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Ann Arbor (Informed Comment) – Donald J. Trump held an impromptu press conference at Mar-a-Lago on Monday. In the course of his remarks, he said a couple of things about the Middle East, Informed Comment’s beat. Since he’ll be back in the White House in about a month, these observations give some clue as to […]

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Iraq’s Barzani hails Syrian Leader’s Assurances on future of Syrian Kurds

Juan Cole

Ann Arbor (Informed Comment) – The fall of the al-Assad regime in Syria has broached again the issue of the largely Kurdish Autonomous Administration of North and East Syria (AANES) and its relationship to the new government. Many Kurds are fearful for their future, as Euronews reports. The officers of the new government have said […]

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How did we Get Here? Excerpt from my new book “Gaza Yet Stands”

Juan Cole

This is an excerpt from a draft of the introduction to my new book, Gaza Yet Stands, which briefly sketches how Israeli colonial policies turned it into an open-air concentration camp. By the way, the book makes a great Christmas gift for your progressive friends and family members who agree that Christmas should mean that […]

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Türkiye reaches 18.7 GW Photovoltaic Capacity, shows how Solar can meet Growing Air Conditioning demand

Juan Cole

Ann Arbor (Informed Comment) – One of the paradoxes of human-made climate change is that as we heat up the planet by burning gasoline, coal and fossil gas, it makes the summers hotter. These torrid months impel people to run the air conditioner nonstop, which requires burning more coal or fossil gas, which causes it […]

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With HTS rule of Syria and Taliban in Afghanistan, did the U.S. lose the “War on Terror”?

Juan Cole

Ann Arbor (Informed Comment) – US policy in the Middle East is a dinosaur-like holdover from two eras, the Cold War and the “Global War on Terror” (GWOT). Here I would like to raise the question of whether the U.S. lost both. The United State government does a lot o hand waving about human rights, […]

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UN Demands immediate Gaza Ceasefire as Israel’s Cabinet of Horrors Continues – 53 Killed, as 65K lack Food, Water, Medicine

Juan Cole

Ann Arbor (Informed Comment) – The Israeli newspaper Arab 48 reports that the Israeli military killed 53 Palestinians in Gaza on Wednesday. The Israeli Air Force intentionally targeted residential buildings in the north and the south of the Strip, in Beit Lahiya and in the Al-Janina neighborhood east of Rafah City. The Israeli Air Force […]

Donald Trump

Trump’s Nominee for Ambassador to Israel is an End Times Fanatic and Palestine Denialist; What could Go Wrong?

H. Scott Prosterman

Oakland, Ca. (Special to Informed Comment; Feature) – Trump’s second-term nominee for U.S. ambassador to Israel is former Arkansas Governor, Rev. Mike Huckabee. He is an Evangelical Zionist, who has repeatedly claimed that there are no Palestinians, and brutally dismissed the right of the Palestinian people to their own land. A former US ambassador, Luis […]

Alawites

Shiite Latakia Falls to new Syrian Government, as Sheikhs call for Reconciliation and Recruits are Pardoned

Juan Cole

Ann Arbor (Informed Comment) – On Monday, the Levant Liberation Council (Hay’at Tahrir al-Sham/ HTS) guerrilla forces extended their rule to Latakia, Syria’s major port, in the northwest of the country. One Syrian source maintained that there was an uprising of anti-Assad Alawites in Latakia, and that HTS rebels had not entered the city. Other […]

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Assad’s Fall is a Reminder that Russia is not a Global power but a Regional One

Hamdullah Baycar

Trabzon, Turkey (Special to Informed Comment; Feature) – When former U.S. President Barack Obama referred to Russia as a “regional power” at the 2014 Nuclear Security Summit in The Hague, he minimized Moscow’s global influence while recognizing its ability to a have an impact on events within its immediate vicinity. Obama further downplayed the notion […]