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US actions in Mideast

The recent series of air strikes by the United States on Iran-backed military targets in Syria and Iraq have sparked international concern, as they are a clear violation of the sovereignty, independence and territorial integrity of these nations. Robert Wood, the US alternate representative for special political affairs at the United Nations, defended these actions as being “necessary and proportionate,” citing a country’s “inherent right of self-defense” under Article 51 of the UN Charter. However, attempting to use this right to justify unauthorized military operations in ...

Israeli assault on Rafah

The last refuge is no longer a refuge. Around half of Gaza’s 2.3 million people have found some kind of shelter in Rafah, often under canvas, raising the border city’s population fivefold. Now, though desperate, traumatised and exhausted, many are readying to flee again. Benjamin Netanyahu has said that Israeli troops will soon enter, despite warnings from António Guterres, the UN secretary general, that it would “increase what is already a humanitarian nightmare with untold regional consequences.” Strikes on the city appeared to be intensifying on Thursday. The UN has warned ...

Immigration policy woes

President Biden’s assertion that he’s ready to sign a border deal — one that would make it much harder for migrants to enter the United States — is a necessary and long overdue step to restore the public’s confidence in the federal government’s ability to maintain control over immigration. The crush of asylum seekers crossing the southern border has overwhelmed the government’s capacity to deal justly with their claims. The needs of the migrants have strained the resources of cities and towns across the country; in the absence of federal help, these communities are ...

Biden and Iran

The U.S. on Friday launched what must be one of the most advertised military attacks against an enemy in history, with what the Pentagon said were airstrikes on seven facilities run by Iran-backed militias in Syria and Iraq. U.S. officials have been broadcasting for days that strikes would be coming after the weekend drone attack that killed three Americans at a U.S. base in Jordan. Biden Administration officials signaled that the strikes were likely to be against the militias and not against Iran. Leaks to the media even suggested the U.S. was waiting for the skies to be clearer in ...

Congress and the ‘dreamers’

Congress’s border deal talks might be ongoing, but in one essential area, legislators are moving backward: The ‘dreamers,’ undocumented immigrants who came to this country as children, have been left out of the conversation. Since the first version of the Dream Act was introduced almost a quarter-century ago, support for the young people who are Americans in every sense but the legal one has been a bright spot of bipartisanship amid acrimony. Almost every immigration compromise that legislators have contemplated has included a pathway to citizenship for these 3 million or so ...

Israel should comply with ICJ’s ruling

It is a bitter twist of history that 75 years after the horrors of the Holocaust saw the UN adopt the genocide convention, Israel is likely to find itself in the dock of the international court of justice accused of being intent on destroying the Palestinians “in whole or in part”. Hundreds of people — mainly women and children — are dying every day under Israeli bombardment in the Gaza Strip, a death rate reckoned to be the worst of any major conflict this century. South Africa filed an application instituting genocide proceedings against Israel at The Hague a month ago. On ...