Archive for February, 2006
Game Over for Bush’s War of Ideas
The media loves to wring its collective hands over each new droning video sermon released by Osama bin Laden or Ayman Zawahiri, but it is the release — to unprecedented box office success — of the Turkish movie “Valley of the Wolves: Iraq” that heralds the failure of the Bush administration to win the “battle [...]
Brecht on Israel and Hamas
Looking for standup comedy in the Middle East? Try Israel’s acting prime minister Ehud Olmert. His latest material is epitomized by a routine in which he makes a generous offer to talk to a Palestinian govenrment as long as that government had nothing to do with Hamas. He even helpfully offers to talk directly to [...]
Time for U.S. to Get Real on Hamas
When it comes to cutting through the thicket of nonsense that’s been written and spoken about Hamas winning the Palestinian election, it’s hard to know where to begin. The Bush administration tosses out vacuous denials and equally vacuous threats that are duly reported in the media as if they were valid foreign policy positions – [...]