Author Archives: Tony

Bono’s Vanity: Showcasing Africa, or its Glamorous Patrons?

Can anyone explain Queen Rania’s presence? It with great pleasure that I introduce guest columnist Sean Jacobs, a fellow Capetonian who these days divides his time between Brooklyn and Ann Arbor, where he is an assistant professor of Communication Studies … Continue reading

Posted in Guest Columns, The Whole World's Africa | 51 Comments

Gaza: Another Mess Made in U.S.

Coming, as he does, from Fox News, Tony Snow is obviously a deeply cynical fellow, but this takes some beating: Asked to comment Wednesday on the bloodbath in Gaza, he answered: “Ultimately, the Palestinians are going to have to sort … Continue reading

Posted in Situation Report, Unholy War | 47 Comments

Equality, Not Zionism, Will Save Israel

On the same day that we learn that Norman Finkelstein has been denied tenure at De Paul University largely because of an aggressive campaign by Israel supporters to silence the (to them) menacing figure of a Jew, son of a … Continue reading

Posted in A Wondering Jew, Guest Columns, Situation Report | 59 Comments

Putin Calls Bush’s Bluff

Throughout this mawkish missile-defense saga, President Bush has been talking to the Russians as if they were born yesterday. “Don’t worry, Vladimir, the Cold War is over,” Bush urged. And then he proceeded to bash Putin over Russia’s backsliding on … Continue reading

Posted in Situation Report, Unholy War | 43 Comments

How the 1967 War Doomed Israel

I. Avir harim kalul ba’yayin, ve reach oranim… The opening lines of Naomi Shemer’s legendary Yerushalayim Shel Zahav (Jerusalem of Gold) can still bring goosebumps to my flesh, even decades after I deconstructed and relinquished the mythology connoted by the … Continue reading

Posted in A Wondering Jew, Featured Analysis, Situation Report | 111 Comments

By Their Footprint, Ye Shall Know Them

Okay, guess what the image above represents? A redesign of Manhattan southeast of Houston Street? A sprawling Southern California college campus? No, it’s an architectural plan for the new half-billion dollar U.S. embassy in Baghdad. This is how the architects’ … Continue reading

Posted in Situation Report | 10 Comments

A Patriotic Officer Confronts Bush — And the Democrats

I’ve long admired Andrew Bacevich’s analyses and commentary on the Bush Administration’s misadventures in the Middle East. Bacevich, a moderate Republican veteran of Vietnam and graduate of the U.S. military academy has taught in various strategic studies centers has written … Continue reading

Posted in Situation Report, The 51st State | 28 Comments

Blowback in Tripoli

A Lebanese mother mourns her soldier son Last March, I noted Seymour Hersh’s alarming report on the efforts by Dick Cheney and his friends in Saudi Arabia to wage a proxy war against Iran, by enlisting all manner of Sunni … Continue reading

Posted in Situation Report, Unholy War | Comments Off on Blowback in Tripoli

Blowback in Tripoli?

A Lebanese mother mourns her soldier son Last March, I noted Seymour Hersh’s alarming report on the efforts by Dick Cheney and his friends in Saudi Arabia to wage a proxy war against Iran, by enlisting all manner of Sunni … Continue reading

Posted in Situation Report, Unholy War | 29 Comments

Iraq: The Slimiest Benchmark

The art of political hegemony is achieved when a narrow group of people is able to convince a wider society that the group’s own, narrow interests, in fact, represent the general interest or the “greater good.” Nowhere is there currently … Continue reading

Posted in Situation Report, The 51st State | 38 Comments