Featured

Jeremy Scahill and Murtaza Hussain interview Juan Cole at their superb Intercepted podcast at the Intercept . I come in about 12 minutes in. They write, “The killing of three U.S. soldiers at a remote military outpost in Jordan, claimed by Iraqi militia groups to be retaliation for U.S. support for Israel’s war in Gaza, […]

Antisemitism

Jewish American Dilemmas: Netanyahu’s War Crimes, Trumpian Antisemitism and the Fringe Left

H. Scott Prosterman

Oakland, Ca. (Special to Informed Comment; Feature) – Let’s face it. Israel under PM Benjamin Netanyahu (Bibi), isn’t helping the fight against global Antisemitism, and is fueling the BDS (Boycott, Divest, Sanction) Movement. The war crimes in Gaza have been augmented by a recent conference led by Bibi, to re-colonize Gaza with renewed Haredim settlements. […]

Featured

Huge Israeli Conference in Jerusalem Plots Squatter-Settlements in Gaza once it is Ethnically Cleansed

Juan Cole

Ann Arbor (Informed Comment) – The Israeli newspaper Arab 48 reports that on Sunday evening 12 Israeli cabinet members and 15 members of Parliament (the Knesset) attended a conference in Jerusalem on the recolonization of the Gaza Strip by Israeli squatter-settlers. They were greeted by shouts of “Expel the Palestinians and settle the land in […]

Featured

How Biden inherited the War with an Iraqi Shiite Militia from Bush, Trump and Netanyahu

Juan Cole

Ann Arbor (Informed Comment) – The “Party of God Brigades” (Kata’ib Hizbullah) of Iraq struck the Tower 22 US military base in the far north of Jordan on the border with Syria on Sunday, killing three US military personnel and wounding dozens more. The Shiite militia said that it was part of its continued attempt […]

Ecology

How Trees and Forests Heal us and make for Well-Being,

H. Patricia Hynes

Greenfield, Mass. (Special to Informed Comment; Feature) – Korean scientists have confirmed that walking through forest areas improved older women’s blood pressure, lung capacity and elasticity in their arteries. Walking in an urban park with trees, or an arboretum, or a rural forest reduces blood pressure, improves cardiac-pulmonary parameters, bolsters mental health, reduces negative thoughts, […]

Featured

From the Siege of Leningrad to the Siege of Gaza: Colonialist Mentality

Yakov M. Rabkin

Montréal (Special to Informed Comment) – Eighty years ago, on January 27, 1944, people in the street were hugging each other and weeping with joy. They were celebrating the end of a nearly 900 days brutal siege. Soviet forces lifted the siege of Leningrad after ferocious battles. Exactly a year later they liberated Auschwitz. Even […]

Displaced and Refugees

Israel’s Reputation forever Besmirched by UN Court Injunction to Cease Genociding Palestinians

Juan Cole

Ann Arbor (Informed Comment) – The International Court of Justice’s ruling on “provisional measures” regarding the allegation of genocide against Israel for its behavior in Gaza is what in the US we would call a “preliminary injunction.” That is, it finds that South Africa in its complaint has made a plausible case that Israel is […]

Democratic Party

Israel’s Victory in Gaza turns Pyrrhic as a Majority of Youths and Democrats brand it Genocidal

Juan Cole

Ann Arbor (Informed Comment) – Israel is losing its campaign against Gaza not so much on the battlefield — though it is unclear that very many of its military goals have been accomplished — but in the court of public opinion. The Israeli far right has long ignored such PR setbacks, convinced that as long […]

Climate Crisis

Top 3 Pieces of Good Green Energy News this Year

Juan Cole

Ann Arbor (Informed Comment) – The climate crisis is the most serious challenge facing our globe, and it is natural to do some doom-scrolling about how we are failing to make the necessary changes fast enough to avoid catastrophe. But as climate scientist Michael E. Mann argues, concentrating on the negative actually promotes apathy and […]