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Newark, Del. (Special to Informed Comment; Feature) – In 2005, in the summer of that year, while visiting Iran, I happened to meet an opinionated man. The first thing he asked me was whether I was coming from abroad. He could tell. I replied, yes. He told me, well you are lucky. Here we’re suffering. […]

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The Great Babylon: America’s complicity in Gaza Atrocities

Hugh J. Curran

Orono, Maine (Special to Informed Comment; Feature) – Yesterday, I interviewed a refugee Ukrainian family in transition from their homeland looking for a permanent place to settle. They were being visited by evangelical church friends. Since I was teaching a course on current world conflicts, the conversation turned to Palestine/Israel where a number of references […]

China

China’s Green Energy Wave enters the Middle East

Neil Thompson

London (Special to Informed Comment; Feature) – Facing rising trade barriers and diplomatic tensions with the US and the EU, Chinese renewable energy companies are turning to Middle Eastern states as an alternative market for goods including electric vehicles (EVs), lithium-ion batteries, and solar panels. The US, the EU and Canada have all imposed tariffs […]

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The Gazafication of Lebanon: Israel Blows up Nabatieh City Hall, kills Mayor and Aid Workers

Juan Cole

Ann Arbor (Informed Comment) – The Israeli military has begun giving southern Lebanon the Gaza treatment. Some 25% of Lebanese are under “evacuation orders,” which is to say that Israel is expelling them from their homes in preparation for further military operations against the Hezbollah Party-Militia. The U.N. Humanitarian Coordinator for Lebanon, Imran Riza, said […]

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Blinken and Austin Scold Netanyahu over Gaza Atrocities, playing Cynical Presidential Politics

Juan Cole

Ann Arbor (Informed Comment) – Barak Ravid at Axios got the scoop. He was leaked a letter from Secretary of State Antony Blinken and Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin to Israeli PM Benjamin Netanyahu and Defense Minister Yoav Gallant accusing them of reneging on undertakings of last April to pursue their war on Hamas in […]

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Nobel Prize-Winning Japanese survivors of Hiroshima and Nagasaki see themselves in the Palestinians of Gaza

Juan Cole

Ann Arbor (Informed Comment) – The decision of the Truman administration to use nuclear weapons on the civilian cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki in 1945 is one of the great stains on the United States. There are other blots on our escutcheon, including the perfidious treatment of Native Americans and the enslavement of millions of […]

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Israelis Burn up Refugee Tents in Central Gaza, as they Plan Ethnic Cleansing of North

Juan Cole

Ann Arbor (Informed Comment) – One reason why Palestinians in northern Gaza are resisting attempts of the Israelis to expel hundreds of thousands of them from what is left of their residences is that the center and the south of the country are still being indiscriminately bombarded by the Israeli military. Early on Monday morning […]

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Juan Cole: Israel’s Invasions of Lebanon Produce Radicalization, Help Iran and End Badly (ScheerPost)

Juan Cole

Bob Scheer’s long interview with me, “Where is the Middle East Heading?” is available at ScheerPost. I’m providing an excerpt below, but be sure to head on over to his site for the entire interview and audio link, as well as the full transcript. I’m embedding the full YouTube video believe. Excerpt from the Interview […]

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UNHCHR: Israel Guilty of Deliberately Destroying Gaza Healthcare and … Extermination

Juan Cole

Ann Arbor (Informed Comment) – In a report dated October 11th, the United Nations Office of the High Commission on Human Rights concluded that Israel has implemented a deliberate policy of destroying Gaza’s healthcare system and is guilty of the crime against humanity of “extermination.” The numbers revealed by the investigation for the first nine […]