Nèdeem Elmahjoub's blog

A MERIP’s online event 

An article behind a pay wall , but you still get the gist. “Over the last 50 years, France has sold arms to some of the world’s most brutally repressive governments. In the 1970s its customer list included South Africa’s apartheid regime, Argentina’s junta, Franco’s Spain and the Greek colonels. Today its preferred clients are Saudi Arabia and Abdel Fattah al-Sissi’s Egypt.”

Persecuted Muslims in a far away country not in the heart of Europe. Are they important? Do they serve a political or a geopolitical purpose? Have they been involved in a violent attack on ‘us’? Rohingya sue Facebook for $150bn over Myanmar hate speech

“ Loin du grand complot imaginé par France Inter , la crise biélorusse s’explique surtout par la loi, plus élémentaire, de l’effet boomerang. En matière d’immigration, l’Union européenne ne cesse de pratiquer le chantage et le marchandage. Elle subordonne son «   aide au développement   » à la signature d’accords de «   réadmission   », qui lui permettront d’expulser plus facilement les clandestins. Elle menace de ne plus accorder de visas aux États qui renâclent. Elle paie la Turquie pour retenir les quatre millions de réfugiés du Proche-Orient, le Maroc pour protéger Ceuta et Melilla, la Libye pour bloquer les départs en Méditerranée, le Niger pour cadenasser la voie saharienne.”

 صراع داخل حزب العمال

“Like others before me, I am honest about it: Yes, I oppress French citizens, but for ‘France’s interests’ – French capital and geopolitics interests – I also engage in crimes with others.” The same soft hand smile that destroys migrant camps and drive the vulnerable into the sea.  French voters: “It is Russian; it is Belarus; it is the smugglers. We will vote for you to stop Le Pen.” There are bad authoritarian regimes, e.g. Alexander Lukashenko’s, and there are good ones. Are there any principled positions? No. As a French woman I knew told me once in 2000: “seulement les ânes ne changent pas ses principes [only donkeys do no change their principles]. The actions and positions of French imperialism partly dictated by  its dependence on oil . Today France get around 20% of its oil from Saudi Arabia thus its special relationship with the Middle Eastern monarchy and it gets about 12% of oil from Nigeria thus its interest in ‘stabilising’ the Sahel. In fact, around a third of o...

“The truth of the matter is, it’s all within our wheelhouse and nobody has to be punished. No one’s standard of living would change. Nothing would fundamentally change.” –Joe Biden The failure of neoliberalism has undercut U.S. capitalism’s ability to compete within—and by extension dominate—the world system. That is why there is broad support among business elites and the political establishment for Biden’s turn and why it is a dangerous illusion to present it as a concession to the Left. His imperialist Keynesianism is designed to re-cohere a deeply divided nation, rehabilitate the foundations of U.S. capitalism, and reassert U.S. hegemony over the world state system—especially against China, its rising imperial rival. Biden’s proposed expansion of welfare state spending will do little to mitigate the profound social inequalities of the U.S. As Susan Watkins argues, if enacted the plans will not even bring the U.S. welfare state up to the current level of those in Europe, which thems...

The extension of vaccine privilege outside the West is not an act of charity

Violence against the unwanted, the unwashed, the invaders, the illegal

A good summary by Avi Shlaim . He skipped the origin of Hamas though, particularly the role of Israel in its creation.