Arab World

By Juan Cole The pan-Arab London daily Hayat [Life] reports that members of the al-Anbar provincial council say they have met with American officials who are “disgusted” and the slowness of Baghdad to arm the Sunni Arab tribes fighting ISIL. Last week 220 members of the Al-Bu Nimr tribe were murdered by ISIL for taking […]

Apartheid

Israeli Forces open fire on Palestinian Qalandia Demonstrators, Wounding 8

contributors

RAMALLAH (Ma’an) — Eight Palestinians were injured on Friday after Israeli forces opened fire on demonstrators during clashes following Friday prayers near the Qalandia checkpoint north of Jerusalem. Several Palestinians were also injured by rubber-coated steel bullets and dozens suffered from suffocation from inhaling tear gas as Israeli soldiers fired large number of tear-gas grenades […]

Islamic State of Iraq and Syria

Is ISIL’s Ideology really Grounded in Saudi Textbooks?

contributors

By Emile Nakhleh WASHINGTON (IPS) – According to an article published Oct. 21 on Al-Monitor, the Islamic State (ISIS or IS) has issued new regulations for the school systems under its control in Iraq and Syria. The announced purpose of the so-called guidelines, which carried the imprimatur of the group’s “Amir al-Mu’minin,” presumably leader Abu […]

Featured

Iraq: Grand Ayatollah Sistani joins Hagel in calling for Arming Sunni Tribes of al-Anbar

Juan Cole

By Juan Cole Al-Zaman (The Times of Baghdad reports that Grand Ayatollah Ali Sistan is calling, just as is US Secretary of Defense Chuck Hagel, for the arming of Sunni tribes in al-Anbar Province to fight ISIL in Iraq. (The Shiite-dominated Iraqi government in Baghdad has been reluctant to move too quickly toward creating Sunni […]

Israel

Unprecedented Damage to Gaza & its People can’t be repaired with Just more Aid

contributors

By Sara Roy, Harvard University In the near three decades that I have been involved with Gaza and her people, I have never seen the kind of physical and psychological destruction that I see there today. In all Gaza’s long and tormented history, there is no precedent for its extraordinarily dangerous position in 2014. The […]

Apartheid

“Pilot Program” of Segregated Buses banning Palestinians in Israel

contributors

AJ+ “The defense minister [Moshe Ya’alon] … hasn’t issued a blanket ban but believes integrated buses are “a recipe for a terror attack.” So he’s launched a pilot program of segregated buses between Israel and the West Bank for “security considerations.” AJ+ “Israel Bans Palestinians From Riding Buses”

Featured

Far Right Extremist Avigdor Lieberman says Swedish Recognition of Palestine will Strengthen Extremists

Juan Cole

By Juan Cole There was a time when people like Avigdor Lieberman were not welcome in Israeli politics, or, indeed, in Jewish circles in the United States. Dogged by accusations of corruption (though acquitted in the Israeli courts) and widely considered a racist and flamethrower, Lieberman has emerged as Foreign Minister, a powerful cabinet post. […]

Israel

This day in History: Madrid Arab-Israeli Peace Conference (a Process that Netanyahu later Boasted of Derailing)

contributors

The Madrid peace conference convened October 30, 1991, hosted by President George H. W. Bush and Soviet Premier Mikhail Gorbachev, aimed at initiating a peace settlement between Israel and the Arabs. Bush senior warns that if Israel and Palestinians don’t make peace, sooner or later “weapons of mass destruction” could be deployed in the Middle […]

Christianity

The Kurdish 3rd Way: Democracy is “Radical” in Northern Syria

contributors

By Karlos Zurutuza (Inter Press Service) Garbage collection is among the many duties of the Democratic Self-Management in force in the three mainly Kurdish enclaves of northern Syria. Credit: Karlos Zurutuza/IPS AMUDA, Syria, Oct 28 2014 (IPS) – There was never anything particularly remarkable about this northern town of 25,000. However, today it has become […]