By Juan Cole | (Informed Comment) | – – Dorit Rabinyan’s novel Borderlife treats a love affair in New York between an Israeli woman and a Palestinian man, which ends when they return to their respective homes. The novel began being assigned by those inveterate social radicals, the High School Teachers, in Israel. But then […]
Syrian Army lets food Aid into Starving Madaya
By Juan Cole | (Informed Comment) | – – France24 Arabic reports that the Syrian government agreed Thursday to allow humanitarian aid into Madaya and two other besieged towns near the Lebanese border northwest of Damascus. The step was praised by the United Nations. The siege of Madaya, pop 40,000, has been going on for […]
Britain’s Debate over Banning Trump by the Numbers
By Juan Cole | (Informed Comment) | – – The British parliament will debate a motion to ban Donald Trump from the UK on January 18. Typically 100,000 signatures on a petition will provoke such a debate, but many more Britons asked for it than that. Trump would hardly be the first person banned there […]
Iraqi Shiites up in Arms, claim Saudi “Spying on behalf of ISIL/Daesh”
By Juan Cole | (Informed Comment) | – – Saudi Arabia’s execution on Saturday of prominent Shiite cleric Nimr Baqir al-Nimr has so far not created a crisis between Riyadh and the Shiite-dominated Baghdad government. But Saudi Arabia’s name with the rank and file Shiites and parliamentary backbenchers is mud. On Tuesday, thousands (or perhaps […]
The Question isn’t of Saving the World via Renewables but of how Much can be Saved
By Juan Cole | (Informed Comment) | – – Humanity is not abandoning fossil fuels fast enough to avoid some massive changes to our world’s climate, with all the implications that change has for sea level, coastal erosion, extreme weather, and desertification and drought. There have been impressive advances in adoption of solar and wind […]
Turkish Pres. Erdogan cites Hitler in case for Presidential System
By Juan Cole | (Informed Comment) | – – Turkish president Tayyip Erdogan on Thursday cited Hitler in support of his contention that a presidential system can coexist with a “unitary state,” i.e., with a non-federal government. The United States has a presidential system, but the presidency’s powers are limited because it is a federal […]
Radical Al-Shabab uses Trump in Recruiting Video & Muslim preachers denounce him along with ISIL
By Juan Cole | (Informed Comment) | – – The foremost academic expert on Daesh (ISIS, ISIL) and Muslim radical thought, Will McCants at Brookings, tweeted out late Friday: Shabab uses Trump's anti-Muslim statement in new recruitment video (10:50 mark): https://t.co/Amdr4NUH3l — Will McCants (@will_mccants) January 1, 2016 (I apologize that YouTube removed the content […]
Top 7 Middle East Foreign Policy Challenges in 2016
By Juan Cole | (Informed Comment) | – – My own feeling is that the US engagement with the Middle East is likely to remain so intense only for another two decades or so. As fossil fuels are replaced with renewables, the outsized role that the oil Gulf plays in world affairs will decline. The […]
Most important Neglected Middle East Stories of 2015
By Juan Cole | (Informed Comment) | – – The past 12 months saw enormous political, economic and military changes in the Middle East, which have left its geopolitics changed for the foreseeable future. The US coverage of the area has focused on Syria, Iraq, Daesh (ISIS, ISIL), Turkey, Russia and Iran in a big […]
© 2025 All Rights Reserved