Wednesday, May 16th 2012
LRB | Sara Roy: If Gaza falls . . .
Sara Roy provides lots of detail about how Israel wants the world to see Gaza as a place populated beggers trapped in a war zone and not a civilised people trying to live independently in a viable state.
“Israel’s siege of Gaza began on 5 November, the [...]
Higher and higher - that’s the way unemployment is going. Strange this is not getting the attention it deserves. While the media debates the fiscal meltdown, the ‘will-they-or-won’t they’ cut public sector wages (or just freeze them ad infinitum), a blood-letting is beginning in the labour force. Maybe it’s just that we [...]
So what to say? A giant figure, unique, a master politician. We’ve heard and read a lot of that stuff over the last few days. Much of it is true. I’m not even going to parse out the political implications such as they are for the the left and the Irish political environment. Not today. [...]
Here’s one, of many, New Year resolutions I will undertake: in the future I will not be blase about the deteriorating fiscal situation. I don’t think I have been but several readers have contacted me, suggesting I should work a little bit harder on this issue lest my out-riding Keynesianism becomes so detached [...]
Joseph Massad: The Gaza Ghetto Uprising
Since 2006, Arab regimes, neoliberal Arab intellectuals, as well as the Palestinian Collaborationist Authority (PCA) in Ramallah have reached an understanding that only Israel will be able to save them from Hizballah and Hamas, both organizations constituting a threat to the open alliance Arab regimes have with the US and [...]
The Irish Economy’s Rise Was Steep, and the Fall Was Fast - NYTimes.com
"Irish banks, unlike those in the United States, didn’t dole out that many subprime loans. Rather, they lent furiously to big property developers who themselves were liberated to build pell-mell by government-imposed tax breaks." The New York Times on Ireland's property bust
Mass uprising of Greece’s youth, by Valia Kaimaki
Why did Greek youth take to the streets? Kaimaki asks. Because, he says, for 'the first time since the second world war young people have no hope of a better life than their parents. But there is also a failure of trust in politicians and all state institutions, [...]
Norman Finkelstein | Israel seeking Arab obeisance
Finkelstein says that getting rid of Hamas in Gaza is not the objective of the current conflict. Instead it is to show the international community, including Iran that it will not accept a two-state settlement. It wants to be able to continue its control of the West Bank.
"Finkelstein: The [...]
