Arab World

By Emilie El Khoury, Queen’s University, Ontario | – The devastating war in Gaza is now in its sixth month, and the figures are alarming: more than 33,000 Palestinians have been killed. Almost one-third of the population is suffering catastrophic food insecurity and over two million (almost the entire population) have been displaced. More than […]

Algeria

The Wretched of Palestine: Frantz Fanon Diagnosed the Pathology of Colonialism and Urged Revolutionary Humanism

Dan Dinello

Chicago (Special to Informed Comment; Feature) – “The colonized took up arms not only because they were dying of hunger and witnessing the disintegration of their society,” wrote Frantz Fanon in his incendiary book The Wretched of the Earth. “But also because the colonist treated them like animals and considered them brutes. As soon as […]

Houthi

Iran-US secret Backchannel Talks Suggest that for Both Sides Pragmatism beats Ideology

The Conversation

By Shabnam Holliday, University of Plymouth | – (The Conversation) – Recent revelations that the Islamic Republic of Iran and the US have held secret talks as a way of resolving months of attacks by Tehran-backed Houthi rebels on shipping in the Red Sea have raised eyebrows. Surely the two countries have been implacable foes […]

Featured

Naked Hypocrisy: The US once cited UNSC Resolutions to Invade Iraq, now calls Gaza Ceasefire Demand “Non-Binding”

Juan Cole

Ann Arbor (Informed Comment) – State Department spokesperson Matthew Miller on Tuesday characterized the United Nations Security Council resolution 2728 demanding an immediate ceasefire in the Gaza conflict as “non-binding,” a phrase also used by US ambassador to the UN Linda Thomas-Greenfield. The US was rebuked by China, according to Akmal Dawi at VOA: “‘Security […]

Chechnya

How Moscow Terror Attack fits ISIL-K Strategy to Widen Agenda against Perceived Enemies

The Conversation

By Sara Harmouch, American University, and Amira Jadoon, Clemson University | – Russia is reeling from the worst terror strike on its soil in a generation following an attack on March 22, 2024, that killed at least 137 concertgoers in Moscow. The attack has been claimed by the Islamic State group. And despite Russian authorities […]

Algeria

The Middle East Ranks at the Bottom of Gallup’s Happiness Index, except for Rich Oil States; is the US to Blame?

Juan Cole

Ann Arbor (Informed Comment) – The annual Gallup report on happiness by country came out this week. It is based on a three-year average of polling. What struck me in their report is how unhappy the Middle East is. The only Middle Eastern country in the top twenty is Kuwait (for the first time in […]

Anti-Zionism

In Zionist Academia there is No Room for Dissent

Lior Sternfeld

By Sonia Boulos and Lior Sternfeld | – Madrid and State College, Pa. (Special to Informed Comment; Feature) – In a statement from March 12, the Hebrew University of Jerusalem announced the suspension of Professor Nadera Shalhoub Kevorkian, an internationally renowned Palestinian scholar and a faculty member in the Law School and School of Social […]

Hizbullah

Will Current Israeli-Lebanese Fighting derail Historic Land Border Agreement?

The Conversation

By Mireille Rebeiz, Dickinson College | – In October 2022, Lebanon and Israel signed a maritime border agreement brokered by the U.S., a move interpreted as the beginning of normalizing relations between two countries technically at war. The next step would have been the settlement of the long-running land border dispute. But then came the […]

Displaced and Refugees

Sudan: Urgent Action Needed on Hunger Crisis

Human Rights Watch

Security Council Should Act on Access for Aid Deliveries ( Human Rights Watch ) – (New York, March 15, 2024) – United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres is expected to alert the Security Council in the coming days that Sudan has entered a downward spiral of extreme conflict-induced hunger, Human Rights Watch said today. The council […]