Middle East
Questions I am frequently asked on Israel-Palestine
, 19/11/2023
The Israeli-Palestinian Question could not be more complex, urgent and emotionally charged. Those of us who take a position on it have a duty to a full disclosure of the thoughts, assumptions and beliefs that motivate our commentary. To this effect, I collected a number of questions I am frequently asked by friends and critics […]
On Europe’s historic responsibility for the never-ending conflict and war crimes in the ancient land of Palestine – Al Jazeera long interview with Marc Lamont Hill
, 18/11/2023
On UpFront, interviewed by Marc Lamont Hill on Europe’s historic responsibility and current role in the Israel-Gaza war.
Discussing Israel’s War Crimes with Katie Halper on USEFUL IDIOTS
, 12/11/2023
In this week’s live chat Yanis Varoufakis joins Katie and Aaron [Jump to 19:25 for the Yanis Varoufakis interview]: “The United States fully endorses Israel’s war crimes,” says Greece’s former finance minister Yanis Varoufakis. “Because that’s what it is. When you switch off the water to two and a half million people, by the Geneva […]
Why I refuse to condemn Hamas or the Israeli settlers but insist that we, Europeans & Americans, are the culprits for the atrocities in Israel-Palestine
, 15/10/2023
When Hamas launched its offensive into Israel, appalled by the butchery and the human toll it would bring on, I tried to pierce through the fog of war, through all the fear and all the loathing, and to focus instead on what could end the endless cycle of inhumanity. What was its root cause? Hamas? […]
List of war crimes and crimes qualifying as genocide committed by Israel in Gaza between 7th & 14th October 2023
, 15/10/2023
Defenders of Israel’s bombing and invasion of Gaza have challenged me to offer a ‘chapter-and-verse’ list of war crimes that Israel has committed since the Hamas Offensive of 7th October. Here is an indicative, but not exhaustive, list. There is no doubt: Israel is investing in war crimes to effect its recapture and ethnic cleansing […]
Iran’s Revolutionary Moment as the Internationalist Left’s Great Challenge – by Shoja Azari
, 24/10/2022
Shoja Azari, is an Iranian visual artist and filmmaker based in New York, working with Sherin Neshat, his life-long partner and comrade, on art projects of note and substance. Their last project is Land of Dreams, a magnificent new film set in the United States but ever so redolent of meaning viz. the New Iranian […]
When the truth of Israel’s Apartheid is replaced with missile and assorted violence data reporting
, 13/05/2021
Imagine if reports of riots in Soweto against Apartheid never mentioned Apartheid but only concentrated on the violence of the youths or the loss of life and property caused by militant blacks. This is what we are being treated to today in Western media reports ftom Palestine. When the truth is replaced by silence, a […]
Interviewed on Lebanon, Bankruptcy, Economics & much more by مواطنون ومواطنات في دولة – mmfidawla
, 28/09/2020
AL-AKHBAR: Long interview with Léa El Azzi on capitalism after the pandemic, Europe, Greece, Lebanon & the IMF
, 30/06/2020
The pandemic is not the first crisis (if we can say so) that hit capitalism all over the world. what is the difference between this one and the previous crisis? The obvious one is that Covid-19 dealt capitalism an external shock, like an earthquake or a meteor that strikes at both production lines and consumption […]
Im Reich der Gier – der Freitag
, 10/09/2018
Mythos Der Kapitalismus ist entzaubert und bringt uns das größte Faschismusproblem seit den Dreißigern Was im Herbst 2008 an der Wall Street geschah, hatten die allermeisten Menschen bis dahin für unmöglich gehalten, schließlich hatte man ihnen jahrelang weisgemacht, dass etwas Derartiges schlichtweg nicht passieren könnte. Es war, als ob man dabei zuguckt, wie die Sonne, kurz […]
Farewell Uri Avnery (1923-2018), Israeli humanist who demonstrated that there is no such thing as an Arab-Israeli conflict – just a constant struggle against racism, colonialism & misanthropy
, 27/08/2018
Humanism is poorer this week. Uri Avnery has died. Soldier number 44410 of the Israel army, spent the following decades defending human decency in the land that he loved and struggled to make a welcoming home for Jews and Arabs alike. From his 1953 report of the raid on Qibya in Jordan, where an Israeli unit commanded by […]
Brexit – an unorthodox perspective | Guardian Live event
, 20/02/2017
27th January 2017 Srećko Horvat, a Croat philosopher, Elif Shafak, renowned Turkish novelist, and Yanis Varoufakis, Greece’s former finance minister, bring to this conversation an intriguing perspective. As intellectuals who know Britain well, they understand first hand the perils of nationalism, disintegration, isolationism and marginalisation. They place post-Brexit Britain in a context informed by a […]
Trump’s Triumph: DiEM25 on how progressives must react
, 09/11/2016
Donald Trump’s victory marks the end of an era when a self-confident Establishment preached the end of history, the end of passion and the supremacy of a technocracy working on behalf of the 1%. But the era it ushers in is not new. It is a new variant of the 1930s, featuring deflationary economics, xenophobia […]
Building a Progressive International – op-ed Project Syndicate
, 31/07/2016
ATHENS – Politics in the advanced economies of the West is in the throes of a political shakeup unseen since the 1930s. The Great Deflation now gripping both sides of the Atlantic is reviving political forces that had lain dormant since the end of World War II. Passion is returning to politics, but not in […]
DiEM Statement Condemning European Summit’s Preliminary Accord to Expel Refugees to Turkey
, 08/03/2016
DIEM25, the Democracy in Europe Movement, strongly condemns the preliminary agreement reached during last night’s European Union Summit, according to which thousands of Syrian refugees will be returned to Turkey. DiEM25 finds this agreement shameful and contrary to international laws and treaties, including the Charter of Fundamental Rights of the European Union (Art. 19, “Collective expulsions are prohibited”) and […]
Europe and the Spectre of Democracy – interviewed by Michel Feher (Part 1)
, 08/03/2016
In early January 2016, Michel Feher interviewed me in Paris in advance of our announcement of DiEM25. Click here for Part 1 or here for the Zone Books – Near Futures website, to watch the complete video and/or read the transcript.
How the US rolls (post-Global Minotaur) – by SLAVOJ ŽIŽEK
, 13/12/2014
In this article, aptly subtitled It’s lonely being the global policeman, Slavoj evokes a parallelism between the age of extremes that began as the British Empire was losing its grip with the present moment in history. Now that the Global Minotaur (quoting my book) is mortally wounded, “…the American century is over and we are witnessing […]
Q&A on Greece, Portugal and Ireland – June 25th 2013
, 25/06/2013
A portuguese newspaper put to me a set of questions on the state of our PIGS. I list them here, together with my answers.
Ten highs and ten lows, circa 2012: my intensely biased list
, 26/12/2012
THE HIGHS The definitive discovery of the Higgs boson particle that confirms our capacity to grasp the ways of the universe first through logic and theory and later empirically; a triumph of human reason Mitt Romney’s implosion at the ballot box At last, a decent James Bond flick A piece of graffiti in downtown Athens […]