Covering the Palestinian–Israeli Conflict: Between Exasperation and Empathy
CNN’s Ben Wedeman looked exhausted as he fielded questions from an anchor in the United States in late November 2023. He had just reported on the deaths of two Palestinian boys in the West Bank,…
Ringside Seat to Radicalization
Imagine you are a 12-year-old Palestinian boy in Gaza. You are lying wounded in a hospital. Air strikes periodically rock the building. Your parents are dead. Your one-year-old brother and…
Middle East Deja Vu
When it comes to Palestinian anger, many of the answers can be found in what happens between major outbreaks of war – largely untold in the American media.This article was published in…
Gaza, the Middle East, and the Munich Calculus
History will likely record that Hamas provoked the Gaza war with one eye on Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and one on Saudi Crown Prince Muhammed bin Salman (MBS). This is not a war that…
Covering the Gaza Conflict
You can’t be objective about innocent people suffering or being killed. No matter who they are or which “side” they represent. Their death is wrong. That’s a fact worth reporting. For full…
What Is Hamas?
My interview on the origins and worldview of Hamas. https://www.cbc.ca/radio/front...
In 2001, I asked: “Why are there so few Buddhists of color?”
"Something has to change." Shambhala Sun (now Lion's Roar). Sept. 2002. Click here to read story.
Coronavirus is highlighting the rift in Islam (Religion Unplugged)
Coronavirus is bringing to the fore what is likely to be one of Islam’s most fundamental divides of the next decade: the rift between those Muslims whose worldview is being shaped by the modern…
The Online Cacophony of Hate Against Ilhan Omar and Rashida Tlaib (NYT)
Donald Trump has made the demonization of Representative Ilhan Omar, Democrat of Minnesota, a key element of his 2020 re-election strategy. But the targeting of Ms. Omar and her fellow Democrat…
I met Robert Mugabe in the late 1970s. What he told me still haunts me. (Vox.com)
The Zimbabwean rebel leader wanted to be a different kind of African president. He was — just not the way I thought he meant. By Lawrence Pintak Sep 6, 2019, 6:20pm EDT “We are not going to…
Pakistan is harnessing Western media in the wake of the Kashmir crisis
Responding to India’s August annexation of Kashmir, Pakistani officials are using interviews, op-eds and social media to emphasize that Islamabad is taking a diplomatic, not military, response…
Pakistan on Kashmir: “They have colonized the territory”
The WhatsApp message came an hour after I landed in Islamabad. Sardar Masood Khan, the president of Pakistani-administered Kashmir, wanted to know if I was available to meet. I had interviewed him…
