Arab World

BETHLEHEM (Ma’an) — Several foreign activists stripped bare near the Israeli separation wall in the city of Bethlehem in the occupied West Bank in refusal of ongoing Israeli policies against Palestinians under military occupation. Photo taken from the Facebook page of Pallasos en Rebeldia Photos of the activists went viral Wednesday among Palestinians on social […]

Islam

Ashrawi: “Israel is provoking a global holy war” over Aqsa

contributors

By IMEMC News | – – PLO Executive Committee Member Dr. Hanan Ashrawi met with [British Consul General to Jerusalem] Dr. Alastair McPhail at the PLO Headquarters in Ramallah, September 14, 2015. Both parties discussed the latest political developments, including Israel’s persistent assaults and escalating incursions and violence on the Al-Aqsa Mosque compound (Al-Haram Al-Sharif) […]

Egypt

Mexican Tour Organizers, Buddhist Healers, Baffled by Egyptian Army Attack

Juan Cole

By Juan Cole | (Informed Comment) | – – Gabriela Bejarano Rangel, the sister and daughter of the Mexican organizers of the tour to Egypt that met with tragedy Sunday, has been interviewed at Excelsior.com. The Egyptian military mistook the tourist convoy in the western desert near Siwa Oasis for terrorists and attacked them, killing […]

Islam

Clashes rock Al-Aqsa Compound, 3rd Holiest Muslim Shrine, for 2nd day

contributors

Ma’an News Agency | – – JERUSALEM (Ma’an) — Israeli forces and Palestinians clashed for the second consecutive day at the Al-Aqsa Mosque compound on Monday, with several journalists injured as Israeli forces fired stun grenades and tear gas canisters in the holy site. Ayman Abu Rumouz, a cameraman for Lebanon-based satellite channel al-Mayadeen, was […]

Featured

US Intel Chief: Iraq and Syria may not Survive as States

Juan Cole

By Juan Cole | (Informed Comment) | – – Public remarks by the head of the US Defense Intelligence Agency and by John Brennan, director of the CIA, suggest that Washington is making its peace with a break-up of Syria and Iraq. They hastened to say that break-up was not US policy, they simply saw […]

Displaced and Refugees

Israel’s Deep Role in Syrian Refugee Crisis: Saga of Yarmouk

contributors

By: Ramzy Baroud | (Ma’an News Agency) | – – When Zionist Haganah militias carried out Operation Yiftach, on May 19 1948, the aim was to drive Palestinians in the northern Safad District which had declared its independence a mere five days earlier, outside the border of Israel. The ethnic cleansing of Safad and its […]

Bashar al-Assad

Germany seeks Talks with Russia over Syria as Putin conducts Naval Maneuvers off Tartous

Juan Cole

By Juan Cole | (Informed Comment) | – – Agence France Press Arabic says that Cypriot officials are reporting that Russia has asked them to alter airline routes this coming week because it is planning naval military maneuvers off the Syrian coast near its leased naval base, Tartous. The maneuvers are called “routine” by Moscow […]

al-Qaeda

14 Years after 9/11, US, Israel Tempted to ally with Al-Qaeda in Syria

contributors

By Juan Cole | (Informed Comment) | – – The Jabhat al-Nusra or Support Front is one of the major rebel groups in Syria, holding extensive territory in the hinterland of cities like Homs and Aleppo and in the province of Idlib. The Support Front is just al-Qaeda. It has announced allegiance to Ayman al-Zawahiri, […]

Displaced and Refugees

Can Syrian Asylee Airlift from Turkey to Sweden be Crowd-Funded? Iranian Expats Think So

contributors

By Elisabeth Braw | (RFE/ RL) | – – A group of Iranian emigres and friends has announced an ambitious project to mount a crowdfunded airlift from troubled areas around the Mediterranean to Sweden, allowing would-be refugees to bypass hazardous land-and-sea journeys via what they’re calling Refugee Air. One of the organizers says he was […]