By Nick Turse | ( Tomdispatch.com) | – – “We don’t know exactly where we’re at in the world, militarily, and what we’re doing,” said Senator Lindsey Graham, a member of the Senate Armed Services Committee, in October. That was in the wake of the combat deaths of four members of the Special Operations forces […]
Muslim Countries call for E. Jerusalem as Palestine Capital, reject US as Honest Broker
By Juan Cole | (Informed Comment) | – – The Organization of the Islamic Conference, a regular meeting of the foreign ministers of 57 Muslim-majority countries, held an extraordinary session in Istanbul on Wednesday, in which they rejected US President Donald Trump’s recognition of Jerusalem as the capital of Israel. In a communique they called […]
What’s the Difference between Roy Moore and a Muslim extreme Fundamentalist? A Cowboy Hat
By Juan Cole | (Informed Comment) | – – Both Christianity and Islam as religions comprise large numbers of people and contain a spectrum of believers from the secular to the moderate to the extreme. At the far right fringes of the Muslim extremists you get al-Qaeda. At the far right fringes of Christian extremists […]
The Fempire Strikes Back: #MeToo and the Man-Monsters
By Ann Jones. | ( Tomdispatch.com First, for the record, let me tell you my story about another of those perversely creepy Hollywood predators, a sort of cut-rate Harvey Weinstein: the screenwriter and film director James Toback. As I read now of women he preyed upon year after year, I feel the rage that’s bubbled […]
Exodus of Climate Scientists to France only the Beginning if GOP Guts Grad Education
By Juan Cole | (Informed Comment) | – – French President Emmanuel Macron has a program he calls MAPA – “Making the Planet Great Again.” His government is offering funding to climate scientists who are facing obstacles in their home countries, to come and work in France. He just managed to lure away 18 high-powered […]
The Difference between Israeli Policy and Turkish: Calling Each other Terrorist State
By Juan Cole | (Informed Comment) | – – First, Turkish president Tayyip Erdogan gave a speech in the Central Anatolian province of Sivas on Dec. 10, in which he said, “Israel is a state of occupation and a terror state . . . [Turkey] will not leave Jerusalem to the consciousness of a child-killer […]
Toward a Federal United States of Israel & Palestine?
By David Gerald Fincham They say that the two-state solution to the Israel-Palestine conflict is dead. Good. Partition was never the right way out of the conflict. The two peoples need to be reconciled: keeping them apart, each limited to only a part of the land they consider to be their homeland, would increase hostility, […]
Why Aren’t Americans Celebrating fall of ISIL State? It is a bogeyman
By Juan Cole | (Informed Comment) | – – Other people are celebrating the defeat of Daesh (ISIS, ISIL) on the battlefield and its destruction as a territorial state. Russia issued an announcement last week that ISIL has been wiped out in Syria. Iraqi prime minister Haydar al-Abadi said Saturday that Iraq had been completely […]
Massive worldwide Rallies Condemn US, Courtesy Trump Jerusalem Call
By Juan Cole | (Informed Comment) | – – Ayat Ahmad reports for Elbalad (Beirut, liberal) that Friday saw huge, angry demonstrations against the United States in the Palestinian West Bank, Jordan, Yemen, Tunisia, Turkey, Iran, Pakistan, Malaysia, Indonesia and elsewhere in protest of Trump’s announcement recognizing Jerusalem as the capital of Israel. AFP starts […]