Our Wednesday News Analysis | The complete idiot’s guide to world affairs

Sometimes it helps to pare things back to their essentials, especially when complexity is being exploited not to illuminate but to confuse. So here is my short, complete idiot’s guide to world affairs:

There are two reality-based understandings of what we call “world affairs”, or sometimes “foreign news”.

1. The first sees the United States as the beating heart of a highly militarised, global empire – the strongest ever known, with more than 800 military bases around the world. The US has divided the world into, on the one hand, “democracies” and “moderate states” that do its bidding and, on the other, “dictatorships” and “terror regimes” that won’t or can’t submit to its dictates.

The former are allies that reap some of the benefits of belonging to the empire, while the latter are presented as a threat to world peace. They must be constantly intimidated, contained, sanctioned and occasionally attacked.

The goal of organising the world this way is the control of global resources, chiefly oil. Western publics thereby enjoy limited privileges that come at the cost of deprivation for those outside the empire. These privileges are intended to keep the US empire’s publics docile and loyal. At the same time, the empire allows members of its elite to amass vast wealth from the exploitation of the world’s resources – wealth so vast that most people are incapable of grasping the extent of it.

This worldview is generally consistent with what is termed a leftwing disposition. It sees the existing system as a bad thing that needs to be ended.

2. The second worldview agrees with all of the above, except it thinks this is the best system possible in the circumstances and must be preserved at all costs. This outlook is generally consistent with what is termed a rightwing, or conservative, disposition.

In other words, these two groups see things in largely the same way but respond to the same reality differently.

The second group, the conservatives, want to keep the world divided, justifying this to themselves on various grounds they usually refer to as “pragmatism”. In essence, they believe it’s a dog-eat-dog world out there, and it’s important that we remain the top dog. At some level this outlook rests on a barely concealed racist conceit, often that white or Christian peoples are civilisationally better than other peoples and that, were the world to be organised differently, chaos and barbarism would ensue.

The first group, the left, want to end the division of the world into two camps, “them” and “us”, arguing that this is dangerous. This empire’s logic justifies pumping money that could be spent improving the quality of ordinary people’s lives, and securing the future of the planet, into the arms industries. It reinforces the logic of the West’s war machine that relies on fomenting a permanent climate of fear. In such a febrile political climate, people are easily manipulated into backing wars or the oppression of other, usually brown peoples. The empire’s division of the world rationalises racism, selfishness and violence, and prevents cooperation. It is inherently unsustainable. And in an age of nuclear weapons, it risks driving us into a confrontation that will quickly end life on the planet...

Read more: The complete idiot’s guide to world affairs

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FOUR REASONS WHY ISRAEL’S ETHNIC CLEANSING OF THE WEST BANK IS BEING ACCEPTED BY THE WORLD

Source: Mondoweiss
https://mondoweiss.net/2025/03/four-reasons-why-israels-ethnic-cleansing-of-the-west-bank-is-being-accepted-by-the-world/

By Qassam Muaddi
Published March 21, 2025

Israel's ethnic cleansing campaign in the West Bank is being accepted by the international community because it has already allowed genocide in Gaza and the forced displacement of Palestinians since 1948. But there is hope a new world is being born.

Palestinians flee to safer areas after the Israeli army forces families to leave their homes in Jenin refugee camp, August 31, 2024. (Photo: Mohammed Nasser/APA Images)

Earlier this week, while Israeli warplanes were resuming their carpet bombing campaign in Gaza, Israel also expanded its offensive on the West Bank, this time reaching the al-Ain refugee camp west of Nablus. Israeli forces entered the camp in the early hours of Wednesday morning when an undercover Israeli force opened fire on a vehicle, killing its driver, Odai Qatouni, and confiscated his body.

Israeli forces took over several houses and used them as military positions for 14 hours, forcing some 10 Palestinian families to leave their homes. Ameer Said, 32, a resident of al-Ain camp, told the Palestinian daily al-Ayyam that Israeli soldiers entered the three-story building where he lives and forced all 20 residents to leave. According to Said, Israeli soldiers didn’t allow him or his family and neighbors any time to take their belongings.

The Nablus director for the Palestinian Red Crescent Society, Ameed Ahmad, said that the Red Crescent crews evacuated several ill Palestinians, including multiple dialysis patients and a newborn baby who were taking shelter in the camp’s mosque during the raid. Eventually, Israeli forces withdrew from al-Ain after arresting 30 Palestinians and dropping leaflets threatening residents with the same fate as the refugee camps of Jenin and Tulkarem if they “allow” Palestinian militants to operate in the camp. According to local testimonies reported by Palestinian media, the displaced families returned to their homes following the Israeli army’s withdrawal. Contrary to Jenin and Tulkarem, there is no known Palestinian resistance group in al-Ain refugee camp like the Jenin Brigade or the Tulkarem Brigade.

Meanwhile, in Jenin, the Israeli army published a map highlighting up to 100 houses set to be demolished in the refugee camp. Displaced Palestinians began to file requests to the Israeli army through the Jenin camp’s Popular Services Committee to be permitted to return to their homes one last time and recover what they can of their belongings. Some 95% of residents have been forced out of the camp, with around 18,000 Palestinians from the camp being housed in several shelters and private apartments in Jenin City, according to the Jenin governorate.

Only three months ago, nobody anticipated that soon 40,000 Palestinians would be displaced from their homes with no return in sight. Even more unexpected was Israel’s continued widening of its campaign to new parts of the West Bank. But what was the least expected of all was that it would happen with little or no reaction — locally, regionally, and internationally...

Read more: Four reasons why Israel’s ethnic cleansing of the West Bank is being accepted by the world
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PALESTINIANS ARE PLEADING FOR AN END TO THE GAZA WAR. NO ONE IS LISTENING

Source: Middle East Eye
https://www.middleeasteye.net/opinion/palestinians-are-pleading-end-gaza-war-no-one-listening

By Ahmed Najar
Published March 27, 2025

Protesters are calling on both Israel and Hamas to relieve their misery, while the media only amplifies whatever angle suits its narrative

Palestinians protest to demand an end to the war in Beit Lahiya in the northern Gaza Strip 26 March, 2025 (Reuters)

The people of Gaza are revolting against their killing and starvation. In the north, the streets are packed with desperate voices chanting: “We want to live! End the Israeli killing! We are peaceful people! Out, out, out! Hamas, out!”

My social media has been flooded with videos of these demonstrations by people who have lost everything, who are starving, who just want the killing to end.

Western media, of course, have amplified this, reporting it as a major event. I just wish they had shown the same urgency when thousands of Palestinians were being slaughtered.

Our deaths were barely a footnote. When Israeli bombs reduced homes to rubble, with entire families buried under the debris, there were no breaking news alerts, no in-depth analyses, no panel discussions dissecting the scale of Palestinian suffering.

Our deaths came and went in a single line of text at the bottom of the screen - cold, distant, and insignificant.

Some Arab media, meanwhile, have downplayed the recent protests, calling them isolated incidents or ignoring them altogether.

But no one is asking why people are out on the streets. No one is acknowledging their desperation, their unbearable grief. These are not people playing politics; these are people who have lost their families, their homes and their futures. They are starving. They are broken. And they are willing to pay any price just to make it stop...

Read more: Palestinians are pleading for an end to the Gaza war. No one is listening