Arab World

By Nazand Begikhani via Your Middle East “These are strategic theories of rape in wartime which have been deliberately practiced by IS jihadists in Syria and now in Iraq,” writes Dr Nazand Begikhani. In the last few days, while the world has been overwhelmed by the flow of information about atrocities committed by Islamic State […]

Apartheid

Thirsty in Gaza: Israel Destroyed or Damaged 28 Miles of Water Pipes

contributors

GAZA CITY (Ma’an) — The Palestinian Water Authority said on Thursday that the water distribution network in Gaza had suffered $34.4 million worth of damage as a result of the Israeli offensive over the last five weeks, including dozens of destroyed facilities. The immense scale of the destruction of Gaza’s infrastructure has only become increasingly […]

Featured

Top 10 Mistakes of former Iraq PM Nouri al-Maliki (That Ruined his Country)

Juan Cole

By Juan Cole Now that Nouri al-Maliki has resigned as prime minister, it is worth looking at the way his two terms as prime minister (2006-2010, 2010-2014) shaped Iraq. Did his policies help create the country’s current impasse? 1. Al-Maliki was so partisan in 2006 when he first came to power that he denied that […]

Energy

The Politics of Energy and the Destabilization of Palestine

contributors

By Tareq Ramadan The latest Israeli military campaign directed towards the 139-square mile, densely-populated Palestinian Gaza Strip has already led to the deaths of more than 1,900 Palestinians[i] (more than 80% are civilians including at least 440 children), the wounding of more than 9,500 which includes 2,800 children[ii], the homes of some 65,000 people destroyed[iii], […]

Featured

The Appeal of Intervention: New Iraqi Premier, Libyan Parliament ask for Int’l Troops

Juan Cole

By Juan Cole According to a spokesman for his Da’wa Party (Islamic Call or Islamic Mission), Iraq’s prime minister-designate Haydar al-Abadi is preparing a platform on the basis of which he will see to form a new government; one of the planks is a joint Iraqi- international military push against the so-called Islamic State in […]

Arab World

Arab Youth and the Changing Middle East (HuffPo Cole Interview)

Juan Cole

By Juan Cole Huffington Post Live Highlight: Juan Cole, “The New Arabs: How the Millennial Generation is Changing the Middle East” Related book: The New Arabs: How the Millennial Generation is Changing the Middle East

Iraq

Iraq Intervention? More like Ceaseless Escalation

contributors

By Elliott Colla, author of Baghdad Central While visiting Baghdad last year, I was struck by what Iraqis said every time I tried to apologize for the 2003 invasion: “Don’t apologize for that. We needed an invasion to get rid of Saddam Hussein.” And then they would add, “But you do need to apologize for […]

Apartheid

Need for Tough Love: Defending the Gaza Assault Hurts Israeli, American Interests

contributors

By Gregory Harms Almost two-thirds of Americans feel Israel’s operations in Gaza were justified. When given sufficient information, and when thinking outside ideological parameters, Americans commonly draw reasonable conclusions and are in agreement by a two-thirds majority. In the case of the Gaza-Israel conflict, a knowledge deficit and ideology are to explain why the population […]

Apartheid

Blown Chances in Gaza Israel and the U.S. Miss Many Chances to Avoid War

contributors

By Sandy Tolan via Tomdispatch.com Alongside the toll of death and broken lives, perhaps the saddest reality of the latest Gaza war, like the Gaza wars before it, is how easy it would have been to avoid. For the last eight years, Israel and the U.S. had repeated opportunities to opt for a diplomatic solution […]