Creating new perspectives since 2009
Items by Dr Ramzy Baroud
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Is Europe restraining Israel—or merely protecting the two-state illusion?
This time, Europe seems serious about holding Israel accountable – or at least that is what 11 European countries, together with Canada, want us to believe. On September 8, Canada, Denmark, Finland, France, Iceland, Ireland, Norway, Poland, Portugal, Spain, Sweden and the UK announced their intention to introduce national restrictions,…
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Beyond Iran: America’s long record of Middle East blunders
The US government continues to double down, even as its stubbornness costs it dearly—not only in material terms, but also in geopolitical influence. Washington is rapidly losing power and status in the Middle East, a decline that could produce a wider domino effect, reverberating around the world. The latest expression…
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A homeland on canvas: Sliman Mansour and the rise of revolutionary Palestinian art
The death of Palestinian artist Sliman Anis Mansour stirred powerful memories. He passed away at Al-Makassed Hospital in occupied East Jerusalem on August 24, at the age of 79, bringing to a close a legacy that cannot truly be described, but only experienced. His life almost exactly spanned the age…
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Qusra is just a warning: Israel’s blueprint for the West Bank
If you want to understand the bleak future awaiting the occupied West Bank, do not look away. Just pay attention to the events unfolding in the small Palestinian town of Qusra, south of Nablus. The story of the future of the West Bank begins here. While much of the media…
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No coming back from genocide: Israel’s global counter-offensive has begun
Colombia’s decision to recognize Israeli sovereignty over the occupied Syrian Golan Heights marks a dangerous turning point. By becoming only the second country in the world – after the United States – to endorse Israel’s illegal annexation of Syrian territory, Bogotá has signaled a complete reversal of Gustavo Petro’s foreign…
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Solidarity is not enough: Why the world must force accountability on Gaza now
It is now official: Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has flatly rejected the core conditions of the Board of Peace framework, explicitly stating that Israel will neither adhere to a ceasefire nor withdraw its forces from Gaza. During a cabinet meeting on Sunday, Netanyahu stated with unambiguous language: “Israel rejects…
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The meaning of Tell: Why the West Bank may be nearing a breaking point
The events in Tell, southwest of Nablus, were not an isolated act of violence. They were a warning. For years, Israel has treated Palestinian villages in the occupied West Bank as open spaces for military raids, settler invasions, land theft and collective punishment. The expectation was that Palestinians would endure…
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The death count trap: Why tallying victims won’t stop Israel’s genocide
The words ‘killed’, ‘injured’, ‘maimed’, and the like often lose a great part of their meaning when they are repeated so relentlessly. Take, for example, a headline like: “13 Palestinians Killed in Gaza, Others Wounded.” Though many of us can still feel a deep sense of sadness over such a…
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The spark in Tell: How a village resistance disrupted Israel’s West Bank strategy
During a military raid on the small town of Tell, southwest of Nablus, a moment of direct defiance shattered the illusion of total Palestinian submission. Faced with relentless military incursions, land confiscation, and settler harassment and violence, local villagers and farmers refused to retreat. In the confrontation that followed, a…
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Is it just about AIPAC’s money, or does the US-Israel rot run far deeper?
Two major stories regarding the United States and Israel in recent days represent profound watershed moments in the history of the relationship between both countries. The first incident occurred on 8 July when US Congressman Ro Khanna (D-CA) and his delegation were detained by armed, illegal Israeli settlers in the…
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The not-so-secret Israeli strategy: This is the real Gaza plan
Here is the bottom line: Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has no intention of leaving Gaza, either before Israel’s general elections—likely to be held in October—or after. Conceding an inch from the roughly 70 percent of the territory his army currently occupies in Gaza will be considered a weakness by…
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Israel debated: Why Palestine is rewriting the rules of domestic US politics
A major showdown on the House floor seemed imminent. An amendment, advanced by the Rules Committee, was poised to force a rare and telling record vote on stripping Israel of $3.3 billion in annual US military aid. Brought forward by Republican Representative Thomas Massie and drawing support from key progressive…
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Right to breathe: Unfiltered messages from Gaza to President Catherine Connolly
I recently had the chance to send a message to the President of Ireland, Her Excellency Catherine Connolly. President Connolly is a vocal supporter of Palestine and remains one of the few European heads of state to explicitly accuse Israel of carrying out a genocide in Gaza. She has a…
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Monsters playing victims: Danny Danon’s twisted war on the truth
Whether Israelis will ever comprehend the irreparable damage inflicted upon their country’s reputation by their UN Ambassador, Danny Danon, is a moot point. The damage Israel has done to itself through its barbaric practices in occupied Palestine is simply impossible to overcome. Danon, however, utilises a peculiar approach to defending…
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The illusions of Western virtue: Ursula von der Leyen and Europe’s moral bankruptcy
European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen has every right to condition European relations with any other country or bloc on respect for human rights. That, of course, would hold true if she genuinely cared about such values herself. In response to the June 19 signing of the memorandum of…
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When the Iran War is over: Why the West Bank may be Netanyahu’s next front
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is facing perhaps the most precarious moment of his political career. He knows it. His allies know it. And his rivals—both within his coalition and across Israel’s political spectrum—are preparing to capitalize on his growing weakness. Former Israeli Justice Minister Haim Ramon, who also served…
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The Mladenov distraction: Behind the screen, Netanyahu is annexing Gaza ‘step-by-step’
Gaza requires urgent international attention. What is happening in the besieged and devastated Strip at the moment by far exceeds an unfolding humanitarian disaster; it is a calculated geopolitical reshaping. Israel is actively executing a plan to permanently occupy the vast majority of Gaza, with consequences that require little elaboration…
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The Palestine industry: The rats of Gaza and the opportunists among us
It all started with a call to my family in a displacement camp in northern Gaza. Since internet lines rarely stay connected, I managed to send a message to the widow of my cousin—who was killed along with all of his sons during the ongoing Gaza genocide. I asked her…
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Self-engineered decay: Why Israel’s political collapse cannot be separated from its war crimes
For those unfamiliar with the intricate machinery of Israeli politics, the unanimous 110-0 vote to dissolve the Knesset on May 20 appears to be an earth-shattering event. On the surface, it looks as if the days of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his coalition of far-right extremists are numbered. The…
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Sovereignty, Palestine, and Power Vacuum: The Urgent Need for a United Arab Initiative
US President Donald Trum’’s state visit to China will go down in history as the day the United States finally acknowledged Beijing’s ascendancy as a global superpower. That acknowledgment does not need to be articulated in a formal statement; it can be clearly read in the subtext of diplomatic behavior,…
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The assault on a French nun and the forgotten story of Palestinian Christians
The video is horrifying, though it is the kind of horror now synonymous with the behavior of Israel, its military, its armed settlers, and society that has been conditioned to see the ‘other’ as subhuman. Yet, this was not the typical viral video that emerges almost daily from occupied Palestine.…
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Subjects of empire: Breaking the cycle of Arab dependency on US elections
Much of the current discourse on the Middle East remains fixated on the US midterm congressional elections this coming November. This vote, in particular, is being framed as a pivotal turning point for everything from the survival of Gaza and Lebanon to the future of Iran and beyond. To a…
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The pendulum swings: The slow death of Europe’s pro-Israel consensus
The European Union is the “chief of all cowards,” Amnesty International declared in a searing statement issued on April 21. The condemnation was a direct response to the European bloc’s systemic failure to sever ties with Israel during the Foreign Affairs Council meeting in Luxembourg. Despite months of legal warnings,…
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Israel’s war obsession and the urgency of Palestinian leverage
It is tempting to argue that Israel’s new military doctrine is predicated on perpetual war—but the reality is more complex. Not that Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu would object to such an arrangement. On the contrary, his relentless drive for military escalation suggests precisely that. After all, his openly declared…