Europe

Frederica Mogherini, the European Union High Representative for Foreign Affairs in the Juncker Commission, is a former Foreign Minister of Italy and a member of the Italian Democratic Party and Progressive Alliance of Socialists and Democrats. She visited Gaza, where she called for a Palestinian state, saying that it is not only the people of […]

Featured

Far Right Extremist Avigdor Lieberman says Swedish Recognition of Palestine will Strengthen Extremists

Juan Cole

By Juan Cole There was a time when people like Avigdor Lieberman were not welcome in Israeli politics, or, indeed, in Jewish circles in the United States. Dogged by accusations of corruption (though acquitted in the Israeli courts) and widely considered a racist and flamethrower, Lieberman has emerged as Foreign Minister, a powerful cabinet post. […]

European Union

Will Ireland Recognize Palestine?

Juan Cole

By Juan Cole After Sweden recognized Palestine, the Irish government began considering doing so. On Thursday, the Irish parliament asked Irish Foreign Minister, Eamon Gilmore, questions regarding this plan. Gilmore affirmed that the Irish government is planning at some point in the near future to move ahead with recognition. A few European Union member states […]

European Union

In Symbolic Vote, UK Parliament urges Recognition of Palestine

Juan Cole

By Juan Cole There are 650 members of the British parliament, so the vote on Monday by 271 of them to recognize Palestine is hardly an overwhelming victory for supporters of this position. On the other hand, only 12 voted against. Most MPs seem to have made themselves scarce. The vote was a project of […]

Central Asia

Does Bear + Dragon Trump Eagle? How Russia & China may block the US in Asia

contributors

By Pepe Escobar via Tomdispatch.com A specter haunts the fast-aging “New American Century”: the possibility of a future Beijing-Moscow-Berlin strategic trade and commercial alliance. Let’s call it the BMB. Its likelihood is being seriously discussed at the highest levels in Beijing and Moscow, and viewed with interest in Berlin, New Delhi, and Tehran. But don’t […]

Colonialism

Lessons from French Morocco: “Fanaticism Anxiety” about Muslims has been with us since the Colonial Era

Juan Cole

By Edmund Burke III Today we hear a great deal about the question of what went wrong in Middle Eastern societies. For an historian of the early twentieth century world, it’s déjà vu all over again. Similar questions and similar anxieties were being voiced a century ago. Very much like fin de siècle Europeans, we […]

Climate Change

Education, Health, and Global Warming: Top 5 Reasons 45% of Scots Wanted to Leave the Right Wing UK

Juan Cole

by Juan Cole The US media coverage of the Scottish referendum is oddly lacking in any reference to actual politics. As usual, the corporate media concentrates on issues in ethnicity to cover up issues in social class and social policy. The “Washington consensus” of Neoliberalism, substituting blind so-called “market forces” for good governance, has been […]

Apartheid

15 Palestinians die in Mediterranean Capsizing, fleeing Israeli Siege of Gaza

contributors

BETHLEHEM (Ma’an) — Fifteen migrants from Gaza died on Saturday after a boat they were riding in capsized in the Mediterranean sea off the coast of al-Ajami near Alexandria in northern Egypt, Egyptian military sources said. The military sources told Ma’an that 15 bodies were pulled out of the sea and 72 people were rescued […]

Barack Obama

Russia denounces Obama Plan for Syria Air Strikes as Violation of Int’l Law

Juan Cole

By Juan Cole Russia on Thursday pushed back against President Obama’s state plans for taking on the so-called Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant (ISIL or ISIS) in Syria. Russian Foreign Ministry spokesman Alexander Lukashevich remarked on television: “The US president has spoken directly about the possibility of strikes by the US armed forces […]