Featured

Ann Arbor (Informed Comment) – Update: Reuters reports that Al-Shifa hospital complex has been forced to cease operations after its final remaining generator was hit in a bombardment. As I write, dozens of premature babies in incubators are in danger, and two have reportedly died. The Israeli newspaper Arab 48 reports that Friday saw an […]

Climate Crisis

Human-Caused Climate Change cost US $67 bn., Produced Hottest 12 Months for 125,000 years

Juan Cole

Ann Arbor (Informed Comment) – The non-profit collective of high-powered scientists, Climate Central, has released a new report demonstrating that the past 12 months have been the hottest on record, and inferring that they are the hottest in 125,000 years. They find that during the past year, 73% of the world’s population suffered through at […]

Congress

Dear Congress: Your Resolution against Rashida Tlaib is Delusional, full of Fake History and Falsehoods. Here’s Why.

Juan Cole

Ann Arbor (Informed Comment) – The Congressional resolution censuring Rep. Rashida Tlaib, the first Palestinian to serve in the national legislature, is a major scandal. It is rife with propaganda, fake history, and racism. It puts me in mind of Mark Twain’s observation that “America has no native criminal class . . . except Congress.” […]

Featured

With all Eyes on Gaza, Extremist Israeli Squatters seek to Ethnically Cleanse the Palestinian West Bank

Mohammed Samaana

Amman (Special to Informed Comment; Feature) – I booked annual leave in early November to travel for a family visit in the occupied West Bank in Palestine. Although initially I thought it might be possible to enter the West Bank despite the ongoing Israeli assault on Gaza, it turned out that while the world is […]

Featured

Israeli Minister’s Threat to Nuke Gaza displays Genocidal Mood: “There are no Civilians in Gaza”

Juan Cole

Ann Arbor (Informed Comment) – Israel’s Minister of Heritage Amichai Eliyahu, a member of the fascist Jewish Power bloc brought into government by Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu, made waves when he advocated nuking Gaza. Although Netanyahu announced that he had suspended Eliyahu from the cabinet, the prime minister does not actually have that authority. Eliyahu […]

Displaced and Refugees

Israeli PM Netanyahu’s Performative Genocide in Gaza

Mark Karlin

(Special to Informed Comment; Feature) – Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s vow to destroy Hamas, whatever the cost to civilians in Gaza, is based on a brutally cynical reality that such a goal will not be achievable without completely decimating Gaza or forcing the Gazans into exile in Egypt (either of which many of his […]

Featured

Far Rightwing Israeli Gov’t’s Actions risk fueling Global Anti-Semitism While Republicans Stoke Islamophobia

H. Scott Prosterman

Oakland, Ca. (Special to Informed Comment; Feature) – The compounding tragedies in Israel and Palestine lead to a sad and harsh realization: Today’s mutant form of Zionism has morphed into a genuine threat to democracy in Israel, the US and elsewhere. Under Donald Trump’s leadership, our “Shining Beacon on the Hill” has been badly dimmed […]

Barack Obama

Juan Cole: The Rise and Fall of Oil and the US Invasion of Iraq

Juan Cole

Here is the closing plenary panel of a conference held in mid-September by the Qatar branch of Georgetown University on “The Invasion of Iraq: Regional Reflections.” Juan Cole is the first speaker in the video below, on the changing relationship of the United States to Iraq and to energy markets in the Bush, Obama, Trump […]

Featured

The Invisible Slaughter of Palestinian Children

Charles Hirschkind

Berkeley, Ca. (Special to Informed Comment; Feature) – According to our most reliable news sources, the children of Gaza are being slaughtered at a horrific rate. No, you will not find the terms “slaughter” or “horrific” in Western media accounts of Israel’s current assault on the Palestinians residents of Gaza (these terms are reserved for […]