Contributions by:

Stephen Eric Bronner

Who Are The Palestinians Today?

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Five years before his death in 1980, Henry Pachter — my former teacher and friend – published an article in Dissent that enraged the editors: It was entitled “Who Are the Palestinians?”[1] Knowledge about “the occupation” and sympathy for Israel among the Left – and especially among the Jewish Left in the great urban centers…

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About Saving Darfur: Reflections On The Carrot And The Stick

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He who wills the end wills the means thereto. —Immanuel Kant Revulsion has gripped the world over the continuing tragedy in Darfur. Terrible civil wars between Northern and Southern Sudan have been taking place since independence was achieved more than fifty years ago. Nearly 300,000 people have died due to illness, violence, and starvation while…

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The Sudan And The Crisis In Darfur

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The Middle East is not merely a geographical designation, but a cauldron of ideological and material conflicts. Like all territories once subject to colonialism, its borders are arbitrary. Neither religious intolerance nor ancient tribal and ethnic hatreds respect them. Conflicts of this sort were rife in the Sudan. It is a huge country roughly the…

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Iraq Redux: How Things Looked Then And How They Look Now

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It is now two years since President George W. Bush landed on an aircraft carrier and proclaimed victory in Iraq with the words: “Mission Accomplished!” The threat to the United States had passed, the weapons of mass destruction had not been launched, and an ally of al Qaeda had been destroyed. Statues of the dictator…

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Incendiary Images: Blasphemous Cartoons, Cosmopolitan Responsibility, And Critical Engagement

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Culture is only true when implicitly critical, and the mind which forgets this revenges itself in the critics it breeds. —- Theodor W. Adorno The political cartoon has a long history. Some of it is bright and noble: Goya satirized the Catholic Inquisition with his wonderful cappricios; Daumier held up the mirror by which French…

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Twilight In Tehran

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Modernity and tradition confront one another everywhere in the Middle East. In Iran, however, the international repercussions of the domestic conflict between them can prove particularly severe. Ignoring the delicate balance existing between theocracy and democracy, Islamic law and human rights, Western nations have been looking with increasing suspicion upon the decision of the Iranian…

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It Happened Here: The Bush Sweep, The Left, And The American Future

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Political commentary is always replete with exaggerations: it fits the need of the culture industry. Even the greatest thinkers like Karl Marx and Theodor Adorno tended to take the experience of a crucial historical moment and extrapolate its most dramatic implications into the future: it’s a natural inclination. But the victory of George W. Bush…

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Of Reason And Faith: A Reply To His Holiness Pope Benedict Xvi

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As the reign of Pope Benedict XVI begins the world looks for indications of his intentions and policies. He has already reached out in a small way to Muslims, Jews, and even unbelievers. But the new pontiff has also expressed his desire to re-affirm the “Christian roots” of Europe and build a more doctrinally unified…

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Dubya’s Fellow Travelers: Left Intellectuals And Mr. Bush’s War

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What are “fellow travelers”? Once upon a time, during the 1920s and 1930s, the epithet referred to left-wing intellectuals who, while not members of the communist party, were sympathetic to its political project. No preening right-winger or proud moderate will let anyone on the left ever forget how writers like Lion Feuchtwanger, Romain Rolland, Lincoln…

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Constructing Neo-Conservatism

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Neo-conservatism has become both a code word for reactionary thinking in our time and a badge of unity for those in the Bush administration advocating a new imperialist foreign policy, an assault on the welfare state, and a return to “family values.” Its members are directly culpable for the disintegration of American prestige abroad, the…

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