Skip to main content

Asking the Hard Questions about Israel

John Feffer Foreign Policy in Focus
Amid floundering peace talks, Jewish artists, historians, and activists are taking an increasingly critical look at Israel's founding and history.

Venezuela: A Call for Peace

By NICOLÁS MADURO The New York Times
The claims that Venezuela has a deficient democracy and that current protests represent mainstream sentiment are belied by the facts. The antigovernment protests are being carried out by people in the wealthier segments of society who seek to reverse the gains of the democratic process that have benefited the vast majority of the people.

Tunisia: Change, But No Change

by Serge Halimi Le Monde Diplomatique
Tunisia has taken the most hopeful direction after its Arab Spring. But none of the entrants in the forthcoming election seems to have the valid and drastic economic plans that will be needed to fulfil the aspirations of Tunisians.

Job-Based Benefits and American Inequality

By Colin Gordon Dissent Magazine
Across this full history, the overblown promise of private coverage pushed public programs to the categorical margins. As a result, working Americans enjoy less security—in international or historical terms—against the risks of retirement or illness. The private welfare state, in this sense, is a little like a private school or a private jet—not just a different way of delivering the goods, but a reliable and deliberate mechanism for sustaining inequality.

Wanted: Foreign Investment in Cuba

Patricia Grogg and Ivet González Inter Press Service
The new foreign investment law, approved unanimously by the legislature on March 29, invites foreign investors to operate in all sectors of Cuba’s planned economy, with a few exceptions.

Carbon Delirium

Michael Klare TomDispatch
The Last Stage of Fossil-Fuel Addiction and Its Hazardous Impact on American Foreign Policy: For anyone familiar with addictive behavior, this sort of delusional thinking would be a sign of an advanced stage of fossil fuel addiction. As the ability to distinguish fantasy from reality evaporates, the addict persists in the belief that relief for all problems lies just ahead -- when, in fact, the very opposite is true.

Chile Derails ‘Monsanto Law’ That Would Privatize Seeds

Asha DuMonthier New America Media
“We reject this law because it is a threat to family farms and to biodiversity,” said Lucía Sepúlveda from the Alliance for a Better Quality of Life/Pesticide Action Network of Chile (RAP-AL Chile). Last August, her organization and thousands of other Chileans took to the streets of cities across the country in mass protests against the law.