By Juan Cole | (Informed Comment) | – – Justice Antonin Scalia died in Texas on Saturday. IC sends condolences to his family. Scalia is widely recognized as having been a brilliant legal thinker and a fine and passionate prose stylist. He was the first Italian-American to serve on the Supreme Court. It is worth […]
Despite Syria Cease Fire, Belligerents Plot military Victory
By Juan Cole | (Informed Comment) | – – Despite the announcement at Munich of a cessation of hostilities in Syria, to be implemented in the next week or so, all the major fighting forces in Syria have announced a determination to soldier on. According to the London pan-Arab daily al-Hayat [Life] , Russian foreign […]
Clinton and Sanders on Mideast War and Kissinger’s Legacy (PBS Debate)
By Juan Cole | (Informed Comment) | – – Both the Middle East conflicts and the ghost of the Vietnam War haunted the PBS Democratic debate Thursday evening. Vietnam was symbolized by Henry Kissinger, former Nixon National Security Adviser (1968-1975) and Secretary of State for Nixon and Gerald Ford (1973-77). In the last Democratic debate, […]
Israel: Friedman of the NY Times surrenders to One-State Solution, sees ME Apocalypse
By Juan Cole | (Informed Comment) | – – Tom Friedman of the New York Times has completely given up on a two-state solution, forthrightly abandoning the polite fiction that there will ever be a Palestinian state alongside Israel, and ridiculing American presidential candidates for speaking as though it were still a possibility. In fact, […]
Did Muslim-Americans lose the New Hampshire GOP Primary?
AJ+ | (Video News Report) | – – “This is what the Republican presidential candidates said about Muslims in their most recent debate.” AJ+: “The GOP Has A Muslim Problem”
Did Bashar al-Assad win New Hampshire? Trump & Sanders Mideast Policies
By Juan Cole | (Informed Comment) | – – Donald Trump and Bernie Sanders won big in New Hampshire on Tuesday. Caution is in order, since that state is demographically not very much like the rest of the United States, and both candidates are Northeasterners with advantages there. US journalism dreams of a presidential election […]
Kahlil Gibran: “Lazarus & His Beloved”
Kahlil Gibran | (New York Public Library) \ – – New York Public Library, Billy Rose Theater Production Photograph File Genre: Photograph [of Tableau Vivant] — Related Book: Kahlil Gibran, The Vision, trans. Juan Cole.
Erdogan Threatened Europe with Refugees, now Demanding US abandon Syrian Kurds
By Juan Cole | (Informed Comment) | – – Reuters reports that Turkish president Tayyip Erdogan allegedly bullied European leaders and threatened to drown Europe in refugees if his terms were not met. He wanted 6 Bn Euros to keep the 2.5 million Syrian refugees in Turkey happy enough in that country to discourage them […]
Israel frets about “Iran as Neighbor” if Aleppo falls & al-Assad Regime Wins
By Juan Cole | (Informed Comment) | – – An Arabic site that aggregates Facebook and other social media postings reports that Israeli officials are filled with anxiety and consternation about the possibility that the regime of Bashar al-Assad will conquer Aleppo with Russian and Iranian help, and will go on to reconstitute itself. It […]
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