Juan Cole

Israel’s Maximal Option My article on the political and military aims of the Israeli government and of Hizbullah is out at Salon.com. Excerpt: Israel has a range of options. It has already made one raid into the south. It could pull back at any point. But the maximal option would be to change the human […]

Evacuation of the American University in Beirut Patrick McGreevy writes from Beirut: ‘ Friends, In the early evening, we watched from our apartment balcony as a huge white cruise ship glided past west Beirut toward Cyprus. Aboard were several groups of evacuees, including a number of US students from American University of Beirut. A few […]

Email from Beirut A friend writes from the American University in Beirut: ‘ The university has fuel (and power) for only 12 days; after that we will have a real crisis at the hospital which is already stressed with many wounded people. Refugees from the southern suburbs are now visible in Ras Beirut. I spoke […]

Israel Invades Lebanon; Ongoing Airstrikes Kill Dozens of Lebanese Civilians; Hizbullah Rockets Wound 11 in Haifa Israel invaded Lebanon on Monday, sending ground troops into the south. Israeli leaders say that they do not intend a long-term occupation. But then war is unpredictable. [UPdate: The Israeli land force briefly went over into Lebanon but then […]

Bush: Lean on Syria I cobbled the Bush-Blair exchange on Israel and Lebanon, accidentally caught at the G8 on mike, together fromWaPo and ABC News. BUSH to Blair: “I think Condi is going to go (to the Middle East) pretty soon.” BLAIR: “Right, that’s all that matters, it will take some time to get that […]

Israel Widens Airstrikes; 140 Civilians Dead since Weds; Nasrallah Threatens Haifa with Worse Attacks Israel may be planning a ground incursion into southern Lebanon, according to The Guardian. Photos of Lebanon courtesy Al-Safir. An Israeli air strike on a south Lebanese town on Sunday killed 8 Canadians and wounded 6; several were from a single […]

Iraqi PM, Parliament Condemn Israel; Massive Bombings in Tuz Khurmato, Mahmudiyah Guerrillas in Mahmudiyah killed 42 Iraqis in a market bombing early Monday. On Sunday, a horrible cafe bombing in Tuz Khurmato killed 25. This link to Reuters also rounds up the rest of Iraq’s violence on Sunday. There were mortar attacks on the British […]

Israel Kills Children in Convoy Bombing; Dozens Dead; Hizbullah bombs Akka, Haifa; Wounds, Kills Civilians The Guardian reports of Israeli’s continued war of attrition on Lebanon on Saturday: ‘ Israel steeply escalated its military campaign against Hizbollah in Lebanon yesterday with a series of air strikes that left more than 35 civilians dead, including a […]

50 Kidnapped in Baghad There were large numbers of bombings and assassinations in Iraq on Saturday. The most horrible incident Was the abduction of up to 50 Iraqis. The USG Open Source Center paraphases briefly highlights from the Iraqi press for July 15: Al-Adalah runs on page 2 a 1,200-word text of a statement by […]