Dégringolade

by James Petras   04.06.2006  ::     Analysis   Source:  The James Petras Website Yesterday the major Zionist organizations told us who we may or may not criticize in the Middle East, today they tell us who we may criticize in the United States, tomorrow they will tell us to bend our heads and submit to their lies and deceptions in order to engage in new wars of conquest at the service of a morally repugnant colonial regime. Reflexes that ordinarily spring automatically to the defense of open debate and free enquiry shut down ? at least among much of America?s political elite ? once the subject turns to Israel, and above all the pro-Israel lobby?s role in shaping US foreign policy?Moral blackmail ? the fear that any criticism of Israeli policy and US support for it will lead to charges of anti-Semitism ? is a powerful disincentive to publish dissenting views. It is also leading to the silencing of policy debate on American university campuses, partly a...

  BRICS Plus in the Capitalist World-System The economic alliance seeks a break with Western hegemony, but not with neoliberalism Author:  Janine Walter Source:   Rosa Luxemburg Stiftung A snapshot from the sixteenth BRICS summit in Kazan, Russia, 22–24 October 2024,  Photo: IMAGO / SNA When the annual BRICS Plus summit was held in Kazan, Russia last October, host Vladimir Putin was clearly in a good mood. Indeed, in terms of foreign policy, the Russian president had done quite well for himself: 40 nations were represented, more than half of them by heads of government or of state; UN General Secretary António Guterres also attended. It was only the previous year that the intergovernmental organization known by the acronym BRICS, consisting of Brazil, Russia, India, China, and South Africa, had expanded. Since then, Iran, Egypt, Ethiopia and the United Arab Emirates (UAE) have become part of the extended BRICS Plus; meanwhile however, Argentina and Saudi Arabia ...