Featured

Montréal (Special to Informed Comment; Feature) – Palestinians in Gaza are being decimated. Over 20 000 have been killed, mostly women and children. Three times more have been wounded. Some experts qualify it as genocide, others as massacre. Two million people have been displaced, many more than during the entire history of displacement of the […]

Featured

Can Masha Gessen get an Apology now that Israel’s Smotrich called Gaza a “Ghetto” that Should be Depopulated?

Juan Cole

Ann Arbor (Informed Comment) – The chief characteristic of the current Israeli government of PM Binyamin Netanyahu is the inclusion in it of elements that were shunned in Israeli politics until recently — the Kahanaists, who are militant racists and Greater Israel expansionists and who, unlike most other right wing forces in Israel, openly proclaim […]

Featured

Extreme Right Israeli Gov’t brands “Illegal” Supreme Court’s upholding of Judicial Review; Divisions Loom amid Gaza War

Juan Cole

Ann Arbor (Informed Comment) – In the midst of Israel’s brutal total war on Palestinian civilians in Gaza and its apparent failure to attain its basic war goals, the country’s Supreme Court has issued a ruling sure to throw the country into an unprecedented constitutional crisis. Members of the government criticized the court for issuing […]

Books

The Rubáiyát of Omar Khayyam: “When New Year’s rainclouds wash the tulip’s face”

Juan Cole

Ann Arbor (Informed Comment) – In the quatrains attributed to the medieval Iranian astronomer Omar Khayyam, the Rubáiyát, the renewal that comes with New Year is an important theme. Since the Iranian New Year is held on the spring solstice (typically March 21), it is associated with the rebirth of greenery. This year I’m sharing […]

Climate Crisis

33 new Gigs of Solar: Top 7 Renewables Good News Stories in the US for 2023

Juan Cole

Ann Arbor (Informed Comment) – The United States has long been characterized by its “can-do” spirit. With all the alarming news about climate change, it is easy for us to lose sight of the progress we are making. Here are IC’s top 7 renewables good news stories of 2023. 1. The solar industry in the […]

Featured

South Africa Charges Israel with Genocide at Int’l Court of Justice, as Global South charges West with Hypocrisy

Juan Cole

Ann Arbor (Informed Comment) – South African society has had extensive experience with racial Apartheid (segregation and humiliation) and with genocide, which is defined in international law this way: “Genocide is the intentional a physical destruction of a social group in its entirety, or the intentional annihilation of such a significant part of the group […]

Climate Crisis

In Hottest Year on Record, Global Heating Killed a Taylor Swift Fan at Rio Concert

Juan Cole

Ann Arbor (Informed Comment) – The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration says that 2023 is on track to be the hottest year ever recorded, i.e. in the past 174 years. In fact, it likely is hotter than at any time in 125,000 years. Ocean-surface temperatures were also at all time highs throughout the year. Although […]

Featured

Total War: Israeli Gov’t has Killed 4,037 students and 209 Teachers in Gaza, Demolished 92 Schools and Universities

Juan Cole

Ann Arbor (Informed Comment) – The Gaza Ministry of Education, which is staffed by professionals rather than party cadres, said on Wednesday that “According to the Ministry of Education, between 7 October and 26 December, more than 4,037 students and 209 educational staff were killed, and more than 7,259 students and 619 teachers were injured […]

Drones

Will US get Drawn in? Houthis Support Gaza by Loosing 17 Drones on Red Sea Traffic, Hit Container Ship

Juan Cole

Ann Arbor (Informed Comment) – The Houthi movement that rules northern Yemen announced Tuesday that it had again targeted a commercial vessel, the MSC United VIII, with a drone in the Red Sea. Sarea said that the vessel had refused to answer warnings by the Houthi navy three times. MSC Mediterranean said, according to Aljazeera, […]