International Politics and Economy

By Mustafa Gurbuz Gruesome ISIS beheadings, the Sydney siege, and now Taliban’s slaughter of children in Pakistan have haunted the media, along with the Senate’s report on CIA’s use of torture against suspected terrorists. The true nature of the radicalization problem, once again, is mostly obscured by petty domestic politics. The militant Islamism rests on […]

Featured

The Banality of Terrorism: Sydney’s other Hostage Crisis, of 1984

Juan Cole

By Juan Cole | — IC doesn’t usually cover hostage-taking, since it is an artificial and manipulative criminal act. Any two-bit thug can grab someone off the street and push them into a car, and subsequently kill them. It doesn’t take intelligence or any other admirable quality, just brutishness. One’s heart goes out to the […]

Apartheid

Israeli sqatters in Palestinian Hebron stab, injure Palestinian 12-year-old

contributors

HEBRON (Ma’an) — A mob of Israeli settlers stabbed a 12-year-old Palestinian boy in the Old City of Hebron Monday night, medical sources told Ma’an. Medics said Muath Nouh al-Rajabi, 12, was moderately injured after being stabbed in the thigh and shoulder. He was taken to Hebron’s public hospital. Israeli settler violence against Palestinians and […]

Dissent

Israeli forces Injure 19 Palestinian Protesters at Funeral of Slain Cabinet Member

contributors

RAMALLAH (Ma’an) — Some 19 Palestinians were injured on Thursday during clashes with Israeli forces in al-Bireh following the funeral of Palestinian official Ziad Abu Ein, a Ma’an reporter said. Clashes broke out in the Jabal al-Tawil area between Palestinian mourners and Israeli forces who were heavily deployed inside the nearby illegal Israeli settlement of […]

Elections

Will the next Israeli Gov’t be even more Far Right & Colonial?

contributors

By Mitchell Plitnick (IPS) | — The Israeli government is headed for yet another round of elections. Although the official election date for the next Knesset is November 7, 2017, no one ever expected this government to last that long. The voting will likely take place in March of 2015. What do the new elections […]

Iraq

Iraqi Kurdistan: Can a Bastion of Tolerance and Democracy survive in the Middle East?

contributors

By Richard Foltz | — Having committed ourselves to military involvement in Iraq, we in North America should be asking ourselves exactly what goals we hope to achieve. Personally, after recently spending three weeks in the region, I am not convinced that “preserving the territorial integrity” of the present Iraqi state should be one of […]

Bush

Bush Admin. Spent Billions on an Iraqi Army with 50,000 “ghost” Soldiers

Juan Cole

By Juan Cole | — Iraqi Prime Minister Haydar al-Abadi announced to his parliament on Sunday that inspectors had uncovered 50,000 non-existent soldiers in four divisions of the Iraqi Army. Their pay was presumably being diverted to the officers in the division. This ziggurat of corruption was one reason the army collapsed on June 9, […]

Arab Spring

Cairo Erupts as Mubarak, Adly Declared Innocent in Deaths of Protesters

Juan Cole

By Juan Cole | — An Egyptian court on Saturday found found deposed dictator Hosni Mubarak and his former interior minister Habib Adly not guilty (or rather just dropped the charges) the killing of nearly 900 young protesters by police in January-February 2011. Downtown Cairo and some provincial towns erupted in protests. Indeed, these were […]

nationalism

Turkish Pres. Erdogan says Women not Equal to Men: “Their System is Different.”

contributors

Euronews | — “The Turkish President has triggered fresh controversy, declaring in a speech that women are not equal to men. Recep Tayyip Erdogan also criticised the feminist movement, claiming they do not accept or understand the concept of motherhood. He spoke at a global justice and women’s summit in Istanbul. An English translation of […]