By Juan Cole | (Informed Comment) | – – The Israel lobbies don’t win every fight on Capitol Hill, but over time they have tended to win the big ones in recent decades. This time, they are going down. Israeli prime minister Binyamin Netanyahu, a notorious narcissist, appears to have completely over-estimated his ability to […]
Martin Kramer’s “Modest Proposal” for starving Gazans into having fewer Children, 5 Yrs Later
By Juan Cole | (Informed Comment) | – – In view of the dire UN report warning that in 5 years Gaza may well be uninhabitable for its 2 million Palestinian residents, it is worth considering again that this outcome is being connived at by the Israeli far right wing, one mouthpiece for which is […]
Enter the Bear: Does Russia plan air strikes on Daesh/ISIL in Syria?
By Juan Cole| (Informed Comment) | – – The Israeli press is reporting that Iran has made a firmer military alliance with the Russian Federation in Syria, and that Moscow is sending pilots to Damascus to fly missions in that country against Daesh (ISIS, ISIL) and other Muslim extremist groups. The Syrian regime of Bashar […]
Top 5 Green Energy Breakthroughs Today
By Juan Cole | (Informed Comment) – – Switching to green energy sources like wind and solar is necessary to save the planet from increased concentrations of greenhouse gases like carbon dioxide, which cause global warming. But it will also save you money. How much? Citi Bank has a new estimate that going green will […]
Palestine overwhelmed by Illegal American Immigrants
By Juan Cole | (Informed Comment) | – – If there were a Palestinian Donald Trump, he’d be fulminating against illegal immigrants swamping the Palestinian West Bank. And he’d be complaining that fully 1 in 6 of these undocumented squatters are Americans . Since Americans have trouble understanding the basic facts of the situation, it […]
Austrian Truck Tragedy echoes Palestinian Story, reminding us of 7 mn still stateless
By Juan Cole | (Informed Comment) | – – The gruesome discovery of an abandoned truck in eastern Austria with 71 dead refugees in it, 4 of them children, has horrified the world. But few will realize that the plot of this story was laid out in the 1960s by Palestinian writer Ghassan Kanafani, in […]
Egypt’s al-Sisi and Putin Pledge Common Front against Terrorism
By Juan Cole | (Informed Comment) | – – Egypt’s president Abdel Fattah al-Sisi met Wednesday for the third time in a year with Russian leader Vladimir Putin in Moscow. Putin is attempting to draw Egypt into a common front against terrorism. He wants to fight Daesh [ISIS, ISIL]) in Syria, which is only a […]
Defending Natalie Portman on Holocaust: Sometimes it can be subverted to fear-mongering
By Juan Cole | (Informed Comment) | – – Actress Natalie Portman has kicked off a controversy with remarks about how to remember the Nazi Holocaust against the Jews, in which the National Socialists murdered 6 million. Her critics have run off on tangents and presented a lot of red herrings. Portman did not question […]
ISIL’s Assault on History: Blows Up 1st Century Baal Shamin Temple in Palmyra
RFE / RL | – – Gunmen from the Islamic State (IS) militant group have blown up a first century A.D. temple in the ancient city of Palmyra, Syrian government officials and a monitoring group have said. However, there is confusion over when the detonation is thought to have taken place. Syria’s directorate-general of antiquities […]