foundation for the Defense of Democracy and other pro-Israel institutes and organizations went into action.  They rallied behind Reza Pahlavi, the Shah’s son living in Virginia, and worked with members of Congress to initiate anti-Iran legislation.  Two of the most prominent Senators in the forefront of this effort were/are Sam Brownback (Kansas) and Joe Lieberman (Connecticut).  They supported congressional funding for the Voice of America and Radio Farda which beamed programs in Farsi from Iranian exiles in California to Iran.  Their goal was/is regime change in Iran.  The Bush Administration put in play a number of programs to destabilize Iran and hence undermine the Iranian Regime in hopes of regime change (Seymour M. Hersh, “Preparing the Battlefield: The Bush Administration steps up its secret moves against Iran,” The New Yorker, July 7, 2008). 

Israel and its American lobbyists insisted that Iran was a threat not only to Israel and the ME, but to the world because of its alleged nuclear program aimed a developing an arsenal of nuclear bombs.  Clearly Iran has a nuclear energy program, and it may seek to have bomb-making capacity as deterrence to a possible attack from Israel and the US.  All reports seem to indicate that it does not now have nor will it have in the near future a nuclear bomb arsenal.  Israel is the only state in the region with nuclear warheads.  However, with the election of Ahmedinejad in 2005 and his reckless rhetoric feeding into Israeli portrayals of an “Islamofascist” Iran bent on destroying Israel, Israel gained in the public relations war for world opinion, especially American opinion.  Bush elaborated the demonization of Iran and its President, Ahmedinejad, by including the country in his “Axis of Evil” grouping along with North Korea and Iraq.  The announced re-election of Ahmedinejad added fodder to Israel’s argument.

Aside from possible cyber-interference, did the US meddle there as a number of Western and other progressives would have it?  Did the Obama Administration authorize those American agents already in Iran from the Bush era to encourage dissent? The following excerpt from Jeremy Hammond’s June 23 article implies that the Obama Administration did and is still meddling (Jeremy Hammond, “Has the U.S. Played a Role in Fomenting Unrest During Iran’s Election?, Foreign Policy Journal, June 23, 2009, www.foreignpolicyjournal.com):

One might be tempted to argue that the strategy for regime change implemented under the Bush administration that including funding for propaganda, support for Iranian dissident groups, and backing for anti-regime militants and terrorists has changed under the new administration of President Barack Obama. There is no evidence, many have pointed out, of U.S. meddling in the Iranian election.

But then, neither is there any clear indication that Obama ever revoked the policy strategy implemented under Bush. The most likely scenario is that Obama has put the military option favored by some in the Bush administration on the back burner in favor of other means to carry out a change of regime in Iran.

Whatever the case may be, given the record of U.S. interference in the state affairs of Iran and clear policy of regime change, it certainly seems possible, even likely, that the U.S. had a significant role to play in helping to bring about the recent turmoil in an effort to undermine the government of the Islamic Republic.

Considering the direct and open American intrusion in the Lebanese elections aimed at blocking the pro-Iranian/Syrian Hezbollah and Free Patriotic Movement coalition electoral success, is it plausible to accept Obama’s assertion of non – US interference in Iran?   Considering further the US concern about Ahmedinejad and Venezuela President Chavez’s friendship and influence in their respective regions especially regarding oil policy and possible conversion from petro-Dollars to Euros, is it conceivable that an American President would remain relatively inert regarding events in Iran?  Most Western progressives say no.  Others, like Dabishi insist that something new is happening in Iran.  Whatever interferences may or may not have occurred and whatever those Iranians clinging to the days of the Shah want, for Dabashi there is a deep-seated anger and frustration with Ahmedinejad and the authoritarian Theocracy among a broad spectrum of Iranian society.  Dabashi does not seem to enthusiastically endorse Mousavi as the answer, but Mousavi is seen as the symbol of opposition and reform.  In a post-election panel discussion at Columbia University, Dabashi wore a green neck scarf, the symbolic color of the pro-Mousavi demonstrators.

Dabashi’s analysis, given his roots and experience, makes sense. He has challenged the politically correct leftist paradigm of favoring the most overtly and vocal anti-imperialist party as the victim of the West.  Clearly, he dislikes Ahmedinejad’s chicanery intensely. This is not to say that there was no outside meddling beyond cyber-interference in what happened and is happening in Iran, nor is it to say that Ahmedinejad was or was not elected.  We may not know definitively for years to come.  And there is no reason to believe that a majority of the demonstrators are not equally anti-US/Israeli objectives in the area. Their difference may be that they also insist on personal freedoms in whatever system they accept for Iran including a reformed Theocracy.   In that particular sense, it really doesn’t matter who was elected.  The election became a trigger for Iranians to once again express their discontent and seek something better.   However, what is important about the election is its ultimate consequence domestically, regionally and internationally.  None of the critics on either side attempts to draw out what some of those consequences might be.

It is important to remember that reformer President Khatami sent a proposal of peace and compromise on ME issues to the Bush Administration in May 2003 that was simply ignored by Bush.  President Ahmedinejad sent a letter to Bush in May 2006 in which he pointed out American moral hypocrisy related to criticizing other countries about democracy while practicing unwarranted war and illegal treatment of detainees in the war on terror.  But while critical, his letter could be read as an opening for contact and discussion with the US.  In both cases, Iranian approaches to the US were rejected.  If Ahmedinejad remains President of Iran, Obama would have to seek talks with him and expect some convoluted interactions.  If at some point a reformer becomes President, It does not mean that he/she would be less harsh on the US and its Israeli ally.  The worse outcome of the present turmoil in Iran would be competition among its many ethnic groups and a struggle for power.  Constant turmoil in Iran would please Israel and threaten Iran’s domestic stability and regional outreach.  Obama has his work cut out for him to work respectfully with whoever emerges as leader and to contain potential chaos and violence.  The timeline of September to agree to talks and December to show progress which Obama has set for Iran almost as a concession to Israel, may not be sufficiently flexible given the present circumstances in Iran.

What is clear is that the 2009 elections brought a different approach to US foreign policy, a verbally fanatic right-winger to head Israel, and political turbulence to Iran, resulting in an atypical public dissonance between Israel and the US, Eisenhower, Carter, Bush Senior notwithstanding.  The Obama approach has not had a chance to play out, but the Israeli militaristic approach has put it on a short leash.  To date, the Palestine door through which Obama sought light has not opened. The Iranian-led alliance is still intact and has made no real concessions.

Although Israel has an “unshakeable” alliance with the US, a strong alliance with Turkey, peace treaties with Egypt and Jordan, and the fourth strongest and technologically advanced military in the world, it still feels insecure.  Its insecurity stems from two factors: 1) as a colonial settler state founded on ethnic cleansing, its leaders know its legitimacy is questioned; and 2) in order to maintain its statehood in the face of challenges to its legitimacy, Israeli leaders have striven to make Israel exclusively indispensible (one way or another) to the US, its major guarantor.  Hence Israeli leaders fear Obama may try to return to some semblance of the Eisenhower period of alliances with a variety of Arab states to which the non-Arab state of Iran could be added.  In such a scenario, Israel’s place and importance in the American strategic orbit would be lessened as would be its influence as well.  Obama’s openness to regional states considered by Israel as hostile intensifies their efforts to prevent his success.  The dissonance in US/Israeli relations will test Obama’s mettle as he seeks to effect American interests in a less militaristic fashion.  Will Israel be his Albatross, or will he be able to aggregate sufficient support to achieve his goals?

Elaine C. Hagopian is Professor Emerita of Sociology, Simmons College, Boston

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