Montréal (Special to Informed Comment) – Eighty years ago, on January 27, 1944, people in the street were hugging each other and weeping with joy. They were celebrating the end of a nearly 900 days brutal siege. Soviet forces lifted the siege of Leningrad after ferocious battles. Exactly a year later they liberated Auschwitz. Even […]
Archives for January 2024
UN’s top Court orders Israel to ‘Prevent Genocide’ in Gaza
By Michelle Farrell, University of Liverpool | – (The Conversation) – In a landmark decision – and with the whole world watching – the International Court of Justice in The Hague has ordered Israel to “take all measures within its power to prevent the commission of acts of genocide” in Gaza and to allow desperately […]
Ron DeSantis: Yet Another Cog in Guantanamo’s Torture Machine
Roy Eidelson ( Commondreams.org ) – Recently, there have been troubling revelations about Florida Governor Ron DeSantis — a leading 2024 GOP presidential aspirant — concerning his conduct as a Navy JAG officer at Guantanamo Bay. His responsibilities at the detention facility apparently included responding to claims of mistreatment from the war-on-terror prisoners there. Relatively […]
Israel’s Reputation forever Besmirched by UN Court Injunction to Cease Genociding Palestinians
Ann Arbor (Informed Comment) – The International Court of Justice’s ruling on “provisional measures” regarding the allegation of genocide against Israel for its behavior in Gaza is what in the US we would call a “preliminary injunction.” That is, it finds that South Africa in its complaint has made a plausible case that Israel is […]
Biden Must Choose Between a Ceasefire in Gaza and a Regional War
( Code Pink ) – In the topsy-turvy world of corporate media reporting on U.S. foreign policy, we have been led to believe that U.S. air strikes on Yemen, Iraq and Syria are legitimate and responsible efforts to contain the expanding war over Israel’s genocide in Gaza, while the actions of the Houthi government in […]
Western moral Credibility is dying along with Thousands of Gaza Citizens
By Shaun Narine, St. Thomas University (Canada) | – The western world’s feeble response to Israel’s attack on Gaza has severely damaged the West’s already tenuous moral credibility in the Global South and undermined the foundations of the human rights regime and international law developed after the Second World War. The West claims it champions […]
Israel’s Victory in Gaza turns Pyrrhic as a Majority of Youths and Democrats brand it Genocidal
Ann Arbor (Informed Comment) – Israel is losing its campaign against Gaza not so much on the battlefield — though it is unclear that very many of its military goals have been accomplished — but in the court of public opinion. The Israeli far right has long ignored such PR setbacks, convinced that as long […]
Israel, the United States, and the Rhetoric of the War on Terror: From September 11, 2001, to October 7, 2023 (and Beyond)
Maha Hilal ( Tomdispatch.com ) – In a New Yorker piece published five days after the attacks of September 11, 2001, American critic and public intellectual Susan Sontag wrote, “Let’s by all means grieve together. But let’s not be stupid together. A few shreds of historical awareness might help us understand what has just happened, […]
US Mideast Experts Condemn Israeli Killing of Gaza Professors, University Administrators
Committee on Academic Freedom | Middle East Studies Association of North America | – Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu pmoh@pmo.gov.il . . . Prime Minister, Ministers, Major General: We write to you on behalf of the Committee on Academic Freedom of the Middle East Studies Association of North America (MESA) to vehemently condemn the ongoing […]