From the Archive: Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu’s demand that the Palestinians recognize Israel as “a Jewish state” and thus accept the Zionist narrative of the Diaspora may doom the latest peace talks. But the Diaspora narrative also represents bad history,…
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The Moral Cancer of Gitmo
Mired in politics as well as the emotions of fear and revenge, the Guantanamo Bay prison remains a cancer on the American conscience. Yet, the Obama administration has taken only halfhearted and piecemeal efforts to close it, John LaForge says.
A Possible Path Out of Afghanistan
The unpredictable Afghan leader Hamid Karzai has issued new demands for the U.S. to meet if it wants to keep a smaller military force in Afghanistan after 2014, creating a possible route for the U.S. to finally end its longest…
Iran Nuke Pact Defies the Neocons
Official Washington’s still influential neocons are livid over President Obama’s interim nuclear deal with Iran and will keep up their sabotage fight. But the pact marks an important fork in the foreign policy road, showing that the U.S. government can…
Time for Proof on Syrian CW Attack
World attention has moved to the destruction of Syria’s chemical weapons, but the evidence on the Aug. 21 attack near Damascus remains hidden and in dispute, causing a group of former U.S. intelligence professionals to ask Moscow and Washington to…
Obama Shies from Iran Nuke Deal
Official Washington’s ideology of “tough-guy-ism” has prevented a potential breakthrough in nuclear talks with Iran. Afraid of being called weak, President Obama has balked at accepting Iran’s right to enrich uranium even at low levels and under international supervision, Flynt…
Obama’s Three-Day Smile in Israel
President Obama seems determined to maintain a smile and bonhomie during his three-day trip to Israel, but the optics obscure deeper problems in the U.S.-Israeli relationship as Obama remains under pressure to bend U.S. policies in ways favored by Prime Minister Netanyahu,…
Waking Up to Iran’s Real History
From the Archive: An Oscar frontrunner for best picture is “Argo,” depicting a little-known chapter of the U.S-Iran hostage standoff in 1979-81. Yet, while focusing on this story of six hostages escaping, “Argo” missed bigger dramas, before and after, as…
The Thwarting of Catholic Reform
From the Archive: Pope Benedict XVI’s abdication ends the career of a Catholic intellectual who understood the need for Church reform but joined with John Paul II and other conservatives to protect an autocratic system that failed to stop pedophile priests…
The Iraq War ‘Surge’ Myth Returns
From the Archive: Sen. John McCain and other Republicans cited Chuck Hagel’s opposition to the Iraq War “surge” as their chief attack line to block his nomination to be Defense Secretary, but Hagel refused to accept their distortion of history,…