Oakland, Ca. (Special to Informed Comment; Featured) – On March 29, the Israeli Supreme Court ordered the government to stop subsidizing the academies and yeshivas (seminaries), whose students have been exempted from military service since Israel’s founding. This move, brought by Attorney-General Gali Baharav-Miara, was prompted by the expiration of prior government actions to maintain […]
Archives for April 2024
Israel’s Attacks on Aid Workers Must End
By Mitchell Zimmerman | ( Otherwords.org) – Israel has come under intense criticism for killing aid workers helping the civilian victims of its war in Gaza. Most recently, an Israeli drone fired three missiles at a World Central Kitchen convoy, killing all seven humanitarian aid workers present. The trucks were clearly marked and their route […]
With Its Deterrence Strategy Weakened, Iran Faces Pressure To Hit Israel
By Kian Sharifi | – ( Radio Free Europe/ Radio Liberty ) – Iran’s strategy of deterrence against Israel has suffered greatly since the outbreak of the Gaza war — particularly after the brazen attack on its consulate in the Syrian capital on April 1. Eighteen members of the Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC), including […]
The Story of Arab-Jews Instills Hope
Reflections on Avi Shlaim, Three Worlds : Memoirs of an Arab-Jew, London: Oneworld, 2023, 324 pp. During my stay in Iran in 2016, I heard from several Muslims that Jews are good businessmen because they are trustworthy, and their word weighs more than a notarized contract. I recalled these comments when I read about Yusef, […]
Marjorie Taylor Greene only Cares about some Murders, and not those committed by Far Right with AR-15s
( Tomdispatch.com ) – “Say her name!” Marjorie Taylor Greene shouted from the House floor during President Biden’s State of the Union Address. The same slogan was on the T-shirt she wore under her red jacket, which had a pin with a picture of the person whose name she was referring to — a pin she’d […]
Iran-US secret Backchannel Talks Suggest that for Both Sides Pragmatism beats Ideology
By Shabnam Holliday, University of Plymouth | – (The Conversation) – Recent revelations that the Islamic Republic of Iran and the US have held secret talks as a way of resolving months of attacks by Tehran-backed Houthi rebels on shipping in the Red Sea have raised eyebrows. Surely the two countries have been implacable foes […]
Israel’s Lavender Murderbot is Programmed to Kill up to a Third of all Palestinian Civilians in Gaza
Ann Arbor (Informed Comment) – The incredibly brave and resourceful Israeli journalist Yuval Abraham revealed Wednesday in a hard-hitting piece of investigative journalism that the Israeli military has used two artificial intelligence programs, “Lavender” and “Where’s Daddy,” to target some 37,000 alleged members of the military wings of Hamas and Islamic Jihad. The programs used […]
The Gaza War at Six Months: Top 5 Recommendations for Ending the Fighting and Ensuring Human Security
The Gaza War at Six Months: Five Recommendations for Ending the Fighting and Ensuring Human Security in Israel-Palestine ( The Center for International Policy ) – This week marks six months since the horrific Hamas-led October 7, 2023 attack and atrocities against civilians in southern Israel, followed by the devastating and often indiscriminate Israeli assault […]
Erdoğan’s streak came to a screeching Halt as Turkey’s economy pays the price for Years of Policy Mistakes
By Gulcin Ozkan, King’s College London | – (The Conversation) – For many years, it wasn’t the economy that determined voting behaviour in Turkey. The country’s president, Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, won almost every election he contested despite a deteriorating economic outlook. This is commonly explained by the importance of identity politics in a country that […]