Featured

Ann Arbor (Informed Comment) – Chaldean Christians in Iraq have been asked by their Cardinal Louis Raphael Sako, to hold subdued private Christmas ceremonies this year to honor the over 500 Iraqi protesters who have been killed by government security and paramilitary security forces. Public celebrations have been canceled. The Iraqi street crowds want an […]

Christianity

Would Refugee Baby Jesus have been Torn from Mary’s Arms by Trump?

Juan Cole

Revised Ann Arbor (Informed Comment) | – – In this political season in which refugees have become a political football, it is worthwhile remembering that baby Jesus is depicted by the Bible as being a political refugee not once but twice. NBC reports, “Officials at Customs and Border Protection, the DHS agency responsible for separating […]

Featured

That’s not Good. Popular ToTok App is Emirates Spyware

Juan Cole

Ann Arbor (Informed Comment) – ( Lily Hay Newman at Wired explores the implications of the revelation that the ToTok app is actually spyware for the United Arab Emirates. The app is fiendishly clever in the sense that there is nothing virus-like about it. It is just a communications application that wants to know who […]

Featured

Under Int’l Pressure Israel reverses ban on Hundreds of Gaza Christians visiting Holy Sites, though Cruel Blockade Continues

Juan Cole

N.B. The day after we published this piece, the Israeli government reversed itself and issued permits to Gaza Christians to visit their holy sites at Christmas. Unfortunately, they haven’t reversed themselves about patient exit visas for medical care or the other blockade measures. Ann Arbor (Informed Comment) – Israel is barring a few hundred Gaza […]

Featured

Could the Int’l Criminal Court brand Israel’s Netanyahu a War Criminal?

Juan Cole

Ann Arbor (Informed Comment) – A prosecutor on the International Criminal Court, Fatou Bensouda, has opened an investigation into Israeli and Hamas war crimes, drawing a furious response from caretaker Israeli prime minister Binyamin Netanyahu. Palestine filed the case in some large part because of the Trump administration’s brutal policies against the Palestinians, in which […]

Climate Crisis

Climate Crisis Rages in Australia, with 14 of 15 hottest Places in World and Sydney Fire-Besieged

Juan Cole

Ann Arbor (Informed Comment) – Australia has been turned by the climate crisis into a huge oven. On Wednesday, 14 of the hottest places in the world were in Australia. Firefighters are combating 100 wildfires in New South Wales (NSW), with some of them encroaching on Sydney, Australia’s largest city. NSW declared a 7-day state […]

Featured

The Miseries of Settler Colonialism: Jeff Goldberg thinks Israelis are the Seminoles

Juan Cole

Ann Arbor (Informed Comment) – Phil Weiss at Mondoweiss, the most lucid and informed voice on the American Jewish left doing journalism critical of right wing Zionism, reports on remarks of The Atlantic editor Jeffrey Goldberg at a Jewish Community Center forum in Manhattan. In Weiss’s telling, Goldberg argued to his audience that Israelis are […]

Congress

Why Dems Missed a Real Opportunity by not Including Trump/ Stormy Daniels in Impeachment

Juan Cole

Ann Arbor (Informed Comment) – Early twentieth century humorist Will Rogers once remarked, “I am not a member of any organized political party. I am a Democrat.” Nearly a century later, the observation is still true. The Democrats should have added a charge in the impeachment of Trump for the Stormy Daniels scandal. Trump paid […]

Featured

Israeli Blockade of Gaza Causing Contaminated Water, 25% of Illnesses and 12% of Infant Deaths

Juan Cole

Ann Arbor (Informed Comment) – Abeer Butmeh writes at Al Jazeera English that because of the Israeli blockade on Gaza, equipment for water purification has not been imported and 97% of the Strip’s water is now polluted. Gaza has a population of about 2 million, equivalent to that of the entire state of Nebraska. Only […]