Featured

Ann Arbor (Informed Comment) – Saturday evening witnessed the biggest Israeli demonstrations against the government led by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu since the outbreak of war on October 7, 2023, according to the Israeli press as summarized by Al Jazeera. Some 150,000 are said to have rallied in Tel Aviv alone. They demanded that the […]

Featured

UN: Israel Flattened Civilian Housing Complexes with 2000-lb. Bombs in absence of Specific Military Target

Juan Cole

Ann Arbor (Informed Comment) – The Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights issued a report this week on “Indiscriminate and disproportionate attacks during the conflict in Gaza” during the first three months of the Israeli campaign against Gaza. The UN is painfully polite, so you may not be able to tell that the […]

Democratic Party

Not your Father’s Israel: Extremist Israeli PM Netanyahu is Playing Biden and Blinken for Fools

H. Scott Prosterman

Though Sen. Chuck Schumer and Rep. Hakeem Jeffries signed onto inviting Israeli PM Benjamin “Bibi” Netanyahu to address Congress on July 24 in the “spirit of bi-partisanship,” many US and Israeli Jews loudly object. They plan a major demonstration in Washington to show up his address. The organization UnXeptable is organizing an effort to have […]

Featured

UN Human Rights Commission: Israel’s is among most Criminal Armies in the World, Clear intention of forcible Dislocation

Juan Cole

Ann Arbor (Informed Comment) – On June 13, I analyzed the report of The UN Independent International Commission of Inquiry on the Occupied Palestinian Territory and Israel for the UN’s Human Rights Council, which found Hamas guilty of war crimes and found the Israeli government and military guilty of crimes against humanity in Gaza. On […]

Climate Crisis

Climate Emergency strikes Islam’s Holy Ritual, with nearly 600 dead of Heat stroke at 124.24° F. in Mecca

Juan Cole

Ann Arbor (Informed Comment) – As the temperature in Mecca reached 125.24° F. (51.8° C.) on Tuesday, word leaked out that nearly 600 pilgrims had died of heat stroke and 2,000 have been hospitalized for treatment. A virtual clinic treated more thousands remotely. Some 324 of the dead were Egyptians,, while dozens were from Jordan. […]

Climate Crisis

A Baby born in April 2023 has never Experienced a Month that wasn’t the Hottest on Record

Juan Cole

Ann Arbor (Informed Comment) – When a baby born on April 1, 2023 reached 14 months and became a toddler this month, it had never lived through a month that wasn’t the hottest on record. The National Atmospheric and Oceanic Agency has announced that May 2024 was the hottest May on record. But even more […]

Featured

Far Right Supreme Court enables Mass Murder in Service to Republican Ideology

H. Scott Prosterman

Oakland, Ca. (Special to Informed Comment; Feature) – “How can you be so obtuse?” That question to the sadistic warden got Tim Robbins’ character, Andy, an extra 30 days in solitary confinement in Frank Darabont’s 1994 Stephen King vehicle, The Shawshank Redemption. Now I ask of the U.S. Supreme Court (SCOTUS), “How can you employ […]

Featured

Israel, Defying UNSC Ceasefire Order, “Completely Dehumanizes” Palestinians (MSF), Shooting Fish in a Barrel

Juan Cole

Ann Arbor (Informed Comment) – The UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs reports on the humanitarian situation in Gaza this week in the aftermath of the United Nations Security Council demand (14-0 with Russia abstaining) for a ceasefire in Gaza. It required Hamas and Israel to reply with a letter outlining their response. […]

Featured

How Netanyahu and Fascists in his Coalition shot down the Biden Peace Plan

Juan Cole

Ann Arbor (Informed Comment) – US Secretary of State Antony Blinken is attempting to peddle the line that Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has accepted the Biden proposal for negotiations toward a permanent ceasefire, but that Hamas has rejected it. This position is simply dishonest, and forms part of a pattern whereby the Biden administration […]