It’s not just about the strong Israeli lobby or Christian Zionism, argues one scholar. Israel is doing to the Palestinians what many Western political elites want to do to Arabs and Muslims, but often cannot. Over the past few months, most Western political elites have given a blank check to Israel during its assault on Gaza that has killed more than 20,000 people. Many are asking, why have these leaders not condemned the undeniable war crimes and international law violations that Israel is committing against the Palestinians? There are several explanations for this phenomenon. The usual ones include the power…

Indiscriminate Bombing Investigations into Israel’s use of 2000-pound bombs in its Gaza campaign have determined that you have to go back to Vietnam to compare the brutality and mindlessness of what Israel is doing. These bombs, many supplied by the US, are being dropped in densely populated areas. Both the CNN have provided videos of the craters those bombs create on the ground. It is little wonder that the civilian death toll in Gaza is over 20,000 now. As CNN reports, the bombs being dropped by Israel “are four times heavier than the largest bombs the United States dropped on ISIS in…

I am on vacation this week but thought it would be useful to republish a painful story I did two decades ago for the New Yorker about a group of US army soldiers who went out of control amid a war in Iraq that, so they were told, was being waged against the terrorism that struck America on 9/11. What the GIs did then are what any army does in war when hating and fearing the enemy is encouraged and runs through the ranks, from the lowest level grunts to the senior generals. It takes a special leader, as you will read…

The problem isn’t ‘global inaction’ to prevent mass atrocities, as the Guardian claims. It’s intense US and UK support for atrocities so long as they bolster their global power How do politicians, diplomats, the media and even the human rights community keep us politically ignorant, docile and passive – a collective mindset that prevents us from challenging their power as well as the status quo they benefit from? The answer: By constantly misrepresenting reality to us and their own role in shaping it. And they do it so successfully because, at the same time, they gaslight us by flaunting the…

In response to the Oct. 7 attacks and subsequent bombing and invasion of the Gaza Strip, most media outlets and think tanks concluded that Hamas initiated the war to sever the path toward normalization between Saudi Arabia and Israel. Prior to the Hamas strike, Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman (MbS) said his country was moving steadily in the direction of normalizing relations with Israel. In turn, Israelis were eager to proceed as well; while Hamas’ leadership feared that Israeli normalization with the Saudis would further isolate Hamas from the Arab world. However, in light of the now-more-than-two-month-long deadly conflict in Gaza, with the…