Martes, 31 de julio de 2018 (Continuación)

Syrian pro-regime forces enter Yarmouk. Photo: Getty Images.

MundoOriente PróximoInternacionalTerrorismo Internacional, ,

The ISIS attack on Sweida in southern Syria last week, where coordinated suicide bombings and raids left more than 200 people dead, took many by surprise. Many had felt that ISIS was all but defeated in Iraq and Syria, and now concern is growing that it remains capable of conducting terrorist attacks.

But the situation in Sweida says more about the Syrian regime than about ISIS, and about how far the regime is willing to go to pursue its goals at the expense of civilian lives.

The ongoing military campaign has been presented by Russia and the Syrian regime as targeting ISIS and other terrorists.…  Seguir leyendo »

Anjum Naveed/AP Images A man on his cell phone sitting in front of a poster showing Imran Khan, head of the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf party, which won last week’s elections, Islamabad, Pakistan, July 28, 2018

MundoOriente Próximo,

“We shall see / Certainly we too shall see that day that has been promised us”. So say the first lines of one of the best-known poems by the Pakistani poet Faiz Ahmed Faiz. Pakistanis trot it out with alacrity in any situation that requires waiting and watching, as elections in Pakistan invariably do. So it was with the general election last week, when both those who were ambivalent about Imran Khan’s incipient victory and those who were ecstatic about it were sharing the poem on social media.

Faiz would almost certainly have balked at this use of his work. A Marxist who endured imprisonment and then exile, he had little love for demagogues and even less liking for the Pakistani military, whose habitual meddling in political affairs he famously opposed.…  Seguir leyendo »

Israelis marching at Damascus Gate in Jerusalem in May to mark the occupation of East Jerusalem in 1967. Credit Lior Mizrahi/Getty Images

MundoOriente Próximo

We were driving our rental car out of Ben Gurion Airport near Tel Aviv. “Dad,” my oldest daughter said as we listened to the radio, “what’s the Nationality Law?”

“It’s a law that says Israel is a Jewish state,” I replied.

“But wasn’t it always that way?” she wondered, and rightly so.

“Yes. Bottom line, it’s always been that way.”

“I don’t get it,” my middle son said. “I thought you said we were citizens.”

“We are,” I answered.

“But we’re not Jewish, right?”

“No, we’re not.”

“Then I don’t get it,” my youngest son complained.

“It’s a little complicated,” I tried to explain.…  Seguir leyendo »

Lo que las feministas deben hacer por los chicos

ReflexionesSocial,

Una de las muchas ironías políticas de nuestro tiempo es que el momento más poderoso del feminismo ha coincidido con el ascenso de la misoginia extrema. Mientras las mujeres se manifiestan, son candidatas a cargos públicos y enarbolan el movimiento por la equidad de género en cantidades históricas, una generación de hombres jóvenes mayoritariamente blancos se está radicalizando en la creencia de que sus problemas derivan del progreso de las mujeres.

Ya sea por el terrorismo misógino, los arrebatos de jóvenes que se sienten con derechos sexuales sobre las mujeres o el persistente estereotipo de los “hombres de verdad” como poderosos y violentos, nunca ha sido más claro que a los chicos estadounidenses les urge una intervención.…  Seguir leyendo »

Activistas a favor de la legalización del aborto en Argentina se vistieron como personajes de la novela de Margaret Atwood y se presentaron en el Congreso en Buenos Aires el 25 de julio de 2018. Credit Eitan Abramovich/Agence France-Presse — Getty Images

MundoAmérica,

El proyecto de ley para despenalizar el aborto en la Argentina se aprobó el 14 de junio por un estrecho margen en la Cámara de Diputados. Fue el primer paso para aprobar una legislación que ha sido rechazada seis veces en once años. Ese día, miles de mujeres salieron a las calles del centro de Buenos Aires con pañuelos verdes para celebrar.

Ahora, el proyecto se encuentra en su segunda fase: el 8 de agosto el Senado votará a favor o en contra de legalizar el aborto voluntario hasta la semana catorce de gestación. Este debate ocurre en un momento histórico.…  Seguir leyendo »