Nèdeem Elmahjoub's blog

The Guardian's liberal view on Palestine Action

According to Al-Jazeera

Makers face human trafficking trial

Our talent for division, for seeing the parts, is of staggering importance — second only to our capacity to transcend it, in order to see the whole.  —Iain McGilchrist, The Master and His Emissary, 2012

NYT, 19 June 2025

“Even if the US does not bomb Iran, it will continue to arm Israel. Either way, there will be serious implications for the Middle East and US politics. “Labour Party meetings and trade union meetings should pass resolutions demanding an end to the assault on Iran and further demanding that Britain should play no role in the attack on Iran, either directly or indirectly and socialists should support demonstrations, lobbies and rallies to that effect.” Even if resolutions were passed they would be defeated by Starmer and the right of the Labour Party.

“When people hear the word 'genocide', they probably think of Gaza, maybe Sudan. But the world’s worst genocide has been occurring in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), where vicious wars have been fought for nearly three decades for power and control over critical minerals .” Note that the writer does not refer to the definition of genocide amd how it applies to the Congo. Related Africa's Leaky Giant

“We are not Arabs, and others measure us by a different standard… Our instruments of war are different from those of the Arabs, and only our instruments can guarantee our victory. Our strength is in defence… and this strength will give us a political victory if England and the world know that we are defending ourselves rather than attacking.” Israel's image as a victim has endured , even as it carries out mass killings and forced displacement. Related Hypocrisy and savagery

If/when you are in London, I recommend you join this tour .

“And just as Israel’s allies in the region have already helped shoot down Iranian missiles, we can be certain that Western governments will come readily to Israel’s defence — both rhetorically and materially — ensuring it can continue its attacks.  “This is the overwhelming lesson Israel has drawn from the past 20 months amid its intensifying onslaught on Gaza: there is no limit to what the world will let it get away with. Now, as it bombs its sixth neighbouring state or occupied territory in less than two years, there should be no doubt that impunity is the lifeblood of Israel’s far-right government, and the fuel driving its spiralling aggression. Until it runs up against firm international resistance, it will not cease in its campaign to militarily re-engineer the entire region.” International resistance is not specified. Personally, I understand that Ben Reif means governments  resistance. Reif like any liberal and a few leftists has faith in 'international l...

The majority of mankind are satisfied with appearances, as though they were realities, and are often more influenced by the things that seem than by those that are. —Nicolo Machiavelli, Discourses, circa 1513–17

A short reply to this question circulating in the social media. I fundamentally disagree with the basics of the analysis and the appeal. As the question states there are Arab nations, not one. They have been divided for a long time. They do not have common interests. Nor do they have an 'Arab NATO' or form  an 'Arab EU'.  So any comparison with one nation like Canada or England, for example, and that the US would defend in the event of a foreign attack, is misplaced. The US in fact would hurry to defend the UAE or Saudi Arabia. The Arab nations are divided and ruled by ruling classes (combrador bourgeoisies with different colours) that have more in common with the rulers in the West than with the Arab people in the respective countries. One has to link colonial division with the neocolonial studies as students at universities are doing. The UAE    and Turkey, for example, have been expanding their strategic outreach for more capital accummulation. Saudi Arabia has...

This was originally published in November 2023 A geopolitical analysis divorced from sociology/international sociology , i.e. no link to class, class relations at home and capital accumulation. However, it is important not to lose track amidst what is happening now.

There is an opinion article on Middle East Monitor. Junaid S. Ahmad uses the word 'betrayal'. I think he is wrong. Every word has to be put beside its opposite when we look at life. Betrayal implies there was loyalty and faithfulness. That is misleading and no wonder there are still many people you see on the social media arguing for Arab unity and that Arab leaders should do something like building a united force, etc. Illusion is fundamental for the powerless . Arab regime have either used the Palestinian plight or ignored it altogether. Their interests and the interests of the Arab capitalists are so entangled with Western and Israeli interests. Then Ahmad frequently uses the phrase 'Muslim world'. There is no nuch a thing, as there is no such a thing as 'the free world'. There are different and very divided countries from Indonesia to Mauritania with not only different historical development, especially since the formal independence, but also even antagonist...

Via Joel Beinin [my italics] “Netanyahu is not Israel – his government does not represent us!” proclaims a recent open letter of 160 Israeli writers, academics and intellectuals. “A war without political goals is a war of deception. A war in which more than 15,600 children have been killed is immoral,” they assert. They believe that after the horrific October 7 massacre in the communities of the western Negev, Israel “set out to wage… a just war.” In contrast, “the war that began on March 18, with Israel's violation of the ceasefire and its failure to comply with the agreement to release the hostages” is not the same war. According to the Gaza Ministry of Health (MOH), Israeli forces killed at least 14,500 Palestinian children between October 7, 2023 and January 2025. While the Gaza MOH casualty figures are widely considered reasonably accurate, a study in the British medical journal Lancet concludes that they may actually undercount casualties by as much as 40%. Were the deaths of...

 Precious!

“Our deepest conceptualisation of the world to our ways of relating to one another, is in part a product of the (neo)imperial boomerang effect .”

Capitalism What does Eric Hobsbawm mean by “human beings are efficiently designed for a capitalist system of production”? Eric Hobsbawm, a prominent Marxist historian, discusses how human beings, in his view, are shaped and adapted to fit into capitalist economic systems. His statement implies that capitalism, with its emphasis on competition, efficiency, and profit-seeking, tends to reward certain behaviors and attributes that humans naturally possess or can develop. These include qualities like ambition, productivity, and a willingness to innovate and adapt to market demands. From Hobsbawm's perspective, capitalism harnesses human creativity and productivity through market mechanisms like supply and demand, private ownership of means of production, and the pursuit of profit. He suggests that these economic structures align with basic human instincts and capabilities, making capitalism a system that can effectively utilize human labor and ingenuity to drive economic growth and dev...

Europeans began to see themselves as "white" primarily during the early modern period, especially from the 17th century onward, in the context of colonial expansion, Atlantic slavery, and the development of racial thinking. Key Phases in the Construction of Whiteness: 1. Medieval Period (before 1500s): Europeans did not have a unified concept of "race" as we understand it today. Identity was based more on religion, ethnicity, language, and region (e.g., Christian vs. Muslim, English vs. French, noble vs. peasant). The idea of being “white” did not function as a self-identifier or category of solidarity. 2. 16th–17th Centuries: Early Colonialism and Slavery As Europeans colonized the Americas and encountered Indigenous peoples and African slaves, new hierarchies were constructed. The transatlantic slave trade and European justifications for slavery helped formalize distinctions between Europeans (later “whites”) and Africans or Indigenous peoples as “non-white” and i...