Creating new perspectives since 2009
Items by Dr Ramzy Baroud
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Prophets of doom: Kissinger and the ‘intellectual’ decline of the West
It is unclear why 100-year-old Henry Kissinger has been elevated by Western intelligentsia to serve the role of the visionary in how the West should behave in response to the Russia-Ukraine war. But does the centenarian politician have the answers? Every major global conflict that involved the US and its…
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Not on our dime! Why US Democrats are growingly challenging Israel
Though the United States remains a strong supporter of Israel, there are some indications that the supposed ‘unbreakable bond’ with Tel Aviv is faltering, though more in language than in deeds. Following the provocative ‘Flag March’ on 18 May, which is carried out annually by Israeli Jewish extremists in the…
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New rules of engagement: How Palestinians defeated Netanyahu and redefined ‘unity’
All Israeli wars on the Palestinians throughout the years have been promoted and justified by Tel Aviv in the name of ‘security’ and ‘fighting terrorism’. Israel’s biggest challenge throughout many of these wars was hardly the Palestinian Resistance, however steadfast and resilient. The challenge has always been Tel Aviv’s ability…
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Led by China and India: On the Global South efforts to fix the UN
In anticipation of next month’s United Nations Security Council talks on reforming the inherently archaic and dysfunctional political body, China’s Foreign Policy chief, Yang Yi stated his country’s demands. “The reform of the Security Council should uphold fairness and justice, increase the representation and voice of developing countries, allowing more…
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‘My family, my people’: How Khader Adnan unified Palestinians from his prison cell
Khader Adnan was not a ‘terrorist’ with ‘Israeli blood on his hands,’ as pro-Israeli propagandists have been repeating in the news and on social media. If the former Palestinian prisoner, who died in his Israeli prison cell following 87 days of an uninterrupted hunger strike was, indeed, directly involved in…
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For Palestine: A guide to running a meaningful marathon
On Sunday, 23 April, I completed the Madrid International Marathon. It was my 14th overall full marathon. It was not an easy feat. This time around, my run was dedicated to raising awareness of independent Palestinian media and encouraging readers to support important platforms, such as The Palestine Chronicle and…
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Who said BDS has ‘already failed’?: European cities boycott Apartheid Israel
A succession of events starting in Barcelona, Spain, in February, and followed in Liège, Belgium, and Oslo, Norway, in April sent a strong message to Israel: The Palestinian Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions movement (BDS) is alive and well. In Barcelona, the city’s Mayor cancelled a twinning agreement with the Israeli…
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Winners and losers in Sudan: On proxy wars and superpower rivalries in the Global South
The world is changing. In fact, it has been undergoing seismic change that long preceded the Russian-Ukraine war, and the recent US-Chinese tensions in the Taiwan Strait. In fact, the US debacle in Iraq and the Middle East, and the humiliating retreat from Afghanistan were only signs of the decline in…
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Erasure or steadfastness: how the Nakba came to define the collective Palestinian identity
The Palestinian Nakba will be 75 years old on 15 May. Palestinians all over the world will commemorate the “Catastrophe” when nearly 800,000 of their ancestors were driven at gunpoint from their homes and land, and 500 of their towns and villages were wiped off the face of the earth…
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Losing ‘Deterrence’: How Palestinian, Arab Resistance changed rules of war with Israel
When Israel launched a war against the Gaza Strip in August 2022, it declared that its target was the Islamic Jihad only. Indeed, neither Hamas nor the other Gaza-based groups engaged directly in the fighting. The war then raised more questions than answers. Israel rarely distinguishes between one Palestinian group…
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The rise of the South: can BRICS weaken the dominance of the World Bank and IMF?
Who would have expected that the BRICS nations could rise and become the potential rival of the G7 countries, the World Bank and the IMF combined? That once seemingly distant possibility now has real prospects which could change the equilibrium of world politics. BRICS — an acronym for Brazil, Russia,…
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In its quest for religious war, Israel is uniting Arabs and Muslims around Palestine
By ordering a brutal attack against Palestinian worshippers inside Al-Aqsa Mosque on the 14th day of the Muslim holy month of Ramadan, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu knew very well that the Palestinians would retaliate. Netanyahu’s motive should be obvious. He wanted to divert attention from the mass protests that…
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The price of solidarity: Palestine, Indonesia and the ‘human rights’ dilemma
When I shared the news on social media that Indonesia had refused to host the Israeli team at the Under-20 FIFA World Cup scheduled from 20 May 20 to 11 June in Indonesian cities, some readers were unimpressed. Although any news related to Palestine and Israel often generates two sharply…
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Lying about lying: Why we must revisit the definition of ‘fake news’
The phrase “fake news” continues to be deployed routinely in US politics. In a polarised political atmosphere, both Republicans and Democrats distrust media organisations affiliated with opposing parties. This means that most of what is uttered or written by CNN is “fake news” for Republicans, and much of what appears…
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Selective outrage in Palestine: the problem is not just Smotrich, but Zionism
By his own admission, Israeli Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich is a “fascist homophobe”. This declaration, which he made on 16 January, should be enough to illustrate and emphasise the violent nature of the latest political coalition concocted by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in December. Although Smotrich is not the only…
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Xi’s ‘Chilling’ Remarks: A Multipolar World Offers Challenges and Opportunities to the Middle East and Africa
The final exchange, caught on camera between visiting Chinese President Xi Jinping and his Russian host and counterpart, Vladimir Putin, sums up the current geopolitical conflict, still in its nascent stages, between the United States and its Western allies on the one hand, and Russia, China and their allies, on…
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African countries are challenging Israel’s plot across the continent
The sight of Israeli Ambassador Sharon Bar-Li and other Israeli delegates being escorted out of the opening ceremony of the African Union Summit in Addis Ababa on 18 February was historic. The very moment that was meant to crown twenty years of Israeli diplomacy on the African continent turned within…
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Mass protests and false hope: Israel’s Supreme Court is no friend of the Palestinian people
As hundreds of thousands, throughout Israel, joined anti-government protests, questions began to arise regarding how this movement would affect, or possibly merge, into the wider struggle against the Israeli military occupation and apartheid in Palestine. Pro-Palestine media outlets shared, with obvious excitement, news about statements made by Hollywood celebrities, the…
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Palestinian children’s art exposes Israel’s cultural genocide
The following text message tells the whole story of what pro-Palestinian communities around the world are fighting for, and what pro-Israelis are fighting against: “We are delighted to report that Chelsea and Westminster Hospital has removed a display of artwork designed by children from Gaza.” That was the summary of…
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Silence is not an option, and sending weapons to Ukraine perpetuates the war
As is usually the case in long wars, the warring parties and their affiliated media in the Russia-Ukraine conflict have painted each other using uncompromising language, making it nearly impossible to offer an unbiased view of the ongoing tragedy that has killed, wounded and displaced millions of people. While it…
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False hopes and broken promises litter the ground behind the UN Statement on Palestine
Rarely does the Palestinian Ambassador to the UN make an official comment expressing happiness over any official proceedings concerning the Israeli occupation of Palestine. Ambassador Riyad Mansour, though, is “very happy that there was a very strong united message from the Security Council against the illegal, unilateral measure” undertaken by…
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‘Truth, no matter what’: Why watering down Palestinian reality is a crime
On 20 February, the United Nations Security Council approved a statement, described in the media as a ‘watered-down’ version of an earlier draft resolution which would have demanded that Israel “immediately and completely cease all settlement activities in the occupied Palestinian territory.” The intrigues that led to the scrapping of what was meant to…
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‘America is not a racist country’: How Nikki Haley became Israel’s candidate for the White House
Though it has been argued that the so-called American dream is long dead, Nikki Haley is proof that the dream is still alive. Unfortunately, the ‘dream’ is hers alone. Until recently, a close confidante of former US President Donald Trump and his pro-Israel circle, Haley wants to be the next…
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The true champions of humanity in Turkiye and Syria deserve our thanks
A funeral was held in the north Syrian town of Jinderis on 7 February. It was one of numerous such funerals to be held that day across Syria and Turkiye, following devastating earthquakes which killed and injured tens of thousands of people. Each one of these funerals represented two seemingly…