Featured

By Juan Cole | (Informed Comment) | – – Despite US schools’ tendency to give students several years of American history, over and over again, most of us probably have only a foggy idea who Harriet Tubman, chosen to replace Andrew Jackson on the $20 bill, was. That she was an abolitionist and helped out […]

Far Right

What GOP New Yorkers just voted for: Torture, Syria Intervention, murder of innocents

Juan Cole

By Juan Cole | (Informed Comment) | – – In the wake of his big win in New York, I want to push back once more against the normalization of Trump as a legitimate presidential candidate, given his policy positions. Let us remember what the Republicans of New York voted for (there are hardly any […]

Barack Obama

6 Policies Obama wants Saudi Arabia to Change

Juan Cole

By Juan Cole | (Informed Comment) | – – After his critical comments in an interview in The Atlantic last month, Barack Obama’s visit to Saudi Arabia is going to be awkward, as DPA rightly says. The president accused the Gulf states of always trying to push the US into war for the accomplishment of […]

Featured

Top 7 Reasons Israel must give back the Occupied Golan to Syria

Juan Cole

By Juan Cole | (Informed Comment) | – – The far right wing regime of Binyamin Netanyahu pulled the stunt of holding its first cabinet meeting in the Occupied Golan Heights on Sunday, and Netanyahu engaged in some grandstanding, declaring that Israel will never relinquish this patch of Syria. Israeli propaganda maintains that Israel is […]

Arab Americans

Arab-Americans, including ‘Watan’ Newspaper, Endorse Bernie Sanders

Juan Cole

By Juan Cole | (Informed Comment) | – – Many Arab-Americans want the Jewish candidate to be president. The prominent Arabic-language newspaper for that community in Southern California, Watan (“A Nation”), has endorsed Bernie Sanders. This outcome is not as strange as it might appear. Arab-Americans (who include Christians and Muslims) had been split between […]

Arab Spring

Thousands protest Gov’t in Egypt over Saudi Hegemony

Juan Cole

By Juan Cole | (Informed Comment) | – – Thousands of Egyptians came into the streets Friday in the first major demonstrations in 2 and a half years, to protest the bestowal of the islands of Tiran and Sanafir on Saudi Arabia. Many Egyptians believe that the islands belong to Egypt, and it is unconstitutional […]

Bernie Sanders

The Bernie Sanders Miracle: American Crowd in Brooklyn Cheers Palestinian Dignity

Juan Cole

By Juan Cole | (Informed Comment) | – – The Democratic debate in Brooklyn last night took an unusual turn when a grumpy old Jewish American upbraided a slightly younger Illinois Methodist for not respecting the dignity of the Palestinian people. BLITZER [Used to work for the American Israel Public Affairs Committee lobby] : . […]

Featured

Michigan faculty Support Muslim Students on Campus in face of Trumpian Hate-Chalking

Juan Cole

Dear Members of the U-M [University of Michigan] community We stand with our friends/students/colleagues and with the Central Student Government (CSG), Senate Advisory Committee on University Affairs (SACUA), and Senate Assembly in condemning the recent anti- Muslim, anti-immigrant, and anti-activist chalkings on the Diag. Whatever the political motivations of those engaged in such acts, their […]

Featured

Negotiations, “Elections,” and al-Qaeda’s assault on Syrian Ceasefire

Juan Cole

By Juan Cole | (Informed Comment) | – – There were five major stories in the US and European press about Syria today: 1. The cessation of hostilities is in danger of breaking down (typically Western politicians and press blame this on the Syrian regime, but as far as I can tell, it is because […]