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Ann Arbor (Informed Comment) – Trump feigned not to see them or imagined them as putting out a welcome mat for him, but the actual reaction of the British public to his visit was profound dismay that he was given state honors. Washington Post: “Londoners protest Trump’s state visit: He ‘shouldn’t even be allowed in […]

Donald Trump

On Anniversary of D-Day: Would Trump have bothered, or Been on Other Side?

Juan Cole

Ann Arbor (Informed Comment) – I grew up in the shadow of World War II. It ended only seven years before I was born. I had an uncle who had been at the Battle of the Bulge. My father was too young to serve, but was inspired by the fight against fascism and joined as […]

Featured

Pompeo: Jared Kushner’s Palestine plan “unexecutable;’ Kushner: Palestinians unready for Self-Rule

Juan Cole

Ann Arbor (Informed Comment) – I can barely believe it. Mike Pompeo, who can believe 10 impossible things before breakfast every day, including the impending Rapture and Hilary Clinton’s responsibility for Benghazi, isn’t a complete Trumpbot after all. In private remarks to the Conference of Presidents of Major American Jewish Organizations that someone recorded and […]

Featured

Hezbollah’s Nasrallah: War on Iran will Endanger US Forces in Region & Kushner Plan for Palestine is “Historic Crime”

Juan Cole

Ann Arbor (Informed Comment) – Hasan Nasrallah, the secretary-general of Hizbullah (Hezbollah), the Lebanese Shiite party-militia, gave a speech Friday in which he raked the Trump administration’s Middle East policy over the coals. Nasrallah said that the US kept accusing Hizbullah of having factories in Lebanon for the construction of precision rockets. He said his […]

Featured

Firearms are used to Murder 11,000 /yr in US; N. Zealand Banned Semi-Automatic Guns after 50 Killed

Juan Cole

Ann Arbor (Informed Comment) – The Virginia Beach shooter killed 12 and put at least 4 others in hospital being operated on for their injuries. He shot up the municipal offices where he had been a utilities engineer until being fired recently. He had a long gun but appears to have done most of his […]

Arab World

Saudi King Salman calls at Summit for Int’l Condemnation of Iranian “Terrorism”

Juan Cole

Ann Arbor (Informed Comment) – The emergency summit of the Arab league just held in Mecca had as it purpose to shore up pan-Arab support for Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates in their war on Yemen, in their conflict with Iran, and in their willingness to negotiate with Jared Kushner over his “deal […]

Constitution

A Wroth Mueller Comes for Nancy Pelosi: Rashida Tlaib is Right

Juan Cole

Ann Arbor (Informed Comment) – Bob Mueller measures his words, but he is as Merriam Webster’s thesaurus has it, angered, apoplectic, ballistic, choleric, enraged, foaming, fuming, furious, hopping, horn-mad, hot, incensed, indignant, inflamed (also enflamed), infuriate, infuriated, irate, ireful, livid, mad, outraged, rabid, rankled, riled, riley, roiled, sore, steamed up, steaming, teed off, ticked, wrathful, […]

Featured

Why Israeli Gov’t May Fall: Like US, Secularists and Fundamentalists are Polarized

Juan Cole

Ann Arbor (Informed Comment) – We’ll know later today whether prime minister Binyamin Netanyahu will succeed in forming a government. If not, Israel will have snap elections in September. In parliamentary systems, coalitions are often made after the election. In the US, the two big parties have already made their coalitions before the election. The […]

Featured

If Trump really only wants ‘No Iranian Nukes,’ then he should just rejoin the Nuclear Deal

Juan Cole

Ann Arbor (Informed Comment) – Trump said in Japan that he is not looking for regime change in Iran. Trump said at a news conference with Japanese Prime Minister ABE Shinzo, “We aren’t looking for regime change – I just want to make that clear. We are looking for no nuclear weapons. I really believe […]