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Category: History/Archeology

Kamala Harris embodies the demographic trends that have reshaped America

Kamala Harris embodies the demographic trends that have reshaped America

In 2021, Kim Parker and Amanda Barroso from the Pew Research Center wrote: The swearing-in of Kamala Harris as the vice president of the United States marked several important “firsts”: She became the first female vice president, as well as the first Black person and first Asian American to hold that office. But her ascendance to the second-highest office in the land represented so much more. It held up a mirror to America, revealing how key demographic trends have reshaped…

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Anne Applebaum: ‘Often, for autocrats, the second time in power is worse’

Anne Applebaum: ‘Often, for autocrats, the second time in power is worse’

Tim Adams writes: A couple of years ago, in the Atlantic magazine, journalist Anne Applebaum wrote an era-defining cover story called “The Bad Guys Are Winning”. Her argument was not only that democratic institutions were in decline across the world, but that there was a new version of old threats to them: rogue states and dictatorships were increasingly linked not by ideology, as in the cold war, but by powerful currents of criminal and mercenary interest, often enabled by western…

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America’s unending conflict with itself

America’s unending conflict with itself

Nick Bryant writes: The advice I used to impart to young correspondents arriving at the BBC’s bureau in Washington was to remember that the United States had fought a civil war in the mid-19th century and was still arguing over the terms of a fractious peace. Much like the modern-day phrase “sorry but not sorry,” which is used sarcastically to indicate a lack of remorse, the brief ceremony at Virginia’s Appomattox Court House in April 1865, which brought the armed…

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The Supreme Court is making decisions that flatly contradict the Constitution’s text and ideals

The Supreme Court is making decisions that flatly contradict the Constitution’s text and ideals

Akhil Reed Amar writes: In a quid-pro-quo bribery case—money for a pardon—[Chief Justice John] Roberts apparently would allow evidence of the quid (the money transfer) and evidence of the quo (the fact of a later pardon) but not evidence of the pro: evidence that the pardon was given because of the money, that the pardon was motivated by the money. This is absurd. In the oral argument this past April, one of the Court’s best jurists posed the issue well:…

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What we can learn from an ancient egalitarian civilization in the Indus Valley

What we can learn from an ancient egalitarian civilization in the Indus Valley

Adam S. Green writes: The most tantalizing feature of the ancient Indus Valley remains is what they appear to lack: any trace of a ruling class or managerial elite. This defies the longtime theoretical assumption that any complex society must have stratified social relations: that collective action, urbanization, and economic specialization only develop in a very unequal culture that takes direction from the top, and that all social trajectories evolve toward a common and universal outcome, the state. Yet, here…

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Analysis reveals damage and destruction of cultural heritage sites in Gaza

Analysis reveals damage and destruction of cultural heritage sites in Gaza

Bellingcat Investigation Team reports: Bellingcat and our partners at Scripps News have identified damage at dozens of religious and cultural heritage sites in Gaza since the Israel-Gaza conflict began in October last year. Satellite imagery as well as videos and images were used to identify the impact on sites that include archaeological treasures dating back thousands of years, as well as religious facilities such as mosques and cemeteries. The findings add to research being carried out by UNESCO and others…

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Why George Orwell’s classic, 1984, remains more relevant than ever

Why George Orwell’s classic, 1984, remains more relevant than ever

Elif Shafak writes: There is Orwell the human being. There is Orwell the novelist. There is Orwell the intellectual, the critic, the journalist, the essayist, the radical. But lately, George Orwell—who was born Eric Arthur Blair and who never fully abandoned his original name—has increasingly come to be regarded as a modern oracle, a gifted soothsayer who predicted with terrifying accuracy how fragile and fallible our political systems were, how close the shadow of authoritarianism. His body of work has…

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Ilan Pappé: The Israel lobby is real. This is how it works

Ilan Pappé: The Israel lobby is real. This is how it works

  If you mention the Israel lobby in the mainstream media then, more often than not, you’ll face accusations of antisemitism. There are of course people who talk about the Israel lobby in antisemitic terms, but that doesn’t undermine the fact that it exists, and has existed for well over a century. This week’s guest is Israeli historian and author Ilan Pappé. His new book details the origins of zionism and the struggles against it throughout the 19th and 20th…

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Robert Reich: 60 years ago today, the Klan murdered my protector

Robert Reich: 60 years ago today, the Klan murdered my protector

Robert Reich writes: I’ve shared some of this with you, but today marks 60 years since it happened — when the Klan murdered my protector. I was always the shortest kid in school, which made me an easy target for bullies. To protect myself, I got into the habit of befriending older boys who’d watch my back. One summer when I was around 8 years old, while visiting my maternal grandmother at her cabin in the Adirondack Mountains, I found…

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Haaretz: ‘The countdown has begun’ for the collapse of Israel

Haaretz: ‘The countdown has begun’ for the collapse of Israel

Al Mayadeen English summarizes an editorial from Haaretz published on June 7: Recent internal events suggest that Zionism is on a path to demise, and unless leaders take swift action, the existential countdown has already started, Haaretz warned in its Friday op-ed. The newspaper mentioned the “Flag March” in occupied al-Quds, which took place earlier this week and saw Israeli settlers storming the holy Al-Aqsa Mosque and violating its sanctity, attacking Palestinians and journalists, in addition to other Israelis, describing…

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Jewish supremacy formed the bedrock of Zionist colonialism, the New York Times reported in 1947

Jewish supremacy formed the bedrock of Zionist colonialism, the New York Times reported in 1947

What is so remarkable about journalistic and online debates about the formation of Israel is that the contemporary reporting is publicly available, often from the very same news organs whose op-ed pages are currently spreading disinformation about it. https://t.co/RrNwTLynpB — Ryan Ruby (@_ryanruby_) June 6, 2024 On March 20, 1947, Clifton Daniel reported for the New York Times: Talking to Jews in ordinary walks of life — not Zionist leaders — one gets the definite impression that relations with Arabs…

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The reich stuff – what does Trump really have in common with Hitler?

The reich stuff – what does Trump really have in common with Hitler?

David Smith writes: When Donald Trump shared a video that dreamed of a “unified reich” if he wins the US presidential election, and took nearly a full day to remove it, the most shocking thing was how unshocking it was. Trump has reportedly said before that Adolf Hitler did “some good things”, echoed the Nazi dictator by calling his political opponents “vermin” and saying immigrants are “poisoning the blood of our country”, and responded to a white supremacist march in…

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Gideon Levy: Israel has achieved nothing with war on Gaza

Gideon Levy: Israel has achieved nothing with war on Gaza

  Given a choice between war and getting all its hostages back, Israel has opted for more war, argues Israeli journalist Gideon Levy. Levy tells host Steve Clemons that Israeli politicians may abandon Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, but even if he was replaced, Israel would continue its war on Gaza and occupation of the Palestinian people as a whole. “Radical change” in Israeli attitude and U.S. support is needed for any improvement in the situation, says Levy. After Oct. 7,…

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Talking about Zionism

Talking about Zionism

  In the coverage of Israel-Palestine in the Western media, an ideology that is central to the story – Zionism – rarely gets discussed. Instead, we hear a debate about whether opposition to it – anti-Zionism – is anti-Semitic. The Listening Post’s Daniel Turi reports on Zionism, the confusion that surrounds it, and what it tells us about the world’s longest-running occupation. Contributors: Bernard Avishai – Professor, The Hebrew University of Jerusalem Sherene Seikaly – Associate Professor of History, University…

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Gaza: The war on hospitals

Gaza: The war on hospitals

  Israel is attacking Gaza’s hospitals in violation of international law, but is it part of a pattern going back to 1948? Hospitals are supposed to be immune from attack in times of war but Israel has repeatedly bombed and shelled them since October 7, 2023. This film looks at Israel’s destruction of Gaza’s hospitals in the context of its historical expansion at the expense of the Palestinian population, going back to 1948. The Israeli army cut off water, power,…

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Can Palestinians imagine a future with Israelis after this war?

Can Palestinians imagine a future with Israelis after this war?

Mahmoud Mushtaha writes: “We were free. It was the most beautiful life. We had everything — our heritage, our trade, and our sea.” My grandfather, who is now 85, still remembers life in Palestine before 1948. There were no restrictions on travel, no checkpoints, no sieges, and no curfews. He grew up in a small village in Jaffa, where life was bustling with activity during the day, and filled with social gatherings at night. His was a community rich in…

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