Ann Arbor (Informed Comment) – In mid-July, Nature Climate Change published a global survey of over 9,000 scientists. Its findings should be like the sirens for a 5-alarm fire to our ears. Scientists are trained to be cautious and to base anything they assert on firm empirical evidence and close analytical reasoning. They want to […]
Gaza War, Lack of Palestinian Labor, drives Contraction of Israeli GDP, with 46K Businesses Shuttered
Ann Arbor (Informed Comment) – Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s insistence on continuing his total war on Gaza is not only inflicting untold misery on thousands of innocent civilians in Gaza but is also hurting the economic well-being of Israelis. According to the Israeli newspaper Arab 48, the Israeli economy’s gross domestic product per capita […]
Polio Pause: UN Calls for Urgent Ceasefire to allow 640K Children to be Vaccinated, as Gaza Polio Victim Confirmed
Ann Arbor (Informed Comment) – A ten-month-old child in Gaza has been confirmed stricken with polio, as several other children have displayed symptoms consistent with the disease, which can cause paralysis and death. Polio had been eradicated in Gaza years ago, but the highly unsanitary conditions created by the Israeli military’s indiscriminate destruction of Gaza […]
Saudi Crown Prince fears Assassination if he Recognizes Israel without getting a Palestinian State
Ann Arbor (Informed Comment) – Nahal Toosi at Politico reported on Wednesday that Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed Bin Salman, the de facto ruler of Saudi Arabia, has emphasized to the Biden administration that the “grand bargain” they want him to make with Israel could result in his assassination. She says he instanced the late Egyptian […]
Ultra-Orthodox Threaten to Bolt Netanyahu’s Government over Prayer at the Temple Mount
Ann Arbor (Informed Comment) – The Times of Israel reported that a schism is brewing on the Israeli right wing. The Ultra-Orthodox object to Jews praying at the Temple Mount on the grounds that it is the holy site of the Second Temple and for Jews to pray there before the Messiah comes is impious […]
Gaza confronting Israeli-created Famine as Kerem Shalom Food Aid Trucks drop 80% to 24 Trucks a Day
Ann Arbor (Informed Comment) – Although the United Nations has not officially declared a famine in Gaza, people living there are in no doubt about it. The New Humanitarian quotes Diana Harrara, a 33-year-old mother of three in Gaza: “No word better describes what we’re experiencing than ‘famine.’ Firstly, we have nothing to eat but […]
Over half of new Car sales in China in July were EVs, as America faces threat of Falling Behind
Ann Arbor (Informed Comment) – In July, China reached an unprecedented inflection point for an industrialized society, with more electric cars purchased than internal combustion engine (ICE) vehicles. William Gavin at Quartz points out that 3 years ago, only 7% of cars sold in China were EVs. Just this year, EV sales are up 37%. […]
B’Tselem accuses Israeli Authorities of Systematically Torturing Thousands of Palestinian Prisoners
Ann Arbor (Informed Comment) – The brave and meticulous Israeli human rights organization B’Tselem has issued a report aptly entitled “Welcome to Hell” on the functioning of the Israeli prison system, in which it concludes that Israeli authorities are now routinely using torture on Palestinian prisoners. This violence, B’Tselem showed, is part of Israel’s longstanding […]
Israeli Minister asserts that Starving 2 Million Palestinians is Morally and Legally permitted
Ann Arbor (Informed Comment) – The Israeli newspaper Arab 48 reported this week that the civil administrator of settlements in the Occupied Palestinian West Bank and the minister of finance, Bezalel Smotrich, broached the subject of whether it is legal and moral to starve over two million people to death. Smotrich, the head of the […]