Europe

(By Juan Cole) The determination of the Likud Party to annex the Palestinian West Bank is damaging the interests of world Jewry. This harm is clearly visible in the controversy that has engulfed movie star Scarlett Johansson, who was a global ambassador for the Oxfam charity and who also agreed to become a spokesperson for […]

Bashar al-Assad

Don’t Break up Syria: WW I-Style Imperial Divide & Rule is a Failure

contributors

(By Christopher Dekki) Since the beginning of this terrible conflict in Syria, I have been closely listening to people’s reactions to the violence and devastation occurring there. What is astonishing is how quickly Syria transformed from a place of relative obscurity to a topic of constant discussion among so many. Even more astonishing, the solutions […]

European Union

Iran Breakthrough a Triumph For Pragmatists and a Defeat For the Warmongers (Cole @ Truthdig)

Juan Cole

My esssay, “Iran Breakthrough a Triumph For Pragmatists and a Defeat For the Warmongers” is out in Truthdig today. Excerpt: “By 2011, the U.S. Congress and the Department of the Treasury had imposed what amounted to a financial blockade on Iran. The U.S. strong-armed other countries not to buy Iranian petroleum, cutting exports by a […]

Bashar al-Assad

Fear is Driving Diplomacy on Syria, not Humanitarianism

contributors

(By Martin Gascoigne) Syria, like many countries in the region, is a demographically young country. With a population of 23 million. Slightly over a third are estimated to be below the age of 14. The ‘Arab Spring’ had its well-spring in such demographics. If a lack of hope heralded hopeful changes; it has been a […]

European Union

Israel Tries to Bully Europe over Criticism of Planned 1800 Squatter Units on Palestinian Land

contributors

(By AFP) Israel hits back at EU over settlement protest (via AFP) Israel called in European ambassadors in a tit-for-tat move on Friday after four EU states lodged formal protests against the rightwing government’s drive to expand settlements in the occupied West Bank. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu accused the… ——- Related Video: Press TV […]

Dissent

Top 5 US Government Decisions that put Troops more at Risk than Snowden Did

Juan Cole

(By Juan Cole) The propaganda wars in Washington continue over Edward Snowden’s revelation that the National Security Agency and other Federal government departments have in the past decade quietly abolished the Fourth Amendment of the Constitution, without even telling us that is what they were doing. All Americans, once proud, free citizens of a republic […]

Afghanistan

Top Ten Things Bob Gates was Wrong about, Some Criminal

Juan Cole

(By Juan Cole) Former Secretary of Defense Robert Gates in his new memoir is said to have slammed Vice President Joe Biden for having been consistently “wrong” on foreign policy matters over the past four decades. Gates’s petty gossip about his former colleagues should put an end to the pusillanimous Democratic Party tradition of appointing […]

Iran

Increasingly, all Roads run through Iran (Damascus, Baghdad, Asia)

contributors

(By Marianna Charountaki) “While Iran’s importance for regional politics was always there, it has only now become apparent, especially for the foreign policies of international players, writes Dr. Marianna Charountaki.” In the aftermath of Turkish Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoğlu’s unsuccessful ‘zero problems’ policy with his neighbours followed by the rapprochement between the KRG and Ankara, […]

Arab World

How Peter O’Toole Saved the Arabs (According to David Lean)

Juan Cole

(By Juan Cole) The late Peter O’Toole played T.E. Lawrence in David Lean’s 1963 “Lawrence of Arabia” with genius and abandon. All of us in my generation who went into Middle East studies were influenced by that film one way or another. Only later did it gradually become apparent to many of us how flawed […]