History

By Kanya D’Almeida | (Inter Press Service) | – – UNITED NATIONS (IPS) – Just weeks after an 18-month-old baby was killed in an arson attack in the Palestinian village of Duma, located south of Nablus city in the Occupied West Bank, a United Nations special committee has blasted Israel’s policy of settlement expansion, saying […]

Bush

Memo to Jeb Bush: It was W’s Surge that created ISIL, not Hillary

Juan Cole

By Juan Cole | (Informed Comment) | – – Jeb Bush very unwisely went after Hillary Clinton last night on the grounds that her Iraq policies gave us Daesh (ISIS, ISIL). Bush may think he is cleverly pulling a Karl Rove, attacking his opponent on her strong point (foreign policy), as Rove swiftboated John Kerry […]

Archaeology

Water Wars from the Pharaohs to the West Bank in 2 mins. via Lego Animation

contributors

AJ+ | (Video report) | – – We wanted to tell the story of water wars throughout history. We also wanted to play with Legos. Here’s the result. The programs conducted by AJ+ are not affiliated, sponsored or endorsed by LEGO®. AJ+: “Water Wars: A Lego Animated Short”

Archaeology

Actually, Oldest Qur’ans are in Sanaa, Yemen & in Danger of Saudi Bombing

Juan Cole

By Juan Cole | (Informed Comment) | The discovery of a couple pages [apparently actually 18] of a very old Qur’an (the Muslim scripture), probably from the 640s CE [“AD”], in a library in Britain, has provoked a good deal of press reporting. Muslim tradition holds that the scripture was revealed to the Prophet Muhammad […]

Climate Change

What can World History teach us about Cooperating against Global Climate Challenge?

contributors

By Adrian Cole | (Informed Comment) | – – It is ironic, perhaps, but writing a world history, which involves telling hundreds of stories, makes one realize how few truly significant stories there are in that history. Most significant among these is not the history of Europe, or the history of science, or warfare, or […]

Apartheid

Israel orders half of West Bank Palestinian village demolished after Ramadan

contributors

Ma’an News Agency | – – HEBRON (Ma’an) — Israeli authorities ordered the demolition of around half of the homes in a village south of Hebron to be carried out after Ramadan, Israeli watchdogs said on Wednesday. (MaanImages/Charlie Hoyle, File) Rabbis for Human Rights and B’Tselem said in a statement that pressure from Israeli settlers […]

Apartheid

Security Zones Being Used to Further Expand West Bank Settlements

contributors

By IMEMC | – – “Land confiscated from Palestinians for the purpose of security buffer zones around illegal Israeli settlements in the West Bank is actually being utilized as “land reserves or for agriculture,” according to an investigation by Israeli newspaper Haaretz.” The buffer zones were originally created during the Second Intifada [Palestinian Uprising] reportedly […]

Cold War

Iran’s Nuclear Program was A Child Of Washington in the First Place

contributors

By Tony Wesolowsky | (RFE/RL) | – – The start of Iran’s nuclear program can arguably be pegged to December 8, 1953. It was on that date that U.S. President Dwight D. Eisenhower delivered what was later dubbed his Atoms For Peace speech to the United Nations General Assembly. U.S. President Dwight D. Eisenhower (right) […]

Colonialism

Michael Oren, Neo-Orientalism and the Ghost of Edward Said

contributors

By Daniel Brumberg | (Informed Comment) | – – Poor Edward Said cannot rest in peace. Twelve years after he passed away from cancer, his ghost apparently haunts the State Department, Pentagon and even the White House. This, at any rate, is the argument that informs the grim diagnoses of Obama “Muslim World” policies offered […]