by Maria Vasileiou

THE HAGUE, Nov. 2 (Xinhua) -- As Brexit remains uncertain, an economist with a major Dtuch bank has warned its impact on Dutch business, and raised additional concerns over the impact on the country's export-oriented economy.

"The persistent uncertainty, following the new Brexit extension, hurts firms which have strong exposure to UK markets," said Stefan Koopman, senior market economist at Rabobank.

by Ramzy Baroud

29 Oct 2019; MEMO: Palestine’s Christian population is dwindling at an alarming rate. The world’s most ancient Christian community is moving elsewhere. And the reason for this is Israel.

Christian leaders from Palestine and South Africa sounded the alarm at a conference in Johannesburg on October 15. Their gathering was titled: “The Holy Land: A Palestinian Christian Perspective”.

By AW Siddiqui

On September 23 2019, two Pakistani fighter jets were dispatched to intercept what looked like an Indian military air craft on their radar screens, intruding Pakistani air space. Fortunately, the Pakistan Air Defense noticed something unusual and decided to check it out, rather than shooting it down.

by Yvonne Ridley

24 Oct 2019; MEMO: I’m bamboozled by all the hand-wringing over the retreat of US troops from Middle Eastern soil in recent weeks. Some American soldiers were pelted with rotten vegetables as their convoy rolled out of northern Syria after President Donald Trump said he wanted to extricate America from “endless wars” in the Muslim world.

by Omar Ahmed

21 Oct 2019; MEMO: There is an old saying that “the Kurds have no friends but the mountains”. Poetic, poignant and tragic; but not quite true. Despite the mainstream Western media lamenting the latest “betrayal” of Kurdish allies by the US government, there has been one ally who has had a consistent relationship with the Kurds: Israel.

by Wadih Awawdah

19 Oct 2019; MEMO: Sources in Israel have revealed that Israeli intelligence officers in the reserve army are working in private companies, some of which are linked to the UAE’s intelligence services, and pointed to the immigration of brains abroad.

by Megan Giovannetti

18 Oct 2019; MEMO: This week, the West Bank witnessed a wave of settler attacks and agricultural terrorism as Palestinian farmers began the year’s olive harvest. Attacks were mainly in northern villages near Nablus and Salfit, governorates with the largest concentration of illegal Israeli settlements.

by Asa Winstanley

18 Oct 2019; MEMO: So, another one bites the dust. Louise Ellman MP quit the Labour Party this week. The chairperson of Labour Friends of Israel is the latest in a line of right-wing Labour MPs to quit the party in protest against its left-wing leader Jeremy Corbyn.

by Asa Winstanley

15 Oct 2019; MEMO: “Brand Israel” was launched. As I’ve written before, this public relations strategy was an utter failure. War crimes, apartheid and denial of basic human rights are a hard sell, it seems.

By now, Israel is a completely toxic brand, even for some of its own supporters.

Israel no longer has the support of Western liberals and leftists that it once did.

by Elif Selin Calik

Last week saw the anniversary — on 3 October — of the tragic drowning of more than 300 migrants when their overcrowded vessel capsized off the coast of Italy. Despite such tragedies in the Mediterranean region, European countries are still debating how to tackle the migrant/refugee crisis. It has taken almost five years for some EU states to sign a draft proposal. The EU itself signed an agreement with Turkey in 2015.

by Yvonne Ridley

11 Oct 2019; MEMO: As Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan rolled out the military offensive called “Operation Peace Spring” on his country’s southern border with Syria, the big surprise was not the invasion itself but the reaction from the neighbouring Kurds and their supporters. All are, collectively, still reeling.

by Omar Ahmed

The 14th century Arab historian Ibn Khaldun is famed for his treatise Al-Muqqadimah and is regarded as “the father of social science”; he wrote about the rise and fall of states and civilisations.