War in Context

---

• The Israeli patriot’s final refuge: boycott
• Inside look at the internal strife over Al Jazeera America
• Spare us your intellectual Disneylands
• In Iraq, the bomb-detecting device that didn’t work, except to make money
• The information we give away
• Who is a journalist and what is journalism?
• Private Eye reads Obama’s mind

The Israeli patriot’s final refuge: boycott Posted: 14 Jul 2013 10:47 AM PDT Gideon Levy writes: Anyone who really fears for the future of the country needs to be in favor at this point of boycotting it economically. A contradiction in terms? We have considered the alternatives. A boycott is the least of all evils, and it could produce historic benefits. It is the least violent of the [...]

Inside look at the internal strife over Al Jazeera America Posted: 14 Jul 2013 10:45 AM PDT Glenn Greenwald writes: When Al Jazeera last December purchased Current TV in order to launch its own “Al Jazeera America” (AJAM) network, it seemed clear they had two general options for how the new network’s brand could be built. AJAM could embrace the traditional attributes that has made Al Jazeera, at its best, an intrepid [...]

Spare us your intellectual Disneylands Posted: 14 Jul 2013 10:43 AM PDT Rami G. Khouri writes: Egypt continues to mesmerize, and it seems for many people around the world, to mystify as well, at least to judge by the wild and definitive assertions we hear daily about the consequences of developments in Egypt: Islamism is dead in the Arab world. Pluralism is dead. Democracy has failed in [...]

In Iraq, the bomb-detecting device that didn’t work, except to make money Posted: 14 Jul 2013 10:41 AM PDT Bloomberg BusinessWeek reports: Few of the tales of graft and theft that emerged from the Iraq War—U.S. troops being sold $45 six-packs of soda or entire pallets of vacuum-sealed U.S. currency disappearing into the night—can match that of James McCormick, whose exploits were so preposterous they would seem purely comic if it weren’t for their [...]

The information we give away Posted: 14 Jul 2013 10:39 AM PDT Lindsey Bever writes: Most of us pay little attention to what information we give away or who we give it to. It’s what filmmaker Cullen Hoback explores in his documentary Terms and Conditions May Apply, which is making its theatrical debut this weekend. Hoback investigates how our private data, which we “agree” to share, is [...]

Who is a journalist and what is journalism? Posted: 13 Jul 2013 04:59 PM PDT Jeff Jarvis asks: Who is a journalist? For that matter, what is journalism? Those questions underpinned not only [Yochai] Benkler’s testimony [in the defense of Bradley Manning], but also the debate buzzing around the head of the Guardian’s Glenn Greenwald, as some colleagues in the field have amazingly questioned his role (his permission), and thus [...]

Private Eye reads Obama’s mind Posted: 13 Jul 2013 03:05 PM PDT I love private eye, hilarious!! Obama visits Mandela cell on Roben Island pic.twitter.com/4BJP0MhGfS — Deen Sharp (@deensharp) July 13, 2013 Those unfamiliar with Britain’s best political magazine can find it here.