Featured

By Juan Cole | (Informed Comment) | – – Egypt’s president Abdel Fattah al-Sisi met Wednesday for the third time in a year with Russian leader Vladimir Putin in Moscow. Putin is attempting to draw Egypt into a common front against terrorism. He wants to fight Daesh [ISIS, ISIL]) in Syria, which is only a […]

Featured

Defending Natalie Portman on Holocaust: Sometimes it can be subverted to fear-mongering

Juan Cole

By Juan Cole | (Informed Comment) | – – Actress Natalie Portman has kicked off a controversy with remarks about how to remember the Nazi Holocaust against the Jews, in which the National Socialists murdered 6 million. Her critics have run off on tangents and presented a lot of red herrings. Portman did not question […]

Apartheid

President of Israel declares Israeli Squatting in Palestinian West Bank a “Right”, key to Zionism

Juan Cole

By Juan Cole | (Informed Comment) | – – Israeli President Reuven Rivlin on Monday declared Israeli squatting on the Palestinian West Bank a “right” and as an essential Zionist principle. Reuven, a former chairman of the far-right Likud Party now in power, is known to favor a paternalist form of the one-state solution. He […]

Featured

Is Israeli military using Barak in struggle w/ Netanyahu over Iran Deal?

Juan Cole

By Juan Cole | (Informed Comment) – – The revelations from former Israeli Defense Minister Ehud Barak’s memoir keep coming. Another excerpt was broadcast by Israel’s Channel 2 on Sunday. Barak gave the interviews as background to his autobiography “Wars (Milhamot) of my Life.” “Bibi is weak, he doesn’t…he doesn’t want to take tough steps […]

Corruption

Youth Revolts are back– Lebanon, Iraq Shaken by demand for Services, end to Corruption

Juan Cole

By Juan Cole | (Informed Comment) | – – The master narrative of much Western journalism is that the youth protests of 2011 have been replaced by civil war and terrorism. But while there is plenty of both in Syria, Yemen, Iraq and Libya, in fact here and there in the region youth protests have […]

Featured

Barak– Netanyahu was on verge of Attacking Iran 3 Times 2010-12 (Why Listening to him on Iran Diplomacy is Daft)

Juan Cole

By Juan Cole | (Informed Comment) | – – In a radio interview, former Israeli Defense Minister Ehud Barak revealed that the government of Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu was on the verge of attacking Iran on 3 separate occasions in 2010-2012, but was consistently blocked by other (even far right wing) cabinet ministers or by […]

Authoritarianism

Huge ISIL Blast at Cairo Security Bldg. Injures 29; Sisi Security Claims in Tatters

contributors

By Juan Cole | (Informed Comment) | – – An enormous explosion damaged a building housing secret police in a northern district of Cairo (Shubra al-Khayma) on Thursday early morning, wounding nearly 30 persons, including 6 police personnel, who were transferred to hospital for treatment. Two different branches of Daesh (ISIS, ISIL) claimed responsibility, the […]

Barack Obama

No, AP, Iran doesn’t get to Inspect its own Nuclear Facilities under Deal

Juan Cole

By Juan Cole | (Informed Comment) | – – Eminent Iran and security expert Gary Sick pointed out in an email late Wednesday that the Associated Press just ran a shamefully inaccurate story alleging that under the UN Security Council deal with Iran, Iran would carry out some of the inspections of their own “sensitive […]

Acidification of Oceans

Defying Saudis, Iran: Muslim thinkers call for Action on Climate Change at Istanbul Conference

Juan Cole

By Juan Cole | (Informed Comment) | – – Attendees at the International Islamic Climate Change Symposium in Istanbul from 20 countries produced, and 60 of them signed, a declaration this week warning of the dangers of climate change and urging urgent action to curb carbon dioxide emissions. But, I fear the press reporting on […]