Onward

I have little time or energy to reconstruct developments over the past two weeks or so. The most pressing concerns -- the Hamas victory and saber-rattling over Iranian nuclear ambitions -- are rather significant, but usually for the opposite reasons than those gnawed about in the dominant media. Cutting to the chase: Hamas' ascent to formal political control over Palestinian politics and Iran's nuclear machinations are threats to Israel and the US only to the extent that the latter parties decide to make them threats.

If Israel expects Hamas to be as pliant as Fatah was and as willing to accept demands for one-sided "reform" while Israel flaunts its expansionist project, then Hamas is likely to respond violently. Likewise, if the US bullies Iran and tries to use the UN as a direct policy making arm -- something that will inevitably fail because of Chinese and Russian interests -- then Iran is likely to respond belligerently and, if attacked or destabilized, violently.

To reiterate, these separate crises are crises only so far as the US and Israel continues riding them to realize pre-existing political goals that, invariably, punish Palestinians and Iranians. If, on the other hand, the US and Israel rethink things and start to make inroads that are fair and even-handed on Palestinian national aspirations and nuclear proliferation in general, then we probably don't have too much to worry about. Suffice it to say, though, such an epiphany is not very likely.

I don't have much else to say on either topic at the moment and, unfortunately, there's a paucity of good reading to recommend. The Iranian storyline is not new, so your best bet is to keep an eye on the chess moves over the next month or so. We should have a better idea of how far the US and Israel are willing to go by March.

Regarding the Hamas victory, let me recommend what Tony Karon, Gilbert Achcar, and Adam Hanieh have to say. Rahul Mahajan has some nice thoughts, as well, but they're colored by a bit of (well-placed) cynicism. Additionally, Ian Fisher has been doing some good reporting for the NY Times, which I hope will keep him on this beat. A 2003 article by Fisher provides some good background on how and why Hamas has catapulted past Fatah in recent years.

Unrelated to the issues above, here are some links that have stood out to me, and are worth holding on to or perusing:

* Yet another Downing Street Memo has been leaked. This one outlines plans by the Bush administration to dress up an American aircraft as a UN flight and float it over Iraq prior to the war. The hope was that it would be shot at, thus providing a nice and simple justification for the invasion when it was becoming clear that the UN was not going to rubber stamp an assault.

* A British humanitarian group, Reprieve, recently released a report on the state of detainees at Gitmo last month. It's available here and makes for some unpleasant reading. Unsurprisingly, it didn't render a blip on the American media's radar.

* The Super Bowl went down in Detroit. A good time was had by all, no doubt.

* Again we learn that Bush's NSA spying is not only illegal, but also fruitless. Also see Thomas Powers' NYRB essay, "The Biggest Secret."

* Tyler Zimmer offers up the "Truth About Universal Health Care." He writes, "The trouble with UHC isn't that it's politically infeasible, financially ruinous, or inefficient, because none of the above is true. The largest impediment to implementing UHC is that it has yet to receive a fair trial in this country."

* With each Bush SOTU comes more lies, exaggerations, and half-truths. You should be used to it by now.

* More money's going to be blown on Iraq. Some oil revenue is reportedly funding the insurgency, too.

* Capitalism vs. a habitable planet? Is it really that stark a choice? Robert Newman thinks so. As do I.

* New Orleans as a "chocolate city"? Ooh, can't say that. White folks get mad. Meanwhile, the poor folks, a disproportionate number of whom are black, get driven out...

* Adam Curtis' famed documentary, "The Power of Nightmares," is back online: Part I, Part II, and Part III.