It's a lovely day in Dublin. But the news is filled with confusion, and suffering. The controversy over possible Russian involvement in the Skripal case rumbles on. Probable Syrian government use of chlorine gas in an air raid is denied by Assad and his Russian patrons. The Israelis cynically use the moment to attack facilities in Syria used by Hezbollah and its Iranian patrons, and hope to get away with it quietly. The Israelis slaughter unarmed Palestinian protestors over the last two weeks on the border with Gaza. Meanwhile the centre-left and the Tory right in Britain continue to attack Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn on the terrain of alleged anti-Semitism.
The war in Syria is horrific, brutal and apparently unending. Let us not forget that just last week ago a UN official dubbed the war being waged in Yemen by America's and Britain's ally, Saudi Arabia, the world's worst humanitarian crisis. Israel's government and 'friends' like to argue that the protesters killed on the Gaza border are being 'manipulated' by Hamas. Presumably, the Israeli government also thinks that African Americans were 'manipulated' by civil rights leaders in the 1960s, and that Irish civil rights protesters were similarly 'manipulated' by people like John Hume. The attack on Corbyn is a ruse to pull Labour policy back into line with Zionist goals, and - of course - to displace him.
In no particular order, here is some reading to cut through some of this mix of bad news and spin:
From Verso's site, Ariella Azoulay
The war in Syria is horrific, brutal and apparently unending. Let us not forget that just last week ago a UN official dubbed the war being waged in Yemen by America's and Britain's ally, Saudi Arabia, the world's worst humanitarian crisis. Israel's government and 'friends' like to argue that the protesters killed on the Gaza border are being 'manipulated' by Hamas. Presumably, the Israeli government also thinks that African Americans were 'manipulated' by civil rights leaders in the 1960s, and that Irish civil rights protesters were similarly 'manipulated' by people like John Hume. The attack on Corbyn is a ruse to pull Labour policy back into line with Zionist goals, and - of course - to displace him.
In no particular order, here is some reading to cut through some of this mix of bad news and spin:
From Verso's site, Ariella Azoulay
BDS: Undoing Colonial Amnesia
From Jacobin's site, Bashir Abu-Manneh
