Creating new perspectives since 2009
Items by Dr Ramzy Baroud
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The war ‘diplomat’: How the West lost the ‘global battle of narratives’
In a blog entry, reflecting on the G20 Foreign Ministers’ meeting in Bali, Indonesia, on 7-8 July, the High Representative of the European Union, Josep Borrell, seems to have accepted the painful truth that the West is losing what he termed “the global battle of narratives”. “The global battle of…
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The shameful UN ‘List of Shame’: Equating between the Israeli perpetrator and the Palestinian victim
“We regret we failed to protect you.” This was part of a statement issued by United Nations human rights experts on 14 July, urging the Israeli government to release Palestinian prisoner Ahmad Manasra. Only 14 years old at the time of his arrest and torture by Israeli forces, Manasra is…
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As the chaos gets worse, political instability is now the norm in Israel
The collapse of the short-lived Israeli government of Naftali Bennett and Yair Lapid validates the argument that the political crisis in Israel was not entirely instigated and sustained by former Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. Bennett’s coalition government consisted of eight parties, welding together arguably one of the oddest coalitions in…
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The Rise of BRICS: The economic giant that is taking on the West
The G7 summit in Elmau, Germany, June 26-28, and the NATO summit in Madrid, Spain, two days later, were practically useless in terms of providing actual solutions to ongoing global crises – the war in Ukraine, the looming famines, climate change and more. But the two events were important, nonetheless,…
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15 years of failed experiments: Myths and facts about the Israeli siege on Gaza
Fifteen years have passed since Israel imposed a total siege on the Gaza Strip, subjecting nearly two million Palestinians to one of the longest and most cruel politically-motivated blockades in history. Back then, the Israeli government justified its siege as the only way to protect Israel from Palestinian “terrorism and…
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Palestinians ‘are not animals in a zoo’: On Kanafani and the need to redefine the role of the ‘victim intellectual’
Years before the United States invaded Iraq in 2003, US media introduced many new characters, promoting them as ‘experts’ who helped ratchet up US propaganda, ultimately allowing the US government to secure enough popular support for the war. Though enthusiasm for war began dwindling in later years, the invasion of…
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Cultural warriors: Why Palestine’s sports victories should inspire us
The Palestine National Football Team has, once more, done the seemingly impossible by qualifying for the 2023 AFC Asian Cup. By any standards, this is a great achievement, especially as the Palestinians have done it with style and convincing victories over Mongolia, Yemen and the Philippines, without conceding a single…
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Palestinians ‘are bound to win’: Why Israelis are prophesying the end of their state
While it is true that Zionism is a modern political ideology that has exploited religion to achieve specific colonial objectives in Palestine, prophecies continue to be a critical component of Israel’s perception of itself, and of the state’s relationship with other groups, especially Christian messianic groups in the United States…
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The end of ‘laissez-faire’: Russia’s attempt to reshape the world economy
Starting on 31 May, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov embarked on a tour of Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) countries, where he visited Bahrain, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates (UAE), among others. Lavrov’s main objective of these visits is to strengthen ties between Russia and GCC nations amid a…
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Palestine new resistance model: How the last year redefined the struggle for Palestinian freedom
What took place between May 2021 and May 2022 is nothing less than a paradigm shift in Palestinian resistance. Thanks to the popular and inclusive nature of Palestinian mobilisation against the Israeli occupation, resistance in Palestine is no longer an ideological, political or regional preference. In the period between the…
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Mali has become another front in the Russia v NATO war in Ukraine
The distance between Ukraine and Mali is measured in thousands of kilometres, but the geopolitical distance is much closer. So close, in fact, that it appears as if the ongoing conflicts in both countries are the direct outcomes of the same geopolitical currents and transformation underway around the world. After…
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This is how Israel plans to annex the occupied West Bank
Israel’s Supreme Court has decided that the Palestinian region of Masafer Yatta in the southern hills of Hebron is to be appropriated entirely by the Israeli military and that the local population of more than 1,000 Palestinians is to be expelled. The court’s decision on 4 May was hardly surprising.…
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Right of return: Nakba is back on Palestinian agenda
The Nakba is back on the Palestinian agenda. For nearly three decades, Palestinians were told that the Nakba – or Catastrophe – is a thing of the past. That real peace requires compromises and sacrifices; therefore, the original sin that has led to the destruction of their historic homeland should…
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Constantly on the verge of collapse: How Palestinians became a factor in Israeli politics
Israel’s coalition government of right-wing Prime Minister, Naftali Bennett, is on the verge of collapse, which is unsurprising. Israeli politics, after all, is among the most fractious in the world, and this particular coalition was born out of the obsessive desire to dethrone Israel’s former leader, Benjamin Netanyahu. While Netanyahu…
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Ending the West’s neocolonial oppression is leading to new global language and superstructures
The Russia-Ukraine war has turned quickly into a global conflict. One of the likely outcomes of this is the redefinition of the current world order, which has been in effect at least since the collapse of the Soviet Union over three decades ago. Indeed, there is a growing sense that…
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The limits of Israeli Intelligence: Does Israel have a Yahya Sinwar problem?
Like typical analyses offered by western intelligence when trying to assess risks or understand major political phenomena in the Middle East, Israeli intelligence is equally short-sighted. It insists on analyzing the attitudes and body language of individuals instead of focusing on the behaviour of collectives. This is the case today…
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By redefining UNRWA, Washington destroys the foundation for a Just peace in Palestine
Palestinians are justifiably worried that the mandate granted to the United Nations Agency for Palestinian refugees, UNRWA, might be coming to an end. UNRWA’s mission, which has been in effect since 1949, has done more than provide urgent aid and support to millions of refugees. It was also a political…
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Cost of the Ukraine war felt in Africa, Global South
While international news headlines remain largely focused on the war in Ukraine, little attention is given to the horrific consequences of the war which are felt in many regions around the world. Even when these repercussions are discussed, disproportionate coverage is allocated to European countries, like Germany and Austria, due…
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Bennett has to tread carefully or the ‘Sword of Jerusalem’ could be unleashed again
Ever since 15 April, the Israeli occupation army and police have raided Al-Aqsa Mosque in occupied Jerusalem on a daily basis. Under the pretence of providing protection for provocative “visits” by thousands of illegal Israeli Jewish settlers and right-wing fanatics, the occupation army has wounded hundreds of Palestinians, including journalists,…
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Palestine needs immediate attention to stave off a major food crisis
A young journalist friend of mine in Gaza, Mohammed Rafik Mhawesh, told me that food prices in the besieged territory have rocketed in recent weeks. Already impoverished families are struggling to put food on the table. “Food prices are surging dramatically,” he explained, “particularly since the beginning of the Russia-Ukraine…
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With a multipolar world order in sight, is this the end of US hegemony?
The meeting between Russia’s Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov and China’s Foreign Minister Wang Yi in the eastern Chinese city of Huangshan on 30 March is likely to go down in history as decisive in the relations between the two Asian giants. It was not only important due to its timing…
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Palestine’s widening geography of resistance: Why Israel cannot defeat the Palestinians
There is a reason why Israel is insistent on linking the series of attacks carried out by Palestinians recently to a specific location, namely the Jenin refugee camp in the northern West Bank. By doing so, the embattled Naftali Bennett’s government can simply order another deadly military operation in Jenin…
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Can Israel exist without America? The facts suggest a changing reality
When Russian and Ukrainian delegations meeting in Turkey on 29 March reached an initial understanding regarding a list of countries that could serve as security guarantors for Kyiv should an agreement be struck, Israel was one of those mentioned. The other countries included the US, Britain, China, Russia, France, Turkey,…
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Is Europe really more civilised? Ukraine conflict a platform for racism and rewriting history
When a gruesome six-minute video of Ukrainian soldiers shooting and torturing handcuffed and tied-up Russian soldiers circulated online, outraged people on social media and elsewhere compared this barbaric behaviour to that of Daesh. In a rare admission of moral responsibility, Oleksiy Arestovych, an advisor to the Ukrainian president, quickly reminded…