Juan Cole

The Qana Massacre, Part II Israeli war planes scored a direct hit on a building in the Shiite village of Qana where destitute farming folk, including old people, women and children, had taken refuge in the basement from Israeli bombing raids. At least 60 are dead, as bodies are pulled from the rubble. 19 children […]

Renewed Israeli Airstrikes Kill Family, Others, Wound 2 UN Troops; Nasrallah Vows Longer Range Rocket Strikes The Israelis continued air strikes on Saturday. Naharnet.com carries this via AFP and AP: ‘Elsewhere, Israeli warplanes demolished houses, killing seven people, including a woman and her five children . . . Lebanese civilians have born the brunt of […]

Over a Dozen Dead in Civil War Violence Khafaji denounces Maliki for Visit to Bush Guerrillas detonated a car bomb in Kirkuk on Saturday, killing four persons and wounding 15. There have been lots of bombings in the volatile multi-ethnic oil city recently, and some worry about a sectarian war breaking out there. Turkish troops […]

Blair and the Rhetoric of False Equivalence The techniques of propaganda were on full display during the joint news conference of George W. Bush and British PM Tony Blair on Friday. Blair began by saying, ‘ What is happening in the Middle East at the moment is a complete tragedy for Lebanon, for Israel and […]

Islands in Arabia Patrick McGreevy writes from Beirut: ‘ Islands in Arabia Sitting on my balcony staring down at the Sea Gate of the American University of Beirut, and to the Mediterranean beyond, I am in no danger. The bombs are in the distance. The fighting is in the south. In Tel Aviv, Israeli citizens […]

Israeli Air Strikes Kill 15 Civilians: Hizbullah Fires longer range Missile, Misses The Daily Star reports: ‘ Israel’s powerful war machine pounded Lebanon for the 17th day on Friday as Hizbullah launched new, longer-range wepons on settlements in northern Israel . . . Israeli planes and warships hammered Southern Lebanon and the Bekaa Valley . […]

Israeli cabinet rejects masive reliance on troops. The Israeli war with Hizbullah is going badly for the Israelis. Some generals think the problem is too few troops. But the Israeli cabinet rejected that way of thinking, Thursday, sticking to its current mixture of air power and light infantry. Air strikes in the south will continue. […]

32 Killed, 151 Wounded in Karada Strikes Sunni Arab guerrillas used a combination of car bombs and mortar strikes to kill at least 32 persons in the upscale, predominantly Shiite Karada district on Thursday, while wounding 151. The explosions took place near the home of Vice President Adil Abdul Mahdi, and this area generally supports […]

Criminalizing Civilians Patrick McGreevy writes from Beirut: ‘ Criminalizing Civilians In the days before the US-commanded forces unleashed the second siege of Falluja in November 2004, a quarter million women, children and old men fled the city, but males between the ages of 15 and 45 were denied passage. They were essentially criminalized and forced […]