Double Standards of Morality: The Age of Terror (tags)
This reluctance to confront unpleasant truths diminishes the reader or viewer for whom Middle East reporting in the US media is almost incomprehensible to anyone who does not know the region. It also has its trickle-down effects even in theatres, universities and schools in America. The case of the play about Rachel Corrie--the young US activist twice run over by an Israeli bulldozer while trying to prevent the demolition of Palestinian homes--taken off the New York stage was one of the more deplorable of these. I was also surprised in the Bronx to find that Fieldston, a private school in Riverdale--was forced to cancel a college meeting with two Palestinian lecturers when parents objected to the absence of an Israeli on the panel. The fact that Israeli speakers were to be invited later made no difference. The school's principal later announced that the meeting would "not be appropriate given t! he sensitivity and complexity of the issue". Complex problems are supposed to be explained. But this could not be explained because, well, it was too complex and--the truth--would upset the usual Israeli lobbyists.
The Threats Against Iraq and Syria and the Option of Resistance (tags)
The Threats Against Iraq and Syria and the Option of Resistance
Lebanon parliament re-elects pro-syrian speaker nabih berri (tags)
Lebanon's parliament on Tuesday re-elected pro-syrian Berri as the speaker of parliament - a post he has held since 1992 - even after anti-Syrian groups won a clear majority in the house for the first time since the 1975-1990 civil war.