Dear friends--
Such a lot is going on in the world. We might all need to fasten our seatbelts to deal with the deep global upheaval that now seems to be underway.
Yes, I know that a lot is is happening in many parts of the world-- in Ukraine, in the Caribbean, in the DRC and Sudan, and the global economic chaos sparked by Pres. Trump's unhinged trade policies... But to me it seems clear that the deepest upheaval that our post-1945 world system is currently seeing is the one being spurred by the sustained-- and gleefully displayed!-- cruelty of the Israeli-U.S. genocide in Gaza.
![]() Israel's deliberate starving of the child in Gaza shown in the UNICEF photo above is just one, deeply wrenching aspect of this cruelty. Others (still in Gaza) include Israel's gleeful demolition of fifty high-rise towers in Gaza City within just two days of the past week; the allied attempt to ethnically cleanse all of Gaza City and force all its million people to flee to the south; and Israel's unceasing launching of air-raids against the miserable tent camps in which families are huddling, all across Gaza.
But the depraved violence the Israeli-U.S. axis has unleashed over the past 23 months has also reached far beyond "just" the tiny Gaza enclave.
This violence has always also enveloped Palestine's West Bank region. But from late 2023 on, Israel-- with the full backing of both the Biden and Trump administrations-- has taken its desperate, very violent campaign to crush any potential spark of opposition ever further beyond the borders of historic Palestine. In January 2024, it killed a Hamas leader in Beirut. In June 2024, it killed the head of the Hamas political bureau, Ismail Haniyeh, while he was visiting Tehran. In September it unleashed a major campaign to destroy Hamas's allies of the Hizbullah movement in Lebanon. Last December it bombed military facilities across Syria. In June, it launched an extremely deadly, 12-day war against Iran. And from late 2023 until today, it has undertaken numerous deadly air-strikes against the rulers of deeply impoverished Yemen...
![]() Last week, this U.S.-Israeli axis continued to hit targets in nearly all those places (except Iran.) But its Israeli wing also expanded its field of action to Tunisia-- and then, with deadly consequences, to the capital city of key U.S. ally Qatar. The image here shows the male members of Qatar's ruling family presiding over the funeral for the five, Hamas-associated Palestinians and one Qatari killed in that attack.
For many of the rulers in the Arab world who have "gone along" with, or actively collaborated with, most of the U.S.-Israeli assaults on the Palestinians for many years now, this latest assault on a the country that has long hosted the largest U.S. military base in West Asia finally seems to have been a "bridge too far."
Several commentators have tried to unpack just how much the U.S. government knew about the Doha assault before it occurred, and why Washington did not "warn" Qatar about it until ten minutes after it happened. To me, it seems clear there is no way the Israeli war-planes that launched those missiles against Doha could have gotten close enough to do so without enjoying very close coordination with the U.S. Centcom forces that control just about all of the air-space of Arab West Asia.
And therefore that, at the very least, the Centcom commanders had been very well briefed beforehand on what Israel was planning. Or else, they even colluded in that planning?
Could those Centcom commanders have been acting without prior authorization or instructions from Secretary of Defense/War Pete Hegseth, or from his boss, the president? No, no, no.
![]() ... On Thursday, I was honored to convene and then moderate a very distinctive discussion on the (still-unfolding) impact of the Qatar raid, in which I was joined by five very thoughtful and well-informed analysts of West Asian and world affairs. These were:
- Palestinian-American analyst Rami Khouri,
- Palestinian-British thought leader Dr. Azzam Tamimi, with us from Istanbul,
- Northwestern University in Doha professor Dr. Khaled Hroub, with us from Doha itself,
- veteran UN human-rights official Craig Mokhiber, and
- California-based peace-organizing leader Rick Sterling.
Khouri and Sterling are members of the JWE board. Tamimi and Hroub were guest experts in our 2024 project “Understanding Hamas And Why That Matters.”
Our discussion was powerful and far-ranging. You can find a short report on it on the JWE blog, here. That report also contains links to the 90-minute video of the whole discussion, which you can find here, and to the downloadable PDF of the transcript.
Some of the notable quotes from the discussion were as follows:
- "To kill the mediator, to kill the messenger, that was something I guess beyond our thinking and everyone here..." - Dr. Khaled Hroub, on the shock and disbelief in Qatar following the Israeli attack during ceasefire negotiations.
- "If the Americans and the Israelis are drunk, what they're drunk on is impunity." - Craig Mokhiber, contextualizing the attack on Qatar as the latest in a long series of unpunished violations of international law.
- "The Palestinian struggle is the last global anti-colonial struggle. And that's why the whole world as the south especially supports it. People understand in their bones that this is to end colonialism..." - Rami Khouri, explaining the global resonance of the Palestinian cause.
- "Zionism simply cannot be remedied, cannot be rehabilitated because it's an ideology that justifies theft, that justifies murder, that justifies deception, that justifies all sorts of crimes..." - Dr. Azzam Tamimi, arguing that the core ideology of the Israeli state is the root of the conflict and a threat to global norms.
- "The US is an enthusiastic participant in the genocide of the Palestinian people, and that is Republican democrat, that is Congress and the presidency, that's the national security state..." - Craig Mokhiber, rejecting the idea of the US as a potential savior or neutral mediator.
The Just World Ed board is already starting to discuss what follow-up programming we might start to plan for that discussion. But I think we have already injected a lot of energy and creative thought into the crucial conversations taking place both within the United States and globally over the deep challenges that the U.S.-Israeli axis has now posed to the existing international order, and how the governments and peoples of the Global Majority might, for their part, most appropriately respond.
Our very deep thanks to all of our distinguished panelists-- and also to all those of you who, with less than 18 hours notice, signed on to attend the webinar... And especially to those of you who posted thought-provoking questions into the Q&A box.
I'm really sorry we didn't get time to address most of those questions. But our online conversations will be continuing...
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Other news from Just World Ed
Our "Qatar attack" webinar was not the only activity we've undertaken in the past two weeks.
![]() Crucially, along with our amazing partners at Dublin's Tortoise Shack Media and Kuala Lumpur's Hashim Sani Center, we've been able to support the release of no fewer than four new episodes of the PalCast podcast-- all of them superbly co-hosted by Dr. Yousef Aljamal (from Sakariya, Türkiye) and Tony Groves (from Dublin.)
** The first of those eps featured 22-year-old Imad Qudaih, a visually impaired student of English translation at the Islamic University of Gaza and a freelance journalist with BBC News. Speaking from his displacement camp in Southern Gaza's Al-Mawasi district, Imad shared the destruction of his home village, the loss of his cat to an Israeli sniper, and the struggle of living under constant attacks.
Imad also mourned the loss of his study tools, including his Braille machine, books, and laptop, all now buried under the rubble. Yet, despite injuries and personal losses, he spoke about how he continued his studies online and his reporting for the BBC, risking his life to make the voices of Gaza heard.
Catch Imad's episode, “My Unseen Memories” on Apple Podcasts or Spotify.
** Our next ep, also in early September, featured Lynn Boylan, an Irish Member of the European Parliament for Dublin who is sailing with Global Sumud Flotilla (GSF). Ms. Boylan, who chairs the EU’s Relationship with Palestine Committee, is aboard the Legal Monitoring Vessel that's accompanying this ground-breaking, global, citizens' initiative.
She noted that while some governments, including Spain and Ireland, showed signs of support, others sought to obstruct the GSF's mission, such as by blocking ships from departing certain ports. She said she expected diplomatic pressure and direct threats from Israel, stressing that her political role would be used to bring any evidence of Israeli aggression back to the European Parliament. (Soon after this conversation, the Israelis did indeed launch physical attacks against GSF boats in first Barcelona, and then Tunisia.)
You can catch her wonderful conversation on Apple or Spotify.
** A few days ago, Yousef and Tony brought onto the Palcast Nour Abo Aisha, who spoke from Gaza City as it remained under siege. She described how her writing had always centered on memory, displacement, and survival, drawing on both her own life and the stories of those around her. She explained that for her, writing had been a form of resistance against erasure, a way to break through the silence forced on Palestinians. Her work had already appeared in publications such as The Guardian, Prism Reports, Mondoweiss, and Al Jazeera Net, and she was also a member of We Are Not Numbers.
Nour talked about how her daily life had become focused on survival—finding water, carrying it upstairs, and worrying about food. She recalled earlier traumas, including surviving an airstrike in 2020 that killed her students while she volunteered as a teacher. She admitted her desire to leave Gaza, believing she could no longer endure the conditions, yet she felt compelled to share her story despite the pain.
Nour's powerful testimony is available on Apple Podcasts and Spotify.
** On Thursday, the PalCast guest was well-known Al-Jazeera correspondent Hani Mahmoud. Hani talked about how he decided 23 months ago to shift from academia and to stand in front of the camera in order to tell the story of Gaza and its people. He works as the Aljazeera English correspondent in Gaza, and is thus one of the most important (and most at-risk) journalists alive today.
I confess I haven't yet had time to listen to this episode, which apparently also features some input from the veteran PalCast friend Tadgh Hickey, who's been traveling with the GSF and survived the latest Israeli attack on his boat, in Tunis. But I certainly plan to listen to it-- and you should too! Catch it on Apple Podcasts, or Spotify.
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![]() Two other projects that Just World Ed have undertaken thus far in September have been: (1) an impromptu but very productive consultation on future JWE programming that Rami Khouri and I held, in-person, in Maine last weekend; and (2) an excellent, and very substantive on-line discussion that the distinguished Dutch-Palestinian analyst Mouin Rabbani and I had, on September 1, on the very challenging topic of intra-Palestinian relations.
When Rami and I were talking, the main directions we were headed in were:
![]() (a) to combine renewed work on Just World Ed's 18-month project on "Understanding Hamas" with some form of activity to mark the second anniversaries of both the Hamas-led breakout from Gaza on October 7, 2023, and the Israeli government's speedy decision to respond by visiting an all-out genocide on the Palestinians of Gaza; and
(b) to launch a new project, specifically on Yemen and on the heroism that its de-facto rulers from the Ansarallah movement have shown as they've been the only governmental body anywhere in the world that has assumed the responsibility the Genocide Convention imposes on all governments, everywhere, to take concrete actions to prevent and end genocides.
So we were mulling ways to follow up on these plans when the Israelis interrupted our planning by undertaking their strike against Qatar... More discussions and planning will now ensue...
![]() ... As for my conversation with Mouin Rabbani, that one was more formal. It had the title ">From History to Today's UN: Palestinian Politics and the 'Uniting for Peace' Push."
You can see the 40-minute video of our discussion, here, and you can see a digest of what we discussed, here. Huge thanks to Mouin for agreeing to engage with me on this vital and very urgent topic. (My interest in this matter arose in part because of some of the thinking and analysis I'd put into my late-August essay on Globalities, "Gaza, and the UN at 80.")
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Some quick thoughts on global change
I confess I frequently wish I had more time to do my own writing on the big issues of the day... On the other hand, I know that I-- and I think a lot of other people, too-- get a lot of valuable new insights from the conversations I'm able to have with others. And I also learn a lot from the writings and interactions involving other people whose work I trust and deeply admire.
First among these would be the amazing team at Electronic Intifada. I feel so honored that their Nora Barrows-Friedman is a great and always super-constructive member of the Just World Ed board. But I have great respect for all the members of their team-- and for the dedication and talent that Ali Abunimah has shown by not only pursuing his own writing and activism but also assembling, nurturing, and guiding that whole amazing EI team...
![]() Another of my long-term intellectual heroes has been Amb. Chas W. Freeman, Jr., a guy who was not only the U.S. ambassador to Saudi Arabia back in 1990-92, but who was Nixon's principal translator during his breakthrough visit to Beijing in 1972-- and who negotiated a major disengagement agreement for Angola face-to-face with Fidel Castro in ?1999.
Freeman has been a super participant in several of Just World Ed's programs over the years (and we hope to have him back again, soon!) More recently, he has had a number of very informative appearances on the YouTube channel "Dialogue Works", that is run by the prolific Brazilian professor and podcaster Nima Alkhurshid.
An episode that they streamed yesterday caught my attention, not least because of its title: "The U.S. Could be Heading Toward Disaster Faster Than You Think". You can catch the whole 60 minutes of it at that link.
Freeman presented, starting at around 6:54, his view of the possible impacts of Israel's September 9 strike on Qatar. That whole part of the conversation is worth listening to. (And I uploaded the transcript of it to Globalities, see the PDF here.)
Freeman notes that, especially after the attack on Doha,
the whole region is being transformed.
Unsaid are two things. First, that this will accelerate the rapprochement between the Gulf Cooperation Council countries, the Arabs in the Gulf, and Iran, because they face a common threat from Israel. And Israel is, of course, openly planning to renew warfare against Iran. It's just carried out an act of war against the GCC.
Second, if the American protection is not valuable, if giving Donald Trump a $400 million Boeing 747 and signing a contract for $42 billion worth of American weaponry, and maintaining an American presence at Al Udeid... then Qatar must recalibrate.
And it will, I think, look to China, because the Chinese are fierce defenders of sovereignty, and they have the air defense equipment that could displace what the Qataris had planned to buy from the United States...
Whether the Emir of Qatar (and some of his colleagues in the GCC) might seek to exit the U.S. Security zone and pivot instead toward China, or how far or fast they might do this, remains to be seen. I will just quickly note three things things here.
First: China has already established a strong record of diplomatic as well as economic ties with most or all GCC countries. Back in March 2023, it was China that achieved the important step of a significant rapprochement in relations between Saudi Arabia-- which had long acted as a de-facto U.S. puppet in the region-- and Iran. Moreover, China's achievement of that breakthrough reportedly came as a complete surprise to all the U.S. and allied intel agencies, which underlined the extent to which China commands-- and can share with others-- means of communication that are deeply resistant to Western hacking.
Second: The diminution (or deflation) that we are now starting to see, of the hegemony that Washington has long exercised over the affairs of the Arab portions of West Asia, and Egypt, has many parallels with the deflation of British power over that same region that occurred back in 1956. I have recently been thinking a lot (and writing a little) about the events of that era. One of the key parallels is the way that the previously near-hegemonic power, Britain, acted in close collusion with Israel to undertake a "daring" plan to defend British hegemony-- primarily by overthrowing Egypt's Pres. Nasser. This time, too, there is clear collusion between the hegemon and Israel. But on this occasion, Israel seems to be driving the agenda much more than Washington.
Third: Back in 1956, the United States was the key "rising power" that brought an abrupt end to the disastrous British-Israeli-French "last throes of hegemony" over-reach. This time around, there is no single rising power that's threatening to end the Israeli-U.S. era of hegemony over Arab West Asia. China is a key factor, yes. But China (a) does not have the same weight in international affairs or the global economy that Washington had back in 1956, and (b) it does not, as far as I can see, seek to exercise hegemonic rule within any area that it does not consider part of historic China. The rising challenge to Israeli-U.S. hegemony that we're seeing today is coming not by a single rising power but from a broad coalition of governments representing the Global Majority, as well as from global citizen movements, including-- and deeply inspired by-- the super-resilient people's resistance movements in Gaza and the West Bank...
Well, I have gone on long enough here. There is still so much to say! Now I'm back home I'll get back onto my weekly schedule with these newsletters. They are, as you probably know, one of the many projects run by Just World Educational... and as I have noted above we have a lot of other projects that we are now running, and considering whether to run...
Please support our work in every way you can! Share our many products with your friends and networks. Buy and recommend our still super-timely "Understanding Hamas" book. (I think both Rami Khouri and I are still both eager to come and talk to your community group, congregation, or classroom about its contents. Let us know!)
Follow and learn from our PalCasts, our webinars, our YouTube channel, and all our social media (@justworlded).
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We're living in a time not just of horrendous atrocities-- but also of rapid change.
You stay well. End the genocide in Gaza and the epidemic of US-Israeli violence all across West Asia!
~ Helena
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