JOHN Taylor’s interview in the Irish News, in which he declared that a United Ireland is now inevitable has caused shockwaves throughout Unionism. Taylor was one of the hard-line Unionists during the civil rights period, only reluctantly yielding ground as the political debate shifted under the weight of the sectarian crisis affecting Northern Ireland.
John Molloy argues that the latest US war in Iran exposes the brutal double standard at the heart of Western politics: governments that claim there is “no money” for social needs can instantly bankroll war, enriching arms profiteers while dragging the world toward deeper conflict, austerity and the erosion of national sovereignty.
The agony of the Palestinian people under the Israeli boot weighted with American munitions deepened despite the live-streamed genocide. Notwithstanding the cease-fire, Israeli military operations persisted. IDF supported settler-violence increased. Finance Minister, Bezalel Smotrich, openly pursued West Bank annexation and ‘encouraged’ Palestinian migration.
Amidst the build up to another International Women’s Day it can grate hard on women activists to witness the occasion too often being commercialised and reduced to marketing gimmicks and superficial empowerment messaging. International Working Women’s Day was built by and is still championed by women who want to make substantive and systemic change to our society and world.
THERE is no West Bank. There is no two-state solution. There is only Israel’s destiny. So says Miko Peled, whose insights into the Zionist mind-set inform his advocacy for Palestine. Asked about Israel’s ‘endgame,’ Peled was forthright. It is a Jewish state. Israel will make sure it remains so. Arabs can support it or die fighting against it. According to Zionism, antisemites are everywhere. Antisemitism can be better dealt with in the Jewish state.
While some were surprised that a Labour government should boast implementing a draconian immigration regime, the issue has become more pressing and more divisive than almost any other, including the NHS and the economy. Reform’s rise in the polls, despite the absence of a coherent policy framework, has been largely based on its claim that it will stop immigration – some members talk about ‘remigration’ i.e. sending back people (i.e. ethnic minorities) with already settled status.
NORTH and South we are going backwards. Instead of things improving the crises in housing, health, employment and cost of living continue to get worse and worse.
When there’s even a hint of a different approach (Labour’s ever diluted Employment Rights proposals or the NI Assembly’s Good Jobs Bill) that might move the UK towards hardly revolutionary European norms, the ear-splitting squealing of capitalist pigs is deafening. While some of their reaction is performative, it also hints at their vulnerability in that they know, historically, that collective, democratic challenge can stop the powerful acting with impunity.
THE decision by UEFA to allow Israel (a non-European country) to participate in the European Nations’ Cup competition despite the ongoing genocide against the Palestinian people in Gaza and the West Bank is deplorable.
WITH new revelations coming out every day it would been easier to name those who have not met Jeffrey Epstein. Those who up to now have not been named but were acquainted with him must be living in trepidation that they will be next.