Legislative Elections in Algeria: No Algerian Spring but a Women’s Spring Instead

In this post, Latefa Guemar  argues that, following the Arab spring the Algerian regime fell back onto “populism” by once again using women to negotiate and maintain power, and as was believed at the time, stability.  In fact, no-one, except for the women, has engaged with serious measures of social transformation that might reshape both the “democratic” and the “popular” which mark the Algerian Republic. 

American Decline in Perspective, by Noam Chomsky

By Noam Chomsky

Part 1- "Losing" the World

Significant anniversaries are solemnly commemorated -- Japan's attack on the U.S. naval base at Pearl Harbor, for example. Others are ignored, and we can often learn valuable lessons from them about what is likely to lie ahead. Right now, in fact.

At the moment, we are failing to commemorate the 50th anniversary of President John F. Kennedy's decision to launch the most destructive and murderous act of aggression of the post-World War II period: the invasion of South Vietnam, later all of Indochina, leaving millions dead and four countries devastated, with casualties still mounting from the long-term effects of drenching South Vietnam with some of the most lethal carcinogens known, undertaken to destroy ground cover and food crops.

Impossible Histories: Why the Many Islams Cannot be Simplified

By Edward Said

Harper's, July 2002

The history of trying to come to terms with this somewhat fictionalized (or at least constructed) Islam in Europe and later in the United States has always been marked by crisis and conflict, rather than by calm, mutual exchange. There is the added factor now of commercial publishing, ever on the lookout for a quick bestseller by some adept expert that will tell us all we need to know about Islam, its problems, dangers, and prospects. In my book Orientalism, I argued that the original reason for European attempts to deal with Islam as if it were one giant entity was polemical—that is, Islam was considered a threat to Christian Europe and had to be fixed ideologically, the way Dante fixes Muhammad in one of the lower circles of hell. Later, as the European empires developed over time, knowledge of Islam was associated with control, with power, with the need to understand the "mind" and ultimate nature of a rebellious and somehow resistant culture as a way of dealing administratively with an alien being at the heart of the expanding empires, especially those of Britain and France.

The Middle Powers Amid the Arab Revolts

By Imad Mansour

The UN Security Council has been a key arbiter of international action regarding the upheavals in the Arab world in 2011. In late February, the Council issued Resolution 1970 calling for an “immediate end to the violence” in Libya, imposing sanctions and an arms embargo, and asking the International Criminal Court to investigate the regime of Col. Muammar al-Qaddafi. Less than a month later, on March 17, the Council passed Resolution 1973 authorizing NATO “to take all necessary measures” to protect Libyan civilians, leading to Qaddafi’s eventual fall from power. In late September, the Security Council will also take up the request of Palestinian leader Mahmoud ‘Abbas for full UN membership for a state of Palestine.

Noam Chomsky: Was There an Alternative? Looking Back on 9/11 a Decade Later

By Noam Chomsky 

We are approaching the 10th anniversary of the horrendous atrocities of September 11, 2001, which, it is commonly held, changed the world. On May 1st, the presumed mastermind of the crime, Osama bin Laden, was assassinated in Pakistan by a team of elite US commandos, Navy SEALs, after he was captured, unarmed and undefended, in Operation Geronimo. A number of analysts have observed that although bin Laden was finally killed, he won some major successes in his war against the U.S. "He repeatedly asserted that the only way to drive the U.S. from the Muslim world and defeat its satraps was by drawing Americans into a series of small but expensive wars that would ultimately bankrupt them," Eric Margolis writes.

American Decline: Causes and Consequences

By Noam Chomsky

In the 2011 summer issue of the journal of the American Academy of Political Science, we read that it is "a common theme" that the United States, which "only a few years ago was hailed to stride the world as a colossus with unparalleled power and unmatched appeal -- is in decline, ominously facing the prospect of its final decay." It is indeed a common theme, widely believed, and with some reason. But an appraisal of US foreign policy and influence abroad and the strength of its domestic economy and political institutions at home suggests that a number of qualifications are in order. To begin with, the decline has in fact been proceeding since the high point of US power shortly after World War II, and the remarkable rhetoric of the several years of triumphalism in the 1990s was mostly self-delusion.

US: Ex-tech worker pleads guilty to attempting to spy for Israel

A former employee of a company that helps websites deliver content to users pleaded guilty Tuesday to a charge of foreign economic espionage for providing trade secrets to an FBI agent posing as an Israeli intelligence officer.

Elliot Doxer, 43, admitted at a plea hearing in federal court in Boston to providing trade secrets from Cambridge-based Akamai Technologies Inc. over an 18-month period to the agent, the US Attorney's Office for Massachusetts said in a statement.

Bahrain: Shouting in the dark

Quand l’arrogance israélienne rencontre l’honneur arabe

Lorsque les actions des voisins ont pour motif l’honneur, au lieu des intérêts, avec l’arrogance d’Israël, on appelle cela « l’honneur Arabe ».

Par Akiva Eldar

On ne peut qu’espérer que le premier ministre ne demandera pas à son adjoint Moshe Ya’alon, de régler la dispute avec l’Egypte dans le sillage de l’incident au sud. La doctrine des relations internationales selon Ya’alon, d’après la quelle « l’honneur est atout nationale », le Caire doit être envoyé en enfer. Tout comme dans la question du refus de présenter des excuses aux Turcs. De bout et en marche dans la direction du rabaissement des relations avec le plus grand pays arabe va sans doute accroitre le prestige d’Israël à Washington, Londres et Paris et va dissuader Damas et Téhéran. Quand les actions des voisins ont pour motif l’honneur, au lieu des intérêts, avec l’arrogance d’Israël, on appelle cela « l’honneur Arabe ».

Noam Chomsky - Prospects for Peace in the Middle East, April 20, 2011

Joel Beinin - Joint Palestinian-Israeli Popular Struggle, June 4, 2011.

Algeria Will Be Next to Fall

By Bruce Riedel

As the Libyan opposition closes in on Tripoli, the Algerian regime worries it could be next. The largest country in Africa with much more oil and gas than Libya, Algeria has all the same problems as the other Arabs. Will the wave of unrest now move further west across North Africa?

"The Mouse That Roared": How Disney Instills Greed and Consumerism - Starting at Three Months

By Martha Sorren, Truthout.

In American culture, Disney has become synonymous with childhood. Present-day grandparents grew up watching the animated films, wearing Mickey Mouse pajamas and begging to go to Disneyland. But while it all seems innocent, few people have considered the hold that the Disney Corporation has not only on their own lives, but on the world as a whole.

Henry Giroux and Grace Pollock explore this relationship between consumer and industry in their book "The Mouse that Roared: Disney and the End of Innocence."

Syria's Torment

There are two political-intellectual prisms through which the recurrent conflagrations of the modern Middle East are conventionally seen. One casts the region’s stubborn ills as internally caused -- by the outsize role of religion in public life, the persistence of primordial identities like sect and tribe, and the centuries-long accretion of patriarchal norms. The other espies the root of all evils in external interference, from European colonialism to the creation of Israel and assorted ventures of the imperial United States.

The Israeli-Palestinian Conflict and the Arab Awakening

By Joel Beinin

The March 15 Youth Movement, whose name comes from demonstrations held in the West Bank and Gaza Strip that day to demand unity between Fatah and Hamas, is the most direct Palestinian expression of the “Arab awakening” of 2010-2011. The next day, March 16, Fatah’s leader, Palestinian Authority (PA) President Mahmoud ‘Abbas, announced his willingness to travel to Gaza to conduct unity talks with Hamas. A reconciliation agreement was signed in Cairo on May 4.

General Toufik: 'God of Algeria'

By Jeremy Keenan

September 2010 is the 20th anniversary of the world's longest serving 'intelligence chief' taking office. The man in question is General Mohamed 'Toufik' Mediène, the director of Algeria's Département du Renseignement et de la Sécurité (DRS).

He was appointed head of the DRS in September 1990, 15 months before Algeria's 'Generals', or 'the group' as they were known at the time, which included Mediène (then a colonel), annulled the elections that would have brought to power the world's first ever democratically elected Islamic government.

Noam Chomsky : America in Decline

By Noam Chomsky

“It is a common theme” that the United States, which “only a few years ago was hailed to stride the world as a colossus with unparalleled power and unmatched appeal is in decline, ominously facing the prospect of its final decay,” Giacomo Chiozza writes in the current Political Science Quarterly.

The theme is indeed widely believed. And with some reason, though a number of qualifications are in order. To start with, the decline has proceeded since the high point of U.S. power after World War II, and the remarkable triumphalism of the post-Gulf War '90s was mostly self-delusion.

UK riots: The moral decay of our society is as bad at the top as the bottom

By Peter Oborne

David Cameron, Ed Miliband and the entire British political class came together yesterday to denounce the rioters. They were of course right to say that the actions of these looters, arsonists and muggers were abhorrent and criminal, and that the police should be given more support.

But there was also something very phony and hypocritical about all the shock and outrage expressed in parliament. MPs spoke about the week’s dreadful events as if they were nothing to do with them.

Israël utilisera la demande de reconnaissance d’un Etat Palestinien pour restaurer le statu quo

Honnêtement, quelle est la différence entre la potentielle déclaration onusienne en Septembre 2011 et la déclaration d’indépendance palestinienne faite à Tunis, il y a 22 ans ?

Par Akiva Eldar

Même le membre du Knesset (pour l’Union nationale), Aryeh Eldad, le professeur de l’extrême droite, n’est pas particulièrement bouleversé parce que l’ONU peut reconnaitre un Etat Palestinien. Il ne voit pas de différence entre la décision que l’on attend à l’ONU le mois prochain et celle prise là-bas – à une énorme majorité 102 contre 2 – suite à la déclaration d’indépendance palestinienne à Tunis, il y a 22 ans.

Et, pour être honnête, quelle est la différence ?

Cette fois aussi, Israël accusera les Arabes de prise de décisions unilatérales, boudera l’ONU, élargira les colonies de peuplement en Cisjordanie, et implantera plusieurs quartiers pour les Juifs à Jérusalem-Est.

Noam Chomsky : In Israel, A Tsunami Warning

By Noam Chomsky

In These Times, July 7, 2011

In May, in a closed meeting of many of Israel's business leaders, Idan Ofer, a holding-company magnate, warned, "We are quickly turning into South Africa. The economic blow of sanctions will be felt by every family in Israel."

The business leaders' particular concern was the U.N. General Assembly session this September, where the Palestinian Authority is planning to call for recognition of a Palestinian state.

Dan Gillerman, Israel's former ambassador to the United Nations, warned participants that "the morning after the anticipated announcement of recognition of a Palestinian state, a painful and dramatic process of Southafricanization will begin" -- meaning that Israel would become a pariah state, subject to international sanctions.