The annual pilgrimage to Mecca recently took place. Muslims are required - as part of the Five Pillars - to do the Hajj, as it is known, once in their life if health and money are permitting. This year, the fear of Swine flu dominated news about the...

The U.S. media will not notice and the U.S. government does not care - nor, in the case of the latter, should it. But Saudi Arabia - which is often outrageously described as “moderate” in the uncritical U.S. press - if the biggest censor in...

Annual U.S. State Department human rights reports are politicized. The content is accurate and done by genuine scholars in the field. But the focus, or lack thereof, is often motivated by political factors. Politics, of course, set by the elected...

The Anti-Defamation League is one of the most phony organizations in the world. Ostensibly committed to fighting bigotry, it has become a bigoted organization. Its sole reason d’etre is championing Israel and Zionism and accusing all opponents of...

Arlington Cemetery is the closest thing to holy ground in America. A national monument it is the nation’s most important military burial ground. A new book - On Hallowed Ground: The Story of Arlington National Cemetery - captures the unique...

The understatement of the year since Israel is a hypocrite everyday. The mere pronouncement that Israel is a genuine democracy is nonsense since it denies equal rights to 1.5 million of its citizens solely because they are non-Jewish. But it is...

No Zionist cause is too extreme and violent for mainstream support in America. Generic pro-Israel fundraisers are one thing, but support for illegal Israeli settlers on the occupied West Bank is a testament to just how fanatical pro-Israel American...

President Barack Obama came to office with great enthusiasm to finally end the Israeli occupation of Palestine and bring about a two-state solution: Peace. The president appointed a Mid-East envoy in the form of former Senate Majority Leader and...

Iraq’s Green Zone has been an Oasis for Western officials in the city since the advent of the war. Secured behind myriad checkpoints and high concrete walls, the flock of American generals, diplomats, contractors, and UN workers are usually safe...

Venezuela’s authoritarian leader is not cutting his own power, just the literal power of millions of Venezuelans. The majority who voted for Chavez twice and for his constitutional amendment that suspended term limits are reaping what they have...