Juan Cole: Israel, Gaza and Campus Protests, Part I on Sea Change Radio with Alex Wise. Transcript below. Or listen here: Pro-Palestinian student protests are erupting on college campuses all over the country, often resulting in aggressive responses from local law enforcement. This week on Sea Change Radio, the first half of our two-part discussion […]
Israel Bans Al Jazeera Journalists, Network, Joining Syria and Iran as Repressive Regime
Ann Arbor (Informed Comment) – The Committee to Protect Journalists on Sunday condemned the Israeli cabinet’s decision to ban the Al Jazeera news network in Israel. The network’s office was closed and its equipment was confiscated. Israeli cable channels were forced to delete Al Jazeera from their offerings, and even its website has been blocked […]
Tens of Thousands of Israelis Demonstrate against Netanyahu, Demand Hostage Exchange Deal, New Elections
Ann Arbor (Informed Comment) – The Israeli newspaper Arab 48 reports that tens of thousands of Israelis rallied Saturday night against the government of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in Tel Aviv and other cities, including Jerusalem, Beersheba and Haifa. The protesters were responding in part to dueling news releases about the possibility of a breakthrough […]
Netanyahu as Lord of the Flies: He has wounded, sickened or starved all 600K Palestinian Children in Rafah
Ann Arbor (Informed Comment) – Catherine Russell, the head of UNICEF, said this week that of the 600,000 children in Rafah, southern Gaza, all of them are either injured, or sick, or malnourished. Much of the Gaza population has been forced south to Rafah by the Israeli military, which had promised them it was a […]
Top Ways MAGA and Right Wing Zionism Converge, and Why Smotrich is Embracing Trump
Ann Arbor (Informed Comment) – Going back to the late nineteenth century, Zionism has had a complex and storied history, and there have been many strains of the ideology. Some early Zionists did not insist on colonizing Palestine, while others did (and colonizing it was the word they used). All agreed that the Jewish religion […]
“Intifada” in Arabic just means Uprising or Mass Protest; it is used for the Jewish Warsaw Uprising
Ann Arbor (Informed Comment) – A key feature of American bigotry toward people from the Middle East and North Africa (MENA), and toward Muslims more generally, has been the demonization by journalists, politicians and interest groups of ordinary, everyday Arabic words. Arabic words have a proud and positive history in the English language. Consider a […]
Hubert Humphrey Redux? Biden is Risking Election and Country with his Embrace of Netanyahu’s War
Ann Arbor (Informed Comment) – CNN reports ominously this week that “Biden is actually 11 percentage points behind Trump among young voters 18-34 in a head-to-head match in a CNN poll conducted by SSRS and released over the weekend.” CNN continues that 71% of Americans disapprove of his handling of the Gaza campaign! That rises […]
Keffiyehs, long a Symbol of Exotic Masculinity for White Colonizers, now Bashed when worn by Palestinians and Students
Ann Arbor (Informed Comment) – Supporters of the Israeli genocide against tens of thousands of innocent Palestinian women, children, and noncombatant men in Gaza have fixed upon an unlikely villain in their denunciation of the slightest protest against this century’s worst act of barbarity. They are denouncing the patterned black-and-white scarf of cotton called a […]
Are Netanyahu & Co. about to face Arrest Warrants from the Int’l Criminal Court for Gaza War Crimes?
Ann Arbor (Informed Comment) – Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is deeply worried that the International Criminal Court in the Hague may be on the verge of issuing arrest warrants for him along with Defense Minister Yoav Gallant and Army Chief of Staff Herzi Halevy, according to the Israeli press, including Israeli Channel 13. The […]