Featured

East Lansing, MI (Special to Informed Comment; Feature) – For 176 days, the world has borne witness to Israel’s use of disproportionate, and arguably, genocidal force against the people of Gaza. The civilians, children, sons, daughters, sisters, brothers, mothers, fathers, grandparents, and neighbors of Gaza. As of the time of this writing, Al-Jazeera reports that […]

Displaced and Refugees

GOP Congressman calls for Gaza genocide: “It should be like Nagasaki and Hiroshima: Get it over Quick”

Juan Cole

Ann Arbor (Informed Comment) – US Representative Tim Walberg (R-MI), a former pastor, called this week for a genocide, the Final Solution of the Palestinian Problem.. Michigan’s 5th congressional district stretches across the far bottom of the state, encompassing cities such as Albion and Jackson and abutting Ohio and Indiana. I don’t have any reason […]

Featured

Could the Israeli Supreme Court’s decree that ultra-Orthodox be Conscripted bring Down Netanyahu?

Juan Cole

Ann Arbor (Informed Comment) – The Israeli newspaper Arab 48 reports on the conscription crisis that may cause the Netanyahu government to fall and tear Israeli society apart. The Israeli Supreme Court issued the ruling on Thursday evening, which freezes — as of April — the funds for ultra-Orthodox Jewish schools, the students of which […]

Featured

“It is Criminal..Show some Humanity!” Ireland will Join ICJ case against Israel on Gaza Starvation, Genocide

Juan Cole

Ann Arbor (Informed Comment) – The Irish government has decided to intervene in the court case at the International Court of Justice against Israel on grounds of the commission of genocide. The complaint had been brought by South Africa, and the court found the charge of genocide plausible on January 26. It issued a preliminary […]

Displaced and Refugees

State Department finding Israel not in Violation of Int’l Law Contradicted by Resigning Official

Juan Cole

Ann Arbor (Informed Comment) – US arms transfers are conditioned by federal law, as the Congressional Research office explains, which “prohibits security assistance to ‘any country the government of which engages in a consistent pattern of gross violations of internationally recognized human rights.’” (Foreign Assistance Act of 1961, as amended in 1976 with Section 502B(a)(2) […]

Featured

Naked Hypocrisy: The US once cited UNSC Resolutions to Invade Iraq, now calls Gaza Ceasefire Demand “Non-Binding”

Juan Cole

Ann Arbor (Informed Comment) – State Department spokesperson Matthew Miller on Tuesday characterized the United Nations Security Council resolution 2728 demanding an immediate ceasefire in the Gaza conflict as “non-binding,” a phrase also used by US ambassador to the UN Linda Thomas-Greenfield. The US was rebuked by China, according to Akmal Dawi at VOA: “‘Security […]

Apartheid

As Israel defies UNSC demand for Gaza Ceasefire, UN Human Rights Body slams ongoing “Genocide”

Juan Cole

Ann Arbor (Informed Comment) – The UN Security Council has finally passed a ceasefire resolution for Gaza, from which the US abstained, so it was passed by the other 14 members. Although UNSC resolutions are binding, and countries like Iraq and Iran have been severely punished for disobeying them, the US is running interference for […]

Donald Trump

Donald Trump and the German Far Right: Is it Democratic to Prosecute Fascism?

Marc Martorell Junyent

Chemnitz, Germany (Special to Informed Comment; Feature) – Germany and the United States have very different political cultures, but also some similarities. They are both federal states and have seen in recent times how their political future could be partly decided in courts of law. In the US, former President Donald Trump is currently facing […]

Algeria

The Middle East Ranks at the Bottom of Gallup’s Happiness Index, except for Rich Oil States; is the US to Blame?

Juan Cole

Ann Arbor (Informed Comment) – The annual Gallup report on happiness by country came out this week. It is based on a three-year average of polling. What struck me in their report is how unhappy the Middle East is. The only Middle Eastern country in the top twenty is Kuwait (for the first time in […]