International Politics and Economy

Satire Ann Arbor (Informed Comment) – Two Israeli lawmakers made a modest proposal in an op ed in the Wall Street Journal, according to The Times of Israel for the countries of the world to each take 10,000 or so Palestinian refugees from Gaza, if those refugees wish to emigrate. Far right extremist Bezalel Smotrich, […]

Israel/ Palestine

Does Compromise show Weakness or Strength? – A Surprising finding in the Talmud

Shamai Leibowitz

Growing up in Israel, the prevailing mentality surrounding me everywhere I went was that compromise shows weakness. The message was clear: compromise is a “Diaspora thing,” but for us Israelis – we stand strong, we take “what is ours,” and we don’t back down. But my father Elhanan Leibowitz OBM (of blessed memory), whose yahrtzeit, […]

Arms Sales

Bad Times in Gaza and Ukraine: Good Times for the Military-Industrial Complex

William D. Hartung

( Tomdispatch.com ) – The New York Times headline said it all: “Middle East War Adds to Surge in International Arms Sales.” The conflicts in Gaza, Ukraine, and beyond may be causing immense and unconscionable human suffering, but they are also boosting the bottom lines of the world’s arms manufacturers. There was a time when such weapons […]

Nonviolence

Why we Need Armistice Day Back: Remembering the Horrors of War

H. Patricia Hynes

Greenfield, Mass. (Special to Informed Comment) – November 11 – at the “11th hour of the 11th day of the 11th month” – marks 105 years since the World War 1 Armistice, which ended the nightmare of the deadliest war in history until then. The brutality of that first industrial war robbed 20 million soldiers […]

Israel/ Palestine

Why so Many Jews Denounce Israel’s War on Gaza

Yakov M. Rabkin

By Yakov M. Rabkin ( Pressenza ) – A profound division exists between Zionist advocates of Israel on the one hand, and both secular and religious Jews, on the other, who reject Zionism and thus the very idea of a separate state for the Jews. Most Jews must be somewhere in between. For years, they […]

Anti-intellectualism

Statement of Juan Cole, Director of the program in Arab and Muslim American Studies in the American Culture Department at the University of Michigan

Juan Cole

I write in awareness that the ongoing, painful events in the Middle East are putting an enormous emotional burden on the faculty, staff and students of our program. I want them to know that AMAS is here for them as a supporter and that we are available to offer counsel in this difficult moment. Concrete […]

Arms Sales

Weapons R US: Confessions of a Recovering Arms Addict

William J. Astore

( Tomdispatch.com ) – Perhaps you’ve heard of “Makin’ Thunderbirds,” a hard-bitten rock & roll song by Bob Seger that I listened to 30 years ago while in college. It’s about auto workers back in 1955 who were “young and proud” to be making Ford Thunderbirds. But in the early 1980s, Seger sings, “the plants […]

Armenia

From Armenia to Gaza: War, Crimes, Truth and Denial

Tomdispatch

By Arnold Isaacs ( Tomdispatch.com) – This month’s catastrophic violence in Israel and Gaza — specifically, the contradictory statements from each side on the other’s war crimes — has taken me back to a revealing personal moment almost exactly 18 years ago, recalling a different war in a different part of the world. That day […]