Global

Israeli President Isaac Herzog added nothing of great value in his speech at the United States Congress on July 19. 

 His was the typical language. He spoke of a ‘sacred bond’, touted the shared experience between both nations as “unique in scope and quality”, and celebrated the great, common “values that reach across generations”. 

 But this theatrical language was meant to hide an uncomfortable truth: the relationship between Israel and the US is changing at a fundamental level. 

BANGKOK, Thailand -- Cambodian Prime Minister Hun Sen won reelection on July 23, as expected, extending his 38 years in power by monopolizing politics, jailing rivals, silencing free speech, and winning all 125 parliament seats.

"We've won a landslide," said Hun Sen's Cambodian People's Party (CPP) spokesperson Sok Eysan hours after the polls closed.

The only suspense after the election are cliff-hangers -- how quickly will Mr. Hun Sen install his West Point-trained son as next prime minister, and how deep will they expand Cambodia's already extensive diplomatic, economic, and military ties with China.

"Any improvement in (U.S.-Cambodian) relations depends in large part on whether Western governments are willing to accept a less democratic baseline for Cambodia," Prime Minister Hun Sen's son, four-star Gen. Hun Manet, said hours before the polls, according to Bloomberg.

Heir apparent Mr. Hun Manet, 45, was a first-time candidate in the July 23 election to the National Assembly, representing his father's ruling CPP in the capital Phnom Penh.

[Along with other intellectuals, I was asked by a New Zealand solidarity group to share a few ideas on what meaningful solidarity with Palestine entails. This talk inspired the article below.]

 It is a new era in Palestine.

 This new era is taking shape before our very eyes, through the blood, tears and sacrifices of a brave generation that is fighting on two fronts - against the Israeli military occupation, on the one hand, and collaborating Palestinians masquerading as a ‘leadership’, on the other.

 But how do we, in Palestine solidarity communities around the world, respond to the changes underway, to the new language and to the actual unity – wihdat al-Sahat – which are reanimating the Palestinian body politic?

 First, I believe that we must insist on the centrality of the Palestinian voice to any solidarity action pertaining to Palestinian freedom anywhere.

Will Geer’s Theatricum Botanicum’s rendition of William Shakespeare’s immortal masterpiece Macbeth is a bone-chilling excursion into ambition unbound, bloodlust and madness. As the title character (portrayed by the estimable Max Lawrence) quite literally slashes his way to the top of the heap in 11th century Scotland to seize and keep the crown, the astute theatergoer can’t help but reflect on power struggles in today’s America as our  quadrennial presidential contest unfolds.