In their book 'The Moscow Connection' (in German 2023) Markus Wehner and Reinhard Bingener trace in detail the ignominious role of the SPD and particularly Schröder in leading Germany into foreign policy dependency on Russia. This interview with Kaja Puto distils the book's key points👇

'It has to go both ways: if we interpret 'from the river to the sea' as a call to genocide, we have to condemn the vision of Greater Israel as the same.'
—Amos Goldberg and Alon Confino unpack the slogan's meanings Eurozine Review of Democracy
publicseminar.org/2024/04/from-t…

In his 1984 essay ‘Permission to narrate’, #EdwardSaid described urging friends in #Beirut to record what was happening during the Israeli siege, in order to tell the world ‘what it was like to be at the receiving end of Israeli “antiterrorism”’. eurozine.com/too-busy-survi…

Western Europe’s historical denial of Ukraine’s Europeanness stemmed from the same imperialist root as Russia’s denial of Ukraine’s national existence. Mykola Riabchuk on the EU's momentous change of heart, via Часопис «Критика» eurozine.com/no-longer-a-fo…

Tom Segev on Ben Gurion's understanding of the 'historical significance' of the Holocaust:

'There are very nearly free and very nearly totalitarian countries, but more often we find intermediate forms. Everywhere, however, the struggle between freedom and totalitarianism may be regarded as one between different attitudes to social conflict.'

Ralf Dahrendorf, 1959

For many, Germany’s unconditional support for Israel since 7 October confirms its memory culture has ‘gone haywire’. But such criticisms are often unduly polemical, writes Andrew I. Port via Public Seminar eurozine.com/germany-genoci…

Here it is. The essay Guernica Magazine retracted. Multiple editors resigned when they ran it, accusing Guernica of pro-Israel bias. It’s archived here.

The author, Joanna Chen, is an Israeli who writes very rawly on trust & mistrust in Oct. 7’s wake. web.archive.org/web/2024030509…

Hopefully to be screened one day in Russia too.

'Es liegt ein Element der Bevormundung in jeder Politik der Moralität, ein Element des Dogmatismus und der Starre, ein Griff nach material endgültigen Lösungen, nach der Gerechtigkeit selbst, die noch ungewiss bleiben muss.'

Ralf Dahrendorf, Demokratie und Gesellschaft, 1965

Rather than debating whether today’s far right is fascist, we need to think about fascization as process. By Pierre Zaoui via Revue Esprit Cairn International eurozine.com/on-fascization/

European institutions and politicians must stop portraying themselves and their nations as mere bystanders to the ‘Israel-Palestine conflict’ and instead acknowledge their part in creating the situation. By Hilla Dayan and Yolande Jansen, via de Nederlandse Boekengids

'Across the violent canvas of modernity, imperialism and terrorism have joined hands, proclaiming their world-historical virtue in the name of some political goal or project that they alone have defined.' Fred Halliday in ⁦openDemocracy⁩ 2011 opendemocracy.net/en/article_186…

‘Has Navalny’s conviction strengthened or weakened the Putin regime?’

‘We don’t know. The outcome isn’t clear yet.’

Interview with Olga Romanova, founder of the NGO Russia Behind Bars, in 2021 Zeitschrift OSTEUROPA

Tareq Baconi is one of the sharpest scholars and writers on Palestine. Listen to this in-depth interview with him on the latest from Gaza, the history of Palestine, and the prospects for the future.

At a time when Western double standards have been so spectacularly on display, most of the world seems more than happy to let South Africa’s past and present moral shortcomings slide, Sasha Polakow-Suransky writes. foreignpolicy.com/2024/02/01/sou…

'No one talks about how scary it is to be Palestinian right now. It can cost you your job,' - Sayed Kashua talks about the Palestinians' fear of speaking out about the war, the precarious situation of Arab Israelis and the limits of writing.

qantara.de/en/node/43069

Fred Halliday on terrorism (1987): 'The crucial moral guideline is that when a group commits acts that could be regarded as terrorism, these must be separated from our judgement of the justice of its cause.'