Preparations for a US attack on Iran are well advanced. American planes probe the country’s air defences. Commandos infiltrate Iran on sabotage and reconnaissance missions. A new military base is built close to the Iraq/Iran border at Badrah. The Fifth Fleet patrols in the Gulf and along Iran’s southern coast. Political preparations also continue. Accusations against Iran are elaborated and repeated ad nauseam. Pressure is exerted (with variable success) on other countries to assist in the war plans. Aid and encouragement are given to separatists in ethnic-minority areas of Iran: Arab Khuzestan in the southwest, “southern Azerbaijan” in the...
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It’s now 110 years since Theodor Herzl wrote Der Judenstaat (The State of the Jews) and launched the Zionist movement, nearly 60 since the state he envisaged came into being. Upset by the Dreyfus case (Dreyfus was a French Jewish army officer framed as a spy for Germany), Herzl had concluded that Jews would only be safe when they had a state of their own. As they ran for the shelters during the war with Hezbullah, Israelis may well have wondered whether there is any country in the world where Jews are less safe. And although the...
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With peace talks on the horizon and attacks continuing, one has to wonder if the conflicts between Israel and Palestine will ever truly be resolved. This area of the world has been perhaps that most highly contested place on the planet. On the surface the conflict appears to be a religious struggle, with both sides proclaiming the land as holy territory. However, the real issue is not over the land itself, and the resources that it contains. It is an economic struggle, with an economic solution. The struggle is contained in capitalism, with different countries fighting over the resources...
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