( Tomdispatch.com ) – Recently, on a commuter train, I ran into an acquaintance who works for a government agency here in Washington, D.C. Soon after we started chatting, he indicated a desire to switch jobs in case Donald Trump was reelected president in 2024. “I’d like to be somewhere that Trump wouldn’t be able […]
Archives for December 2023
Half of Palestinians in Gaza are now Starving; Depriving Civilians of Food is a War Crime
Ann Arbor (Informed Comment) – The United Nations warned on Saturday that half the population of Gaza is now starving. The World Food Programme (WFP) had reported at the end of November that in the north of Gaza, about half of the people were suffering “severe levels of hunger.” Meanwhile, nearly everyone had inadequate levels […]
Climate Tipping Points are Nearer than you Think — Our New Report Warns of Catastrophic Risk
By James Dyke, University of Exeter and David Armstrong McKay, Stockholm University | – It’s now almost inevitable that 2023 will be the warmest year ever recorded by humans, probably the warmest for at least 125,000 years. Multiple temperature records were smashed with global average temperatures for some periods well above 1.5°C. Antarctic sea ice […]
Moscow and Gaza: Is Russia ready for a major Shift in its Middle East Policy?
( Middle East Monitor ) – Gaza was among the main topics on the agenda of Russian President Vladimir Putin as he arrived in the Middle East on 6 December. Some news reports referred to the trip as “rare”, especially since the start of the Russia-Ukraine war in February 2022. We know that the situation […]
On How Israeli/US War Crimes in Gaza are orders of Magnitude Worse than those of Russia in Ukraine
Ann Arbor (Informed Comment) – The Biden administration has spent most of its diplomatic energy since the February 24, 2022, Russian invasion of Ukraine marshaling the world to punish the Russian Federation, to boycott its petroleum and gas, to seize assets even of private citizens in Europe and North America, and to make Russia a […]
Why Yemen’s Houthis are Intervening in the Israel-Hamas Conflict and how it Could Disrupt Global Shipping
By Leena Adel, Curtin University; and Ben Rich, Curtin University | – In recent days, three Israeli-linked commercial vessels were targeted by ballistic missiles and drones launched by Yemen’s Houthi rebels, marking a clear escalation in maritime attacks in the critical Bab el Mandab strait between the Red Sea and Gulf of Aden. The Houthis […]
Concerns about Treatment of Faculty Teaching Israel-Palestine by U of Arizona’s College of Education
Letter to the president of the University of Arizona expressing concern about the College of Education’s treatment of two faculty members by Committee on Academic Freedom, Middle East Studies Association. | – Robert C. Robbins President, University of Arizona president@email.arizona.edu Dear President Robbins, We write on behalf of the Middle East Studies Association […]
The Other Israel-Gaza Conflict: On Campus (Juan at Dawn)
Excerpted from Dawn (Democracy for the Arab World Now) Israel’s total war on Gaza, following Hamas’s horrific terrorist attack on Oct. 7, has roiled higher education in the United States. The atrocities committed by Hamas in southern Israel two months ago have reverberated on many U.S. campuses, deeply traumatizing many Jewish students. But so too […]
Israel’s War on Gaza shouldn’t be America’s War
( Tomdispatch.com ) – One way of understanding the ongoing bloodbath pitting Israel against Hamas is to see it as just the latest chapter in an existential struggle dating back to the founding of the Jewish state in 1948. While the appalling scope, destructiveness, and duration of the fighting in Gaza may outstrip previous episodes, this […]