Individual Journalists

Photo: The statue of Theodore Herzl in Dimona, Israel, who published his highly influential book, The Jewish State, which launched the movement called "political Zionism".

The Death of Israel by a Thousand Cuts

Viewpoint by Jonathan Power*

LUND, Sweden (IDN-INPS) - Even former U.S. President Jimmy Carter, who single handedly (without much Jewish appreciation) did more to make Israel secure than any other living person, confesses neither he nor anyone can change the march of demographics. Within the boundaries of the Holy Land there are just over 6 million Jews and 6 million Palestinians. The Palestinian birth rate is almost three times that of the Israeli Jews. If anything the Jewish population is starting to fall as an increasing number of Jews decide that Israel has no future for them and emigrate.

Another former U.S. President, Richard Nixon, when asked by Patrick Buchanan how he saw the future of Israel, turned down his thumb "like a Roman emperor at the gladiators' arena".

: Jonathan Power; OPINION; 07 November 2017

Photo: Pro-Russian protesters in Donetsk, an industrial city in Ukraine, 9 March 2014. Credit: Wikimedia Commons.

Behind Putin's Plan for Deployment of UN Troops in South-eastern Ukraine

Viewpoint by Jonathan Power*

LUND, Sweden (IDN-INPS) - To its credit the Soviet Union and its successor state, Russia, has long supported UN peacekeeping, a practice that originated in 1960 in the time of UN Secretary-General, Dag Hammarskjold, who evolved the concept during the great Congolese civil war when it was in danger of becoming a Cold War flashpoint.

But what Russia has never contemplated is UN troops in its own backyard. “Summoning the UN deep into Russia’s historical space is a serious step,” Dmitri Trenin, head of the Moscow Carnegie Centre, told The Economist recently.

: Jonathan Power; OPINION; 31 October 2017

Cambodian Economy on the Rise, Democracy on the Wane

Viewpoint by Jonathan Power*

LUND, Sweden (IDN-INPS) - Cambodia is no longer going forward, it is slipping backwards, as it has many times before. Earlier this month the government asked the Supreme Court to dissolve the main opposition coalition. One opposition leader, Kem Sokha, was sent to prison in September and the other, Sam Rainsy, is in exile. The English-language newspaper, The Cambodia Daily, has been closed and the relatively free radio stations leant on and a number closed. The decades-long Prime Minister, Hun Sen, talks about rebels in the capital, Phnom Penh, plotting to overthrow the government.

: Jonathan Power; OPINION; 17 October 2017

Nuclear Strike No Longer an All-Encompassing Taboo

Viewpoint by Jonathan Power*

LUND, Sweden (IDN-INPS) - In the Cold War days, some of us used to say, “Better red than dead” – to rebuff those who believed in nuclear deterrence as a way of political life that gave them security. Now those of us who are frightened that Trump could start a nuclear war over Iran or North Korea should coin a new phrase. How about: “Better alive than going to the grave with Kim Jong-un”? Admittedly that doesn’t have the same snappy ring, but get my point?

At the UN recently, President Donald Trump (aka Fire and Fury) threatened to “totally” destroy North Korea if the U.S. was forced to defend itself.

: Jonathan Power; ARMAMENTS; Nuclear Weapons; 10 October 2017

Photo: In last six quarters, the economy under Prime Minister Modi sank from 9.2 per cent to 5.7 per cent, according to the Congress Party. Courtesy: PTI.

Things Are Suddenly Not Looking Good For India's PM Modi

Viewpoint by Jonathan Power*

LUND, Sweden (IDN-INPS) - Recent reports estimate that India’s annual economic growth rate is now down to 5.5%. The government of Narendra Modi which until recently seemed to be on a public opinion roll could fall off its log – but that depends on the Indian electorate ending its self-deceit.

Three years ago Modi at the helm of his Hindu nationalist party, the BJP, gave Congress a thumping defeat. Suave and persuasive on the podium, Modi rammed home a simple message that in the state of Gujarat where he was the chief minister more had been achieved in a short space of time than anywhere else in India. It was industrializing fast, building more roads, modernizing its ports and communications and helping the poor.

: Jonathan Power; OPINION; 03 October 2017

Reminiscing 'War Criminal' McNamara as Trump Spits Out 'Fire and Fury' on North Korea

Viewpoint by Jonathan Power*

LUND, Sweden (IDN-INPS) - Out of the blue the war in Vietnam is in the news. Yet it is not the fiftieth anniversary of America’s defeat in Vietnam when North Vietnam caused it to flee. It’s only the forty-second.

Part of this must be fearful parallels with the moral and strategic blindness of President Donald Trump who seems to believe in uttering his life and death rhetoric, akin to President Richard Nixon’s on Vietnam, hoping to frighten the enemy into submission – in this case North Korea. Many people are worried that Trump is ready to fight America's biggest war since Vietnam. As did Henry Kissinger, Nixon’s National Security Advisor, he appears to be considering the use of nuclear weapons.

: Jonathan Power; OPINION; 26 September 2017

Photo: “We will pursue every option to protect Scotland’s position in Europe and, by extension, the interests of EU citizens who live and work here," First Minister of Scotland, Nicola Sturgeon, told EU diplomats following the EU referendum. Credit: FirstMinister.gov.scot

Scotland Might Pave the Way out of Brexit

Viewpoint by Jonathan Power*

LUND, Sweden (IDN-INPS) - “It’s not over until the fat lady ends her song” – so goes the adage, referring to the often-overweight soprano who sings the last aria in Wagner’s opera, Götterdämmerung.

British Prime Minister Theresa May is not fat in a bodily sense, but she is fat-headed, convinced of her own righteousness over Brexit, although she herself voted Remain in the Brexit referendum and then changed her opinion so she could win enough votes from Brexit members of parliament to become Prime Minister.

: Jonathan Power; OPINION; 19 September 2017

Photo: Sheikh Zayed Road and its skyscrapers in Dubai, United Arab Emirates on 14 September 2007. Credit: Wikimedia Commons

A Little Less Architectural Vanity Will Make A Lot Happier

Viewpoint by Jonathan Power*

LUND, Sweden (IDN-INPS) – "What did these vain and presumptuous men intend? How did they expect to raise their lofty mass against God, when they had built it above all the mountains and clouds of the earth’s atmosphere?" This is St. Augustine writing about Babylon in his 'City of God'. In more modern times Jonathan Raban has written in 'Soft City': "The city has always been an embodiment of hope and a source of festering guilt: A dream pursued, and found vain, wanting and destructive."

St. Augustine wrote the 'City of God' in a state of sorrowful contemplation. The city of man, he believed, ought to be a harmonious reflection of the City of God. In actuality it is vulgar, lazy and corrupt, a place so brutish that it lacks even the dignity of the satanic. St Augustine would surely write the same way if reincarnated in Atlanta, Johannesburg, Mumbai or Riyadh.

: Jonathan Power; OPINION; 12 September 2017

Stop Trump From Abandoning the Iran Nuclear Deal

Viewpoint by Jonathan Power*

LUND, Sweden (IDN-INPS) - The big mistake, apparently about to be made by President Trump, in undoing the nuclear agreement made by President Barack Obama with Iran is not just that he intends to go backwards, it is that he doesn’t intend to go forwards. (To be fair, neither did Obama.)

What the Iranians negotiated about was not so much the “bomb” – to be or not to be – but about their pride and their position in the world and their right to become a thriving economic and political power inured from sanctions or military threats. (Sanctions were imposed before the nuclear issue came to the fore.)

: Jonathan Power; OPINION; 05 September 2017

Photo: View of Shahr-i-Zohok (the "Red City") in Bamyan Province. The color comes from the red clay used in construction; the dry climate has allowed for the remarkable preservation. Source: CIA Factbook.

America Should Get out of Afghanistan Before it's Tool Late

Viewpoint by Jonathan Power*

LUND, Sweden (IDN-INPS) - It’s the most repeated maxim in all the reporting on Afghanistan: “The Americans have the watches, the Taliban have the time.”

Dead right! This is America’s longest war ever, 16 years and counting. President Donald Trump, admitting he was reversing his campaign call for pulling out, has now decided to stay in, sending to Afghanistan another 3,900 troops to reinforce the 8,400 there now.

Trump doesn’t claim it will do the job of defeating the Taliban. In fact he lays out no long-term strategy at all. It’s not difficult to imagine that in a decade the same stalemate will exist.