by Nick Gier, professor emeritus at the University of Idaho Like the GOP the British Conservatives are just as detached from reality. —Peter Osborne, The New York Times (10/21/22) Read about Bernie Sanders and Labour Party leader Jeremy Corbyn at bit.ly/3Y5i3cO. After…
France’s Macron and Biden Face Right-Wing Surge
Many countries are shifting from a universalcivil nationalism towards the blood-and-soil, ethnic sort.—The Economist (Nov. 19, 2016) I just returned from a 3-week trip to France, and there were two days where I was close to tears. The first was…
France’s Economy Defies Libertarian Dogma
by Nick Gier The watchwords of the American and French Revolutions were liberty, equality, and, for the French, fraternity. Redefining fraternity as traditional community values, I see today’s conservative and liberals attempting to balance these three principles. America’s conservatives focus…
Wealth and Welfare States: What Is the Real Story?
A welfare state may cost a lot but it provides a lot. . . A part-watchman, part-welfare state [as in the US and UK] does not work very well. —The (free market) Economist, Nov. 22, 2022, p.53. Institute for Research…
A Bitter Christmas for Palestinian Christians
by Nick Gier There may be as many as 15 million Arabic-speaking Christians living in the Middle East, and they, along with their indigenous Jewish brothers and sisters, had prospered there in relative peace for centuries. Discrimination and violence against…
The Heavy Price the Palestinians Have Paid in Gaza
The Heavy Price the Palestinians Have Paid in Gaza by Nick Gier, the Palouse Pundit On October 7 last month, Hamas fighters invaded kibbutzim, communal villages known for their peace activists near the Gazan border. In Be’eri Hamas killed 100 people, including…
The ‘whole truth’ about the Hamas-Israel war
by Nick Gier, the Palouse Pundit An eye for an eye only ends up making the whole world blind. Mahatma Gandhi The murderous attack by Hamas in Southern Israel on Oct. 7, killing about 1,200 innocent men, women and children,…
THE WAR IN GAZA: “BOMBING 1.5 MILLION PEOPLE IN A CAGE”
By Nick Gier, Professor Emeritus, University of Idaho An eye for eye only ends up making the whole world blind. —Mahatma Gandhi The single most distinctive aspect of warfare in the 20th Century was the huge increase in civilian causalities,…
Bibi, the Bomb, and the Israeli Election
By Nick Gier, The Palouse Pundit The day that Republicans were falling all over themselves applauding Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin “Bibi” Netanyahu’s speech to Congress, 25,000 Israelis were protesting against him in Tel Aviv. In addition to criticizing Netanyahu for…
Abdul Gaffar Khan: A Muslim Gandhi for the Middle East?
by Nick Gier This year is the 75th anniversary of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR), which was adopted by the UN General Assembly on December 10, 1948. The Preamble begins with the “recognition of the inherent dignity and…