By Juan Cole | — Compared to Germany and Spain, the United States is woefully backward in its development of wind, solar and other renewable sources of energy for electricity generation. But there is some good news on this front, as CleanTech notes. Utility-scale solar power generation in the United States doubled in the past […]
Top 5 ways US treatment of African-Americans resembles Apartheid South Africa
By Juan Cole | — From 1949 though the early 1990s, South Africa was ruled by an Afrikaner Apartheid regime that made race the basis for law and politics, and which systematically excluded black Africans from their civil and national rights, empowering white Afrikaners alone. The social statistics produced by that regime, however, are not […]
UN General Assembly Demands Israel Mothball its Nuclear Arsenal
By Juan Cole | — The United Nations General Assembly (where all 193 countries in the world get a vote) has almost unanimously demanded that Israel give up its nuclear weapons and cooperate with making the Middle East a nuclear-free zone. The only dissenters were Israel and the United States, along with three small South […]
Cole at the Nation: Egyptian Left Plans Mock Trial of Mubarak
By Juan Cole | — My blog entry at The Nation is out: “After Acquittal, Egypt’s New Left Vows Mock Trial of Mubarak” Excerpt: “A youth “New Left” is still a significant current in Egypt, and many young people want more accountability in government. They were the ones who gathered just outside the now-closed Tahrir […]
Iran-Iraq War 2.0? Iran Flies bombing Raids on Extremists in Iraq
By Juan Cole | — The US Pentagon is confirming that Iranian F-4 fighter jets have flown bombing missions against Daesh or the so-called ‘Islamic State Group’ in Iraq. They helped Iraqi Shiites take the town of Saadiya back from Daesh late last week. That town is in the ethnically and religiously mixed province of […]
In Rebuke to Israel, French Parliament votes Resolution to Recognize Palestine
Euronews / France24 | — VIDEO 1 (Euronews): “French MPs vote to recognise Palestinian state The French parliament has voted in favour of recognising the state of Palestine by a large majority. MPs voted 339 in favour and 151 against. Israel had earlier urged the French parliament to vote against the resolution. It is a […]
Putin, Blocked by Europe, turns to Turkey for Gas Pipeline
By Juan Cole | — The Russian annexation of Crimea and heavy interference in the Ukraine has had a significant consequence for its hydrocarbon industry. President Vladimir Putin has been forced to cancel a planned natural gas pipeline that would bring the fuel to southern Europe, because of European Union pressure for boycotting Russia. Moscow […]
In Hebron, Palestinian women face down daily settler home invasions
By Alex Shams and Salam Muharam (Ma’an News Agency) The alleyways of the Old City of Hebron leading away from the famed Ibrahimi mosque — where the biblical patriarch Abraham and his family are buried — are almost always eerily quiet. In some directions the covered alleys are blocked off by tin barriers covered in […]
Annual Informed Comment Fundraiser
By Juan Cole | — What an incredible year this has been! Informed Comment has gone from strength to strength. We expect 2015 to be as dramatic, and will continue to expand our coverage, with both expert opinion and observers on the ground. I tried but failed to enlist a regular Middle East-based correspondent, but […]
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