“One should never speak ill of the dead,” so the old cliché goes about the recently deceased. Those with less inclination toward sentimentality, however, hold that this rule applies only to those who have lived a life exclusively in private and whose actions have had an effect only among their close-knit circle of family, friends, coworkers and neighbors. For those who have lived a public life and who have wielded power over others in a political capacity, their decision to live such a life exempts them from this freedom-from-criticism even, or perhaps especially, in death. For it is in the aftermath of a public figure’s passing that they will receive the greatest adulation, and the temptation to minimize their misdeeds will be most pronounced.
Lincoln Diaz-Balart: Reflections on the Life of a Cuban-American Exile Hardliner
Filed under LA Progressive
Media Coverage of Venezuela’s Presidential Election Normalizes US Interference
My friend Roger Harris of the Task Force on the Americas and I have for the last few years had an editing “intercambio” in which we edit each other’s essays before sending them off to the various lefty websites we write for. Roger kindly offered me a byline on this last piece because he considered my contributions to be substantial enough to merit it. So far, the piece has been published at LA Progressive and INTERNATIONALIST 360°. It will appear at Orinoco Tribune and hopefully a few more publications throughout the coming week.
Thank you for your continued interest in my work.
Filed under LA Progressive
Trump’s Conviction Papers Over Much Bigger Crimes that He (and Every Other Recent US President) Has Committed in While Office
Focusing on whether Trump is guilty in this case or whether the trial was politically motivated misses a much bigger point. Either way, the crimes he has been convicted of are small fry compared to the crimes of state that he committed while in office.
Filed under Dissident Voice
New Report on Sexual Violence During October 7 Attack Raises Serious Questions About the UN’s Supposed Anti-Israel Bias
A United Nations (UN) report recently emerged making damning claims of sexual violence allegedly committed by Hamas. But not all is as it seems. The report has some glaring epistemological problems, all of which seem to serve the Israeli narrative that its genocide in Gaza is somehow justified. Moreover, the report fits within a wider modus operandi on the part of the world’s preeminent international institution. A more comprehensive examination of the history of the UN’s role in the conflict in Palestine reveals its supposed pro-Palestinian bias is not as clearcut as it’s commonly presented. Indeed, there is evidence that the UN has, if anything, been more a tool of Israel than the other way round.
Filed under Dissident Voice
Jeremy Corbyn Was Right to Refuse to Describe Hamas as a “Terrorist” Organisation
Former UK Labour Party leader Jeremy Corbyn is now embroiled in a fresh controversy for his views about the conflict in Palestine. The episode represents just the latest chapter in the long-standing smear campaign against him. Orchestrated by UK political elites and allies in the Israel lobby, the campaign continues even after they successfully derailed his chances of becoming prime minister. Again, it falls to independent media to counter this latest attempt to discredit him and indeed the Palestinian solidarity movement more broadly at this crucial time.
Filed under Dorset Eye
The Two-State Solution for Palestine Has Long Been a “Joke” Even in United Nations Circles
For decades, the most widely touted solution to the Israel-Palestine conflict has been based on the idea of two independent states — one Israeli and one Palestinian — encompassing separate parts of the historic land of Palestine. … Now, however, a high-ranking UN human rights official has issued a damning condemnation of both the viability and morality of the two-state solution.
Filed under Dissident Voice
Media Disinformation and Selective Outrage are Key Pillars of Israel’s War Propaganda Arsenal
In my latest for CounterPunch I examine the media disinformation campaign that is currently being waged by Israel as part of its war propaganda strategy.
Independent journalists and activists have begun investigating and fact-checking some of the claims that are being repeated in corporate-owned media. And it turns out that many of the claims made about Saturday’s surprise Hamas incursion are misleading or, in some cases, even outright false.
Filed under Counterpunch
It’s About Time Palestinians Started to Fight Back Again. But I Wish It Wasn’t Hamas That Was Doing It
My first for Dorset Eye provides nuance regarding the Palestine solidarity movement’s relationship with Hamas. Note: Though I support the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP) I do not speak for or on behalf of that organization.
Palestine appears to be on the precipice of a Third Intifada.
Filed under Dorset Eye
The Jerusalem Post Is Now Enlisting Washed-up ANC Apparatchiks to Whitewash Israel’s Practice of Ethnic Apartheid
My first ever piece in Dissident Voice!
On September 24, the Jerusalem Post published an article titled, “Israel is not an apartheid state, former South African defense minister says.”
Filed under Dissident Voice
Behind the Israeli Ambassador’s Walkout from Iranian President’s UN Speech Lies Deep Hypocrisy
By thrusting almost all of the world’s countries’ leaders together in the same place at the same time, it seems almost inevitable that the United Nations (UN) General Assembly meeting will produce its fair share of controversies.
Filed under Counterpunch
