2024

US Arms Used in Illegal Israeli Strike on Lebanese Journalists, raising Questions of American Liability

Three Killed, Four Injured in Apparent War Crime

How Hayat Tahrir al-Sham evolved from Radicalism to ruler of Northern Syria

By Sara Harmouch, American University A major offensive has seen rebel groups in Syria retake the country’s second city, Aleppo – and demonstrated the growing prominence of the Islamist group Hayat Tahrir al-Sham in the 13-year-long civil war. The surprise advance was led by members of Hayat Tahrir al-Sham, fighting alongside Turkish-backed groups opposing the […]

Featured

Why is Iran so Central to US Policy? An Interview with Doyen of US Iran Experts, Gary Sick (Pt. 1)

Fariba Amini

Gary Sick was the national security advisor to President Jimmy Carter. He was present at the White House during some turbulent times- the Iranian revolution, Camp David Accord and more. He had served previously under President Ford and, for a short period, under Reagan. Later, he taught at Columbia University and for nearly 30 years […]

Israel/ Palestine

Israel Committing War Crimes, Ethnic Cleansing in N. Gaza: Former Minister of Defense Moshe Yaalon

Middle East Monitor

( Middle East Monitor ) – Former Israeli Defense Minister Moshe Ya’alon accused the army on Sunday of committing war crimes in the northern Gaza Strip and attempting to hide these crimes from the public, Anadolu Agency reports. “I speak on behalf of the commanders who serve in northern Gaza. There are war crimes being […]

Donald Trump

Trump’s Second Coming: “I never realized before that men hate us so much.”

Rebecca Gordon

( Tomdispatch.com ) – “I never realized before that men hate us so much.” That was the lesson drawn by one of my fellow organizers in Reno, Nevada, the morning after the 2024 general election. She’d turned 21 during the campaign, a three-month marathon she approached as a daily opportunity to learn as much as […]

Bashar al-Assad

Syria as Putin’s Afghanistan: How a Radical Fundamentalist take-over of Damascus could Change the Middle East

Juan Cole

Ann Arbor (Informed Comment) – The collapse of the Baathist government of Syria in the north of the country, as the al-Qaeda affiliate HTS (Hay’at Tahrir al-Sham or the Levant Liberation Council) advanced into Aleppo and Hama, could reconfigure the Middle East. The rapidity of the advance and the Muslim fundamentalist leadership of the fighters […]

International Criminal Court

Netherlands Supreme Court advised to uphold Israel F-35 Components Export Ban

Middle East Monitor

( Middle East Monitor ) – The advocate general of the Supreme Court of the Netherlands, the country’s highest court, was advised on Friday to uphold the ruling banning the Dutch state from exporting F-35 components to Israel. The Court of Appeal in The Hague in February ordered the government to stop exporting components due […]

plastic

A tax on new Plastic would slash Waste – if built into the global Treaty on Plastics

The Conversation

By Amelia Leavesley, The University of Melbourne (The Conversation) – Earlier this week, the mining magnate Andrew Forrest made headlines calling for a global “polymer premium” – or plastic tax – to be placed on every tonne of newly manufactured plastics. A tax like this could form part of the Global Plastic Treaty being hammered […]

Featured

Killing One innocent Soul is the Same as Killing all of Humanity: Jewish and Muslim Teachings against Cosmocide

Juan Cole

The below is an excerpt from my essay, “The Sin of Cosmocide,” for Renovatio, the literary magazine of Zaytuna, the Muslim liberal arts college in Berkeley, Ca. It underlines how both Jewish and Muslim spiritual teachings forbid the killing of innocents who are guilty of no crime, and equate this deed to killing all humankind […]

Archives for 2024