Arab World

By Rola El-Husseini | (Special to Informed Comment) – On January 18, 2015 an Israeli military operation lead to the death of Jihad Mughniyah in Quneitra, in the Syrian part of the Golan Heights. According to a retired Israeli general, the timing of the operation that led to the death of Jihad Mugniyah, several other […]

censorship

Journalist Greste Freed by Egyptian Junta, but Press Freedom still Hostage

Juan Cole

By Juan Cole | (Informed Comment) – Peter Greste, an Australian journalist working for Aljazeera English, has been released from an Egyptian prison after a 400-day ordeal in which he was jailed merely for reporting the news. Greste was preemptively released by a presidential pardon from Abdel Fattah al-Sisi, the military dictator. Nothing is more […]

Featured

Ironies of Empire: US now Allied with Shiites Trained by Assassinated HIzbullah Leader

Juan Cole

By Juan Cole | (Informed Comment) – The revelation by the Washington Post’s Adam Goldman and Ellen Nakashima that the car-bomb assassination of Hizbullah commando Imad Mughniyah in Damascus in 2008 was a joint CIA/ Israeli Mossad operation comes at an awkward time for Washington. The administration of George W. Bush did not target Mughniyah […]

Iraq

With US Tanks, are Iraq’s Shiite Militias getting stronger than the Army?

contributors

by Mustafa Habib | Baghdad | (Niqash.org) – Iraq’s unofficial Shiite militias are an essential part of the fight against the extremist Islamic State group. But they act independently of the army, and are sometimes brutally murderous. Army officers now note that the militias have better weapons and better working conditions and that’s why their […]

censorship

As Americans are shot At: Saudi Death Sentence on Shiite Cleric inflames Sectarian Tensions

contributors

By Giorgio Cafiero | (Foreign Policy in Focus) – The fate of one Shi’ite cleric hangs over the Gulf like a sword of Damocles. [Updated: Two Americans were fired on in the Shiite Eastern Province of Saudi Arabia on Friday, and one injured; this incident is likely related to the radicalization of Shiites via oppressive […]

Yemen

U.S. Ally Yemen in Danger of Splitting into Two – Again

contributors

By Thalif Deen – UNITED NATIONS, (IPS) – When North and South Yemen merged into a single country under the banner Yemen Arab Republic back in May 1990, a British newspaper remarked with a tinge of sarcasm: “Two poor countries have now become one poor country.” Yemeni protesters in Sanaa carrying pictures of arrested men. […]

Featured

Why the Israeli-Hizbullah Tit for Tat Probably won’t turn to War

Juan Cole

By Juan Cole | (Informed Comment) – Last week an Israeli helicopter gunship targeted Hizbullah outposts in Syria southwest of Damascus, near the front with the rebel Support Front (Syria al-Qaeda), which controls the Golan Heights on the Syrian side. These outposts were not in fact bordering Israel or likely aimed at Israel, but rather […]

Economy

Egypt bets on Suez Canal Expansion to combat Economic Crisis

contributors

CCTV America | – “Egyptian president Abdel Fattah El Sisi said he hopes the Suez Canal expansion project will increase his country’s foreign cash reserves during his meetings while on an official visit to China earlier this week. Egypt expects the expanded canal will bring in more $100 billion annually. CCTV’s Adel EL Mahrouky reported […]

Apartheid

As Gaza Refugee Babies die of Cold, Underfunded UN Agency Halts Rebuilding Aid to 400,000

contributors

By Charlie Hoyle | – BETHLEHEM (Ma’an) — A massive shortfall in the $5.4 billion pledged for Gaza’s reconstruction by the international community last October is exacerbating an already dire humanitarian crisis for Palestinians displaced by Israel’s summer offensive. On Tuesday, the UN agency for Palestinian refugees, the largest service provider in the Gaza Strip, […]