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Both Israel and Palestinian supporters accuse the other side of genocide – here's what the term actually means

Retrieved on:

Tuesday, November 7, 2023

The attack, some Israel supporters and political observers note, must be seen in the light of Hamas leaders repeatedly stated goal of destroying Israel and their recent promise to attack Israel “again and again” until it is gone.

Key Points:

The attack, some Israel supporters and political observers note, must be seen in the light of Hamas leaders repeatedly stated goal of destroying Israel and their recent promise to attack Israel “again and again” until it is gone.
Pro-Palestinian supporters see this as part of a longer history of Israel’s treatment of Palestinians.
U.S. Rep. Rashida Tlaib amplified these allegations when she said on Nov. 4 that President Joe Biden is guilty of supporting genocide in Gaza.
As the Israel-Hamas conflict grinds on amid continuing genocide allegations, it’s crucial to understand what genocide actually is and how this term has been used for political purposes in the past.

What is genocide?

His definition also encompasses cultural genocide.
The 1948 U.N. Genocide Convention specifies that genocide can happen by killing and destroying a group, preventing births and transferring children to another group, among other means.
At the time, some countries used the convention as a political tool to obscure their own histories of genocide.
This made it less likely the U.S. would be charged with genocide for Jim Crow policies that enforced segregation of Black Americans.

Using genocide for political reasons

Governments and political leaders have long used genocide claims to make threats against other countries or to provide a rationale for foreign intervention, ostensibly to ward off a genocide.
There is also a long history of government officials arguing about the definition of genocide to deny that it was actually happening.
Today, countries like Russia and China continue to deny that they are committing what many experts consider genocide.

Three ways genocide is discussed

In my research, I have found that people often approach genocide in three ways.
First, legal scholars contend that before violence is considered genocide, it is necessary to demonstrate that what occurred neatly matches what the Genocide Convention spells out.

Genocide and the Israel-Hamas war

People are using these three different interpretations of genocide to characterize the Israel-Hamas war.
Genocide, for all its conceptual limitations, provides a way of understanding the violence in Israel and Gaza.
And so, people invoke the word genocide in its conventional sense, sometimes through genocide-related hashtags and slogans.
Her remarks echo those of others who say that it is Israelis who are at risk of genocide.

Alexander Hinton does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.

Do 'sputnik moments' spur educational reform? A rhetoric scholar weighs in

Retrieved on:

Tuesday, October 3, 2023

From the publication of the landmark A Nation at Risk report on education in 1983 to the polarizing election of Donald Trump, one moment after another has been compared to the sputnik episode.

Key Points:

From the publication of the landmark A Nation at Risk report on education in 1983 to the polarizing election of Donald Trump, one moment after another has been compared to the sputnik episode.
As a professor who studies the rhetoric of education reform, I know that what politicians and others call sputnik moments do not always live up to that name.
Some sputnik moments spark enduring public debates, while others are easily forgotten.

American education called into question

In the spring of 1958, Life magazine ran a series of articles entitled: “Crisis in Education.” One Life article compared the rigor of U.S. education unfavorably with that of the Soviets.
Another Life article referred to American education as a “carnival.” President Dwight Eisenhower read the Life articles and began advocating for what would become the National Defense Education Act of 1958.
It was a first-of-its-kind intervention in education policy and funding.
Ever since, pivotal events for education in the U.S. have been called sputnik moments.

Reagan and a flailing education system

In 1983, the National Commission on Excellence in Education published A Nation at Risk.
We responded by making math, science, and engineering education a priority.” Reagan cited NASA’s space shuttle program as evidence that the nation had succeeded.
But like sputnik, it spurred decades of discussion about the rigor of public education in the U.S.

Obama on competition with China

Obama needed to sell his proposal to the nation and to the House of Representatives, which the Republicans had taken control of in the 2010 midterm elections.
It also did not result in the creation of an Advanced Research Projects Agency for education.

Donald Trump’s election

Sure enough, Trump’s election did revitalize the national discussion of civic education.
There was also the Civic Learning for a Democracy in Crisis by the Hastings Center.
Even the Trump administration joined in the conversation with its 1776 report, which called for a patriotic form of civic education.

Why do we have sputnik moments?

Sputnik moments can be spontaneous or constructed through rhetoric after the fact, or they can fall somewhere in between.
In the late 1950s, critics of American education made the most of their moment by demanding a greater emphasis on math, science and language.
Because they capitalized on their moment, policymakers and education reformers have continued to be vigilant for more moments like sputnik ever since.

Death of the Armenian dream in Nagorno-Karabakh was predictable but not inevitable

Retrieved on:

Tuesday, October 3, 2023

In recent days, more than 100,000 people have taken to the streets again.

Key Points:

In recent days, more than 100,000 people have taken to the streets again.
They have been decisively defeated by the Azerbaijanis in a short and brutal military operation in the enclave.
As a longtime analyst of the history and politics of the South Caucasus, I see the chain of recent events in Nagorno-Karabakh as depressingly predictable.

A legacy of Lenin

The 1988 demonstrations were met by violent pogroms by Azerbaijanis against Armenian minorities in Sumgait and Baku.
The legal principle of territorial integrity took precedence over the ethical principle of national self-determination.

An unsolved diplomatic problem

And for all their efforts, outside powers – Russia, France and the United States most importantly – failed to find a lasting diplomatic solution.
Moscow was Armenia’s principal protector in a hostile neighborhood with two unfriendly states, Azerbaijan and Turkey, on its borders.
Only Iran, treated as a pariah by much of the international community, provided some additional support, sporadically, to Armenia.

What might have been

Alternatives and contingencies always exist in history and, if heeded by statespeople, can result in different outcomes.
Yet the triumphant Armenian victors of the 1990s had few immediate incentives to compromise.
Each side considered the contested enclave a piece of their ancient homeland, an indivisible good, and compromise proved impossible.
Azerbaijan is a state three times the size of Armenia with a population larger by more than 7 million people.

Democracy versus autocracy

For example, he boldly, publicly declared that “Artsakh” was part of Armenia, which infuriated Azerbaijan.
This ethnic cleansing of Nagorno-Karabakh – first through hunger, then by force of arms – completed the Azerbaijani victory.
The defeated government of Artsakh declared it would officially dissolve the republic by the end of 2023.

Learning from defeat and victory

They are forced to face hard facts.
At the same time, victory can lead to prideful triumphalism that in its own way can distort what lies ahead.
Voices have also been raised in Baku calling for a “Greater Azerbaijan” that would incorporate what they call “Western Azerbaijan” – that is, the current Republic of Armenia.

A chance for democratic renewal?

The immediate tasks facing Armenia are enormous, beginning with the housing and feeding of 100,000 refugees.
But this might also be a moment of opportunity.

New book introduces readers to the behind-the-scenes world of the ballet dancers of the famous Beryozka Dance Ensemble

Retrieved on:

Tuesday, September 19, 2023

Knowledge, Augusto Pinochet, Simon & Schuster, Entertainment, Book, USSR

PORTLAND, Ore., Sept. 19, 2023 /PRNewswire-PRWeb/ -- Leonid Shagalov was a member of the famous Beryozka State Academic Dance Company, the best in professional folk dance company in Russia, and one of the best dance companies in the Soviet Union. They have been in many countries and witnessed many significant and historical events, some of them changed the world history.

Key Points:

They have been in many countries and witnessed many significant and historical events, some of them changed the world history.
"Discovering the World: Through The Eyes Of A Soviet Dancer" (published by Archway Publishing).
introduces the reader to the behind-the-scenes world of the ballet dancers of the famous Beryozka Dance Ensemble.
"My book will appeal to readers because current events in many countries remind those described in my book.

Saudi reforms are softening Islam's role, but critics warn the kingdom will still take a hard line against dissent

Retrieved on:

Tuesday, September 5, 2023

For decades, Saudi kings provided support to religious scholars and institutions that advocated an austere form of Sunni Islam known as Wahhabism.

Key Points:

For decades, Saudi kings provided support to religious scholars and institutions that advocated an austere form of Sunni Islam known as Wahhabism.
The kingdom enforced strict codes of morality, placing restrictions on the rights of women and religious minorities, among others.
As a scholar who studies interpretations of Islamic law to justify or contest militancy, I’ve followed these reforms closely.
In an interview broadcast widely throughout the kingdom, MBS chastised Wahhabi scholars, accusing some of falsifying Islamic doctrines.

Negotiating Wahhabism

The booming Saudi oil economy developed by Abdulaziz required his son, King Faisal, who ruled from 1964 to 1975, to reconsider the monarchy’s relationship with Wahhabism.
Abroad, Faisal’s scholars presented Wahhabism as an authentic Islamic alternative to the Cold War ideologies of the U.S. and USSR.
Wealthy Saudis, these Wahhabi scholars argued, had a religious duty to promote Wahhabism across the globe.

Resisting Wahhabism

King Khalid, who followed Faisal, continued to favor Wahhabi scholars, particularly while responding to two major challenges in 1979.
Afterward, Khalid agreed to elevate religious officials who affirmed the Islamic credentials of the monarchy.
One such Saudi who answered the call that year was Osama bin Laden, who would establish al-Qaida in 1988.
He has worked quickly to erase those accommodations and, like his grandfather, affirm the supremacy of the monarchy.

A ‘moderate Wahhabism’ for Saudi society?

Saudi Arabia has announced it will no longer fund mosques and Wahhabi educational institutions in other countries.
Saudi religious police, once tasked with upholding public morality, saw their powers curtailed.
In 2018, Jamal Khashoggi, a Saudi journalist, was killed following his calls for a continued voice for Islamist reformers in Saudi Arabia.
Al-Rasheed argues that the images of a new Saudi society conceal suppression of Saudi reformers.

Almost half of Moon missions fail. Why is space still so hard?

Retrieved on:

Friday, August 25, 2023

Now the Indian Space Research Organisation has returned in triumph, with the Chandrayaan-3 lander successfully touching down near the south pole of Earth’s rocky neighbour.

Key Points:

Now the Indian Space Research Organisation has returned in triumph, with the Chandrayaan-3 lander successfully touching down near the south pole of Earth’s rocky neighbour.
Moon missions in particular are still a coin flip, and we have seen several high-profile failures in recent years.

An exclusive club

It makes sense to go there first: it’s the closest planetary body to us, at a distance of around 400,000 kilometres.
Yet only four countries have achieved successful “soft landings” – landings which the spacecraft survives – on the lunar surface.
China was the next country to join the club, with the Chang'e 3 mission in 2013.

Crashes are not uncommon

Attempts to contact the spacecraft on August 20 were unsuccessful, leading Roscosmos to determine Luna 25 had crashed.
Despite more than 60 years of spaceflight experience extending from the USSR to modern Russia, this mission failed.
Here's why that's unlikely
The Luna 25 failure recalled two high-profile lunar crashes in 2019.

Space is still risky

Space missions are a risky business.
Even small satellite missions to Earth’s orbit don’t have a perfect track record, with a success rate somewhere between 40% and 70%.
We could compare uncrewed with crewed missions: around 98% of the latter are successful, because people are more invested in people.

The big picture

There are around 1.5 billion cars in the world, and perhaps 40,000 aeroplanes.
By contrast, there have been fewer than 20,000 space launches in all of history.
And we have more than a century of experience with these vehicles, in every country on the planet.

Monumental challenges remain

If humanity is ever to create a fully fledged space-faring civilisation, we must overcome monumental challenges.
To make long-duration, long-distance space travel possible, there are a huge number of problems to be solved.

Ukraine war: why Crimean Tatar fighters are playing an increasing role in resistance to Russian occupation

Retrieved on:

Wednesday, August 2, 2023

A resistance group of Crimean Tatars, an ethnic group native to the Russian-occupied peninsula, is now a prominent player in the Ukraine war.

Key Points:

A resistance group of Crimean Tatars, an ethnic group native to the Russian-occupied peninsula, is now a prominent player in the Ukraine war.
The Atesh (fire) movement has pledged to wage an unending war on the Russian invaders of Ukraine.
Founded in September 2022, Atesh seeks to disrupt logistics, sabotage key targets, and stoke discontent against – and within – Russian president Vladimir Putin’s army.
Atesh’s methods are ruthless, as witnessed by the killing of 30 Russian servicemen in hospitals in Simferopol in November 2022.

Who are the Tatars?

Unlike the Slavic Russians, the Crimean Tatars are a Turkic ethnic group native to the Crimean peninsula.
Under the rule of Joseph Stalin (1924-1953), the Soviet Union engaged in the active repression of the Crimean Tatars.
This led to a number of Tatars cooperating with the Germans following the Nazi invasion of June 1941.
Stalin accused the Crimean Tatars of treachery and deported the community en masse to the Gulag.
Although some Crimean Tatars served with the Axis powers, rather more served in the Red Army.
The invasion of Crimea by Russia in 2014 was a disastrous return to the past for the Crimean Tatars.

How the Soviet century wrote itself into the Moscow cityscape

Retrieved on:

Wednesday, August 2, 2023

Quite how that translates into the material world though is best appreciated through a deep dive into the Soviet city.

Key Points:

Quite how that translates into the material world though is best appreciated through a deep dive into the Soviet city.
From Moscow to Magnitogorsk, Soviet urban spaces have long provided crucial insights into the nature of the socialist project and its connections with the wider world.
German historian Karl Schlögel’s 2018 book, Soviet Century: Archaeology of a Lost World, newly translated from the German into English by Rodney Livingstone, shows in painstaking archaeological detail how the socialist project transformed the spaces in which Soviet citizens lived.

Daily life

The Soviet urban environment shaped daily interactions between the USSR and the outside world – both on an elite and an ordinary level.
From the staircases and communal toilets to the athletes’ parades and balletic performances it hosted, the cityscape remains as something to be deciphered.
The city was to boast new infrastructure, open public spaces for the workers and apartment buildings for the Soviet elite.

The symbolic centre of the Soviet universe

The symbolic centre of the Soviet universe was located at the Red Square.
Above the mausoleum was a podium from which the Soviet leadership would preside over special events and military parades during state holidays.
Similarly, laying wreaths at the mausoleum became a customary ritual for Soviet international allies.

Soviet student life

In contrast to the Soviet citizens, foreigners – particularly from the west – were often separated from the rest of society in spatial and social terms.
One group of foreigners who had access to the Soviet capital in a way no other foreigners could were international students.
Moscow’s streets, public parks, hotels and theatres filled up with thousands of foreign and Soviet youths partying, watching performances and making love.
Instead, they moved relatively freely around the city, to varying degrees of friendship or hostility, on the part of Soviet citizens.

The Voice Fan Favorites Katie Kadan & Chris Weaver Reimagine Classic Hits by Such History-Making Artists as The Beatles & Aretha Franklin on Music On The Bones Records' New Album Inspired by Iconic Music of the '60S & Recorded at The Legendary Abbey Road

Retrieved on:

Friday, July 28, 2023

LOS ANGELES, July 28, 2023 /PRNewswire/ -- The first two singles from the upcoming Music on the Bones album are being released on Friday, July 28th. The album and debut tracks, powerful new renditions of Louis Armstrong's "What A Wonderful World" and Janis Joplin's "Me and Bobby McGee," feature the awe-inspiring vocals of Katie Kadan and Chris Weaver, both of whom achieved national acclaim on NBC's The Voice. The tracks are now available on all music platforms including Spotify, Apple Music, and Amazon Music.

Key Points:

The tracks are now available on all music platforms including Spotify, Apple Music, and Amazon Music.
Aptly recorded at the iconic Abbey Road Studios in London, the nine-track album also includes such time-honored classics from The Beatles as "Here Comes the Sun," "Don't Let Me Down," and "Let it Be."
Inspired by the Music on the Bones book, the tracks are being released by Music on the Bones Records and distributed worldwide by Beatroot.
Chris Weaver echoed the sentiment, describing recording the album at Abbey Road Studios and jamming in that space charged with energy, "an unforgettable experience."

DeSantis' 'war on woke' looks a lot like attempts by other countries to deny and rewrite history

Retrieved on:

Monday, July 24, 2023

The goal is often to smother a shameful past by casting those who speak of it as unpatriotic.

Key Points:

The goal is often to smother a shameful past by casting those who speak of it as unpatriotic.
Another goal is to stoke so much fear and anger that citizens welcome state censorship.
Here are four ways SB 266 relates to attempts used by modern governments to censor history.

1. Invent a threat

One strategy that DeSantis shares with other world leaders is to invent a threat that taps into anxieties and then declare war against it.
In Russia, President Vladimir Putin has been waging a brutal war against Ukraine in the name of “denazifying” the country.
In Florida, the phantom threat is “wokeness,” a reference to a term that the Black Lives Matter movement made mainstream.

2. Criminalize historical discussions

Once a fake threat has been ginned up, world leaders can use it to create new laws to criminalize speech and critical discussions of history.
SB 266, meanwhile, requires general education courses to “provide instruction on the historical background and philosophical foundation of Western civilization and this nation’s historical documents.” It also prohibits general education core courses from “teaching certain topics or presenting information in specified ways.” The vagueness is deliberate.
Florida professors may refrain, for example, from teaching that Jim Crow laws were designed to deny African Americans equal rights.

3. Punish transgressors

With laws in place that criminalize dissenting interpretations of history, governments can then punish those who violate them.
Punishment can involve threatening arrest and imprisoning individuals, and stripping funding from institutions.

4. Write new history

With actual historical events denied or suppressed, governments can then rewrite history to further monopolize truth and impose ideology.
Like right-wing ideologues in other parts of the world, DeSantis claims to be defending U.S. history from falsehoods pushed by ideologues.
In his attempts to rewrite history, calls for a reckoning with America’s history of anti-Blackness are ridiculed as indoctrination, and bigotry gets repackaged as patriotism.