Ann Arbor (Informed Comment) – Earlier this month the UN Independent International Commission of Inquiry on the Occupied Palestinian Territory issued a report demanding that Israel, in the words of Commission Chair Navi Pillar, “Israel must immediately stop its unprecedented wanton destruction of healthcare facilities in Gaza. By targeting healthcare facilities, Israel is targeting the […]
Archives for October 2024
As Middle East Crisis Escalates, Hopes For Diplomatic Solution Dim
By Michael Scollon ( RFE/RL RFE/RL ) – Israel’s two-front war in the Gaza Strip and Lebanon, as well as the threat of escalation with Iran, have put the Middle East crisis on boil. But despite the risk of all-out war involving regional powers Israel and Iran, experts say there is little appetite for a […]
How Dangerous anti-Protest Laws can Silence the Climate Movement
( ) – In August, climate activist and cellist John Mark Rozendaal was arrested and charged with criminal contempt for playing a few minutes of Bach outside Citibank’s headquarters in New York City. Rozendaal, 63, was prominent in the “Summer of Heat on Wall Street” campaign that targeted Citibank for its prolific financing of fossil-fuel […]
The Yemen Model and Failed US Middle East Policy
Review of Alexandra Stark, “The Yemen Model: Why U.S. Policy Has Failed in the Middle East” (New Haven and London: Yale University Press, 2024). Munich, Germany (Special to Informed Comment; Feature) –– Yemen goes through a civil war that does not end, frequent cholera outbreaks, and acute malnutrition among children. These days, however, the southern […]
With northern Gaza Desperate and Hungry, Israel’s Actions are shaking the World Order to its Core
By Tristan Dunning, Macquarie University; Martin Kear, University of Sydney; and Shannon Brincat, University of the Sunshine Coast | – (The Conversation) – While the killing of Hamas leader Yahya Sinwar could have provided an off-ramp for the conflict in Gaza, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s ongoing vows of “total victory” make this seem unlikely. […]
Time to look at history from the point of view of the arms industry?
How did we end up in a situation where there is increasing talk of an emerging Third World War? A look back at a century in which the arms industry repeatedly found enemy images, along with the appropriate triggers, and in the meantime perfected its arsenal. Time to look at history from the point of […]
If one Thing can Unite Sunnis and Shiites in Lebanon, it is Israeli Aggression
Istanbul (Special to Informed Comment; Feature) – Prior to the recent Israeli attacks on Gaza and Lebanon, the popularity of Hezbollah, within and outside of Lebanon had seen a steep decline over the years, mainly because of its governing policies inside Lebanon and its Iran-inspired foreign policy outside. However, over the last year, the continuous […]
The Myth of Greater Israel and Zionist Expansionism
( The New Arab ) – On October 7 2023, Hamas breached the 17-year-long Israeli blockade of the Gaza Strip with a brutal, coordinated attack on at least seven Israeli military installations surrounded by more than 20 residential communities. In a retaliatory frenzy, Israel unleashed a mass Hannibal directive, with tanks and gunships firing indiscriminately at […]
The Global War on Children
( Tomdispatch.com ) – “War is not healthy for children and other living things,” reads a poster titled “Primer” created by the late artist Lorraine Schneider for an art show at New York’s Pratt Institute in 1965. Printed in childlike lowercase letters, the words interspersed between the leaves of a simply rendered sunflower, it was […]