Rania Khalek Dispatches

German support for Israel appears to be unshakable no matter what the Israelis do to Palestinians. The irony of course is that much of this support for Israel is justified as necessary to make up for the German Holocaust against European Jews. It seems Palestinians are paying for Europe’s crimes. To discuss this phenomenon Rania Khalek is joined by Denijal Jegic, German author and post doctoral researcher at the Lebanese American University with a PhD in American studies who wrote about this topic for TRT in a piece titled, “Palestinians must suffer so Germany can feel better about its past.”Rania and Denijal also discuss Israel’s pinkwashing — the use of LGBTQ+ rights to distract from occupation and war crimes — and how western countries have adopted these practices as a form of cultural imperialism against the Middle East. 

Breakthrough’s Rania Khalek was joined by Professor of English Literature and Orientalism at the University of Tehran Mohammad Marandi on her program Dispatches to discuss the results of the Iranian presidential election and some of the simplistic and misleading media portrayals of Iran that have come with that coverage.

In December outgoing president Donald trump pulled one more shocking foreign policy decision when he recognized Morocco’s claim to Western Sahara in exchange for Morocco normalizing relations with Israel. Western Sahara has been disputed since the Spanish withdrew in 1975 and the conflict between Morocco and the Polisario front, an armed liberation movement, continued until the 1991 ceasefire. Last year the Polisario Front, which is backed by neighboring Algeria, declared the ceasefire over. Most recently, the Moroccans expressed fury after the leader of the Polisario Front was given medical treatment in Spain, and the Moroccans retaliated by unleashing refugees into Spanish territory.Jacob Mundy is an associate professor of Peace and Conflict Studies and Middle Eastern and Islamic studies at Colgate University. He has recently published a report for the European Council on Foreign Relations, where he’s a visiting fellow, proposing creating new solutions to the decades old problem, entitled: “Free to choose: A new plan for peace in Western Sahara.”He joined Rania Khalek’s program Dispatches to discuss this and other areas of his expertise, including Libya and Algeria.

As Iran prepares for presidential elections, Rania Khalek is joined by Iranian scholar at Columbia University Navid Zarrinnal on her program Dispatches to discuss developments in Iran, from the coming elections to the tumultuous Trump years, relations with the Biden administration, Iran’s role in the region and more.

What is imperialism? Is it a stage of capitalism, as Lenin described it, or was it always essential to capitalism? Can capitalism exist without imperialism?Prahbat Patnaik, professor emeritus at JNU, joins Rania Khalek on her program Dispatches to discuss the argument he lays out in his book A Theory of Imperialism, which argues that capitalism was always a function of imperialism. But today’s imperialism takes a subtler less visible form than during colonialism , keeping large parts of the world in poverty through mechanisms like income deflation so that the wealthy nations can maintain access to the cheap commodities only tropical regions can produce. Imperialism also requires an army of unemployed people in the third world that are even more essential to capitalism than the army of reserve labor in the global north. Patnaik also addresses the democratic socialist ideal of turning America into Denmark but that too cannot happen without imperialism. The Scandinavian countries, he says,  need imperialism to thrive because they are not self-sufficient and owe their prosperity to the imperialist system created and maintained by western colonialist powers. Also, is China imperialist? How do sanctions and war fit into this? Is this system planned or is it spontaneous and on autopilot? Are we forever doomed to this system? How do we resist?

PBS Frontline released a long anticipated documentary featuring Abu Mohammad al-Jolani, formerly the head of Jabhat Al Nusra, the al Qaeda affiliate in Syria, which is now called Hayat Tahrir al Sham, or HTS. Jolani is attempting to rebrand himself and his organization in an effort to be removed from the US terrorism list so he can be legitimized as the leader of Idlib in northern Syria. Has Jolani and his group’s allegiance to al Qaeda really changed? Or is this a sinister charm offensive to maintain and even gain more power with the backing of the West in order to continue his campaign to collapse and takeover Syria and impose an Islamic State no different than ISIS? Did PBS whitewash Jolani? And why do journalists who should know by now the jihadist reality of the opposition to the Syrian government continue to treat them as glorious revolutionaries? To discuss this and more, Rania Khalek is joined by Theo Padnos, who was held as a hostage of Jabhat Al Nusra for two years, enduring day after day of torture and getting unique insight into the group. He’s also the author of the recently published book Blindfold: A Memoir of Capture, Torture, and Enlightenment.

Human rights lawyer Steven Donziger has been thrust into an epic battle with one of the biggest oil companies in the world. He helped win a multi billion dollar lawsuit against the Oil Giant Chevron for polluting the Amazon in Ecuador and poisoning the indigenous community who lives there. Ever since then Chevron has waged a relentless and global campaign to avoid accountability and to punish Doziger. In what reads like a Hollywood thriller, a US judge with ties to Chevron has conspired with the oil giant to destroy Donziger’s life. As a result of the case, he has been confined to his home on house arrest since 2019. And there’s a corporate media blackout! Donziger spoke to Rania Khalek on Dispatches from house arrest in New York City, not too far from the New York Times, which has ignored the story. You can support Steven’s case here: https://www.donzigerdefense.com/

Joseph Massad, Professor of Modern Arab Politics and Intellectual History at Columbia University, joins Dispatches with Rania Khalek to help break down everything from Israel’s value as an outpost of US imperialism and why the Arab uprisings failed to the recent victory of Palestinian resistance forces and why it’s crucial to incorporate anti-imperialism in our understanding of the Zionist project.

While it’s not often in the news, the Horn of Africa is volatile and often the scene of violence and its countries are victims of international interventions and interference that has played a destabilizing role, from Djibouti and Eritrea to Somalia and Ethiopia. As western imperialism continues to prop up dictators while blocking any moves towards independence, the western-backed Gulf States are transforming the region into a battlefield against Iran and each other. Why is this region subjected to so much meddling? How is the new Cold War between the US and China playing out on the ground? And why should Americans care? To help us understand these developments, Rania Khalek is joined by Djiboutian dissident in hiding Abdirahman Mohamed Ahmed, an expert on the Horn of Africa who is both from the region and has a strong leftist background. 

Lowkey joins Rania Khalek to talk Palestine and global resistance to Zionist apartheid.