By Juan Cole | (Informed Comment) | – –
At this time of a perhaps pivotal crisis in the Middle East, we’re coming once again to our loyal readers, asking for funds to keep Informed Comment going. We offer a unique, and uniquely informed, take on U.S. foreign policy, the Middle East, the climate crisis, and U.S. domestic developments. At a time when corporate media is embedding with the Israeli army and reporting from its point of view, we offer a wide range of expert commentary from observers who know the history and context of the current conflict.
In 2023, we covered the Iran protests against veiling, the extremist government of Israel, the evolving Palestine issue, the twentieth anniversary of the US invasion of Iraq, the use of Islamophobia by the Western right wing, and the impact of climate change on key countries such as Iraq, and the rise of green energy in places such as Morocco. We hope that our readers will continue to be generous in supporting our coverage of these beats. That support allows us to bring you our authors, including Dan Dinello, Fariba Amini, H. Scott Prosterman, Charles Hirschkind, Mohammed Semaana, H. Patricia Hynes, and many others, as well as curating the best of relevant progressive writing available on the Web. We can’t pay our authors if we don’t have any income.
If you agree that supporting independent journalism is important, be sure to share this posting on your own social media!
Personal checks should be made out to Juan Cole and sent to me at:
Juan Cole
P. O. Box 4218,
Ann Arbor, MI 48104-2548
USA
(Remember, make the checks out to “Juan Cole” or they can’t be cashed)
This year those who contribute $100 or more to Informed Comment by Paypal, will receive a signed copy of my Napoleon’s Egypt. Schuler Books in Ann Arbor has kindly agreed to send them out for me off the Paypal addresses. (If you blocked your address at Paypal, you have to provide it to me to get the book). This book treats the first major modern invasion of a Middle Eastern country by a North Atlantic one, and I think you’ll find that the rhetoric used by Gen. Bonaparte still seems familiar to us today.
All those who contribute to Informed Comment at any level will be included in an occasional private newsletter only for contributors with some additional big picture behind-the-scenes analysis which will be newsletter only. Remember that there are contribution buttons floating at the top of all the individual post pages.
Note that from time to time, Informed Comment has had some advertising income. We have found, however, that adding such code to our site slows it down, and have decided it isn’t worth it. We are hoping that readers will be pleased with the increased ease of use of our pages, and will make up in enthusiastic contributions what we lost in advertising revenue.
Your support is more important than ever before. Informed Comment began as a result of 9/11, when I was alarmed that the US public and politicians seemed uninformed about the Middle East and the Muslim world, resorting to stereotypes and gross generalization. We went on to cover the Iraq War and subsequent events in a way no one else in US media did. At that time, the internet was free and open. It is increasingly, however, being corralled by corporations that censor it even as they pretend to distribute our postings.
Elon Musk is attempting to make “X,” his zombie version of Twitter, into a tool for right wing disinformation. The over 50,000 followers Informed Comment had there are complaining that they often don’t see our articles. Meta, the corporation that runs Facebook, has announced that its algorithms actively suppress news articles, and it seems that it sidelines those that mention subjects such as Palestine in particular. Meta uses the far Right cult site “Daily Caller” as an arbiter.
Folks, you can’t depend on your far right wing social media sites, run for profit by biased billionaires, to deliver our commentary to you. It is more important than ever not only to support the site if you like its news analysis but to sign up for delivery of the daily postings by email so you don’t miss even one.
Please also consider forwarding our daily newsletter to friends and groups who might be interested in it. As editor and chief cook and bottle washer, it has been brought home to me how fragile this enterprise is in a media environment owned and shaped by billionaires for their purposes.
The coming year could be a game changer in the Middle East. What will be the outcome of the deadly contest between Hamas and Israel? Last year I wrote that “With the advent of the most far right-wing government in Israel’s history, the Mideast is a powder keg that warrants watching closely.” That pessimistic assessment differed almost completely from the conviction in Washington that Saudi Arabia and other Arab, Muslim states could be cajoled into recognizing Israel and that the Palestine issue no longer mattered. We will attend to the special challenges for the Middle East of a hot, wet El Nino year coming on top of decades of steady global heating because of human-caused climate change.
At home, we will cover the train wreck of the coming presidential election season, which will have widespread impacts on women’s rights, the implementation of the first amendment right to freedom of speech, and how government views the climate crisis.
In the so-called post-truth era, we need independent, reality-based news media more than ever, and Informed Comment has never been more essential. Without your donations, this site could not hope to continue to provide a platform to expert and cogent voices who challenge the rank falsehoods that often now pass as news.
How to Help
Donations can be sent to Informed Comment via the contribution link in this post (which takes Paypal payments or credit cards). Here is the direct link again:
Thank you to all of my supporters for your generosity and your encouragement of an independent press!
Personal checks should be made out to Juan Cole and sent to me at:
Juan Cole
P. O. Box 4218,
Ann Arbor, MI 48104-2548
USA
(Remember, make the checks out to “Juan Cole” or they can’t be cashed)
Unlike other news outlets, it is a little unlikely that this site will be supported by right wing billionaires, and so if you want it to continue, it is up to you. The good news is that although they can attempt to “throttle” our stories at major social media sites, they can’t just buy us and ruin us.
What we do for our Readers
At Informed Comment, I have tried to provide the historical background and the context to startling developments such as Trump’s attempt to put Iran into a box, getting beyond the one-damn-thing-after-another rush of news reports.
My aim is to be even more comprehensive, and to provide insights on world developments not found elsewhere that challenge lazy conventional wisdom and inside-the-beltway tunnel blindness. I seek to provide visitors with one-stop access to high quality curated sources for research on the Middle East, including maps and key documents and translations. That endeavor obviously requires resources, and the more we have the more we can do. Your support allowed me to pay guest columnists and syndicators for some of our more popular entries this year. (Those who like the old weblog view and are mainly interested in my essays can still find it here (click on the underlined text).
Philosophy and Mission of Informed Comment
Despite rising costs of maintaining this site, years ago I decided that I did not want to put Informed Comment behind a firewall and charge a subscription fee for it. That just isn’t who I am. In my own view, there has been a long crisis between the United States and perhaps much of the North Atlantic world and the Muslim world that I felt a duty to attempt to interpret and analyze for both publics, not just for well-heeled elites. This is a democratic blog, for the people and in dialogue with the people, for the common weal.
Plans for 2024
For 2024, we are aiming to have more independent, progressive columns of the sort that clearly please you. We will break the sort of news that will be useful in pushing new Biden administration further toward the Green New Deal, toward racial justice, toward a more just US policy in the Middle East, including rights and peace for both Palestinians and Israelis.
To make all these projects a reality, I do need your help. Our budget is a tiny fraction of any other news organization in the world. Given the wide online circulation of IC posts, your contribution here makes an incredible difference in the news ecology.
Smaller contributions are also very much appreciated! Paypal is convenient for small contributions and crowdsourcing is now the name of the game.
Independent Media
Your donation helps me keep Informed Comment independent and prolific. Together we keep independent media alive. I would like to thank all my readers and contributors again for your support in 2022 and look forward to an even more productive 2024 together. Thank you for supporting our independent thinking and dialogue!
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