At the London Review of Books blog, Omar Hamilton outlines the many confidence-building efforts being undertaken by Israel to construct a just and lasting peace in the Holy Land, following the recent spat in Gaza. Below is Hamilton’s piece in full, but do see the original for links detailing the flowers of peace that Israel is planting amongst its Palestinian brothers and sisters. On 26 August a ceasefire between Israel and Hamas was agreed, bringing a fragile end to a war that killed 2150 Palestinians (mostly civilians) and 73 Israelis (mostly soldiers). Since then Hamas has not fired a single

Trevor Timms’ new piece in the Guardian is one of the best, most succinct articles I’ve seen on the insane rush into Iraq War III, which the Peace Prize President is announcing on Wednesday. The same lies that were told the last time around (“Sleeper cells!” “Mass Destruction of our cities!” “Unprecedented evil!” “Imminent danger!”) are being trotted out again, this time in Democratic drag. Cheney and Obama, Kissinger and Kerry, working together to beat the war drums –who says bipartisanship is dead?  As in 2003 (and 1991, for that matter), facts are thin on the ground — but the

I once saw the mighty Steel Pulse in concert. It was more than 20 years ago in, of all places, Knoxville. They were opening for Bob Dylan. They stepped onto the stage and proclaimed: “We are Steel Pulse, from Birmingham” — and they didn’t mean Alabama. They proceeded to fill the cavernous basketball arena with the most thunderous reggae I’ve ever heard — exploding with boisterous joy, seething with a fierce thirst for justice. A night to remember. In 2008, they covered one of Dylan’s songs, a little-known single he released in 1971: “George Jackson.” Jackson had been imprisoned at

From T.J. Stiles’ Jesse James: Last Rebel of the Civil War: [Young Jesse and Frank James, riding with Jesse’s good friend, Archie Clement, under the command of the “bushwhacking” guerrilla leader, “Bloody” Bill Anderson. A fairly typical day for the band of irregulars as they moved back and forth across Missouri:] “On October 17 (1864), the guerrillas stormed into the center of Carrollton, where the 160 men of the EMM garrison [local volunteer pro-Union militia] immediately surrendered. The guerrillas marched them toward the Missouri river, picking out a man to shoot here, another there, until half a dozen bodies marked

1.It is simply a lie that Israel’s slaughter in Gaza is a response to an “unprovoked attack” by Hamas. Not only is it a lie, it is a transparent, brazen lie, whose falsehood is glaringly apparent to anyone who had given even a cursory look at coverage of the Israeli government’s response to the murder of three Israeli teenagers in June. At that time, we were told in many news reports about an Israeli “crackdown” in Gaza, including mass arrests, military operations and, finally, the killing of six Hamas members. It was after these operations and these killings — which

Below is my column from the latest print version of CounterPunch Magazine. It was written back on June 10, and published a bit later. Much water has gone under the bridge since then – much fire too – but as the piece is on a more general theme, I thought I’d go ahead and put it up. *** The red wheel of the “War on Terror” –  which under the guiding hand of the Nobel prince of peace has mutated into a hydra-headed War on Everything and Everybody Everywhere All the Time – continues on its reckless, destructive way, bringing

1.As Israel begins its latest ground assault on the Gaza Ghetto — accompanied by whoops of support across the American political and media spectrum — it is worth remembering this: For the third time in five years, the world’s fourth largest military power has launched a full-scale armed onslaught on one of its most deprived and overcrowded territories. Since Israel’s bombardment of the Gaza Strip began, just over a week ago, more than 200 Palestinians have been killed. Nearly 80% of the dead are civilians, over 20% of them children. But the idea that Israel is responding to a hail