One of the criteria of statehood is having control over what goes on in one’s territory. As the Palestinians pursue statehood in the UN, there are real questions about whether the Palestinian Authority actually does control the territory it claims. Israel collects the tax revenues generated within the Occupied Territories and disburses them to the PA. Recently, however, it has refused to hand over the tax revenues to the PA. The question arises: do the Palestinians control their own territory? Does it make a difference that Israel, as an occupying power, undermines the claim to Palestinian statehood, the very outcome it has publicly opposed? Is there any way out of this Catch-22?
We’re getting a little more information on the Iranian nuclear program. The Washington Post ran an article that detailed the work of a Russian scientist cited by the IAEA as evidence of an ambitious weapons program. But, since my job is to make your lives as difficult as possible, I am posting another article, by Gareth Porter, in which it seems as if Vyacheslav Danilenko could have simply been working on a completely different set of non-weapons problems. Now what advice do you give to President Obama?
For a number of years the rise of anti-immigrant sentiment in the world has been an especially troubling development. In world politics, such sentiments raise important questions about what constitutes the “nation.” There have been a number of violent incidents in Europe and the most recent one, in Germany, is truly horrifying. It is very hard to separate the contemporary incident from the history of the German nation. It is, however, very important to do so.
A little bit of a brain puzzler (this link will not be on the quiz) to inspire everyone to come up with a spectacular conspiracy theory/alien invasion/psychedelic cerebral brouhaha. Check out this link.
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