One from the Guardian

Interesting. I'm sure we'll hear more from this author as her book is about to be released. Indeed, this article is a variation of one that appeared in the Nation. The article is titled How War Was Turned Into A Brand. Clip:

Since Israel began its policy of sealing off the occupied territories with checkpoints and walls, human rights activists have often compared Gaza and the West Bank to open-air prisons. But in researching the explosion of Israel's homeland security sector, a topic explored in greater detail in my forthcoming book, it strikes me that they are something else too: laboratories where the terrifying tools of our security states are being field-tested. Palestinians - whether living in the West Bank or what the Israeli politicians are already calling Hamastan - are no longer just targets. They are guinea pigs.

So in a way Friedman is right, Israel has struck oil. But the oil isn't the imagination of its techie entrepreneurs. The oil is the war on terror, the state of constant fear that creates a bottomless global demand for devices that watch, listen, contain and target "suspects". And fear, it turns out, is the ultimate renewable resource.

The author is Naomi Klein and her new book, The Shock Doctrine: The Rise of Disaster Capitalism, will be published later this year by Picador.