Arab World

Ann Arbor (Informed Comment) – Al Jazeera reports that Hezbollah escalated its rocket attacks on northern Israel and Syria’s Golan Heights occupied by Israel. Some of these rockets targeted the Ramat David Air Base near Haifa. The Israeli military said that most of the Hezbollah rockets were intercepted. The barrages went on Saturday and began […]

Featured

Does Israel’s Weaponizing of Hezbollah Pagers signal the Start of a Regional War?

Farhang Jahanpour

Israel’s massive cyber-attack on Lebanon on 17 and 18 September, with the near-simultaneous explosion of 3,000-4,000 pagers and walkie-talkies, has killed a few dozen Hezbollah members and many civilians, including some children and health workers, has blinded and maimed hundreds of people and wounded many thousands. Hezbollah’s leader Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah, in a long speech […]

Hizbullah

Israel’s Booby-Trapped Pagers wound Thousands, many Innocent Lebanese Civilians, Contravening Int’l Law

Human Rights Watch

Human Rights Watch – (Beirut) – Thousands of pagers simultaneously exploded across Lebanon and parts of Syria on September 17, 2024, resulting in at least 12 deaths, including at least two children and two health workers, and at least 2,800 injuries, according to Lebanon’s Ministry of Health. Photographs and videos filmed by victims and witnesses to the […]

Egypt

The Sphinx and the Sultan: How Biden’s Bear Hug of Netanyahu Caused Washington’s Near East Policy to Crash and Burn

Juan Cole

I’m reprinting here my most recent Tomdispatch essay for The Nation Institute, on the possible emergence of a centrist Sunni bloc that aims to offset Israeli power in the region. Check out, as well, Tom Engelhardt’s essential introduction, here. At least one thing is now obvious in the Middle East: the Biden administration has failed […]

Featured

Eugene Rogan’s The Damascus Events: The 1860 Massacre and the Making of the Modern Middle East

Marc Martorell Junyent

Review of Eugene Rogan, “The Damascus Events: The 1860 Massacre and the Making of the Modern Middle East” (New York: Basic Books, 2024). Munich, Germany (Special to Informed Comment; Feature) –– How did Ottoman Damascus descend into violence and looting in July 1860? Why did the Damascene masses fall upon the Christians, leaving around 5,000 […]

Featured

Woman, Life, Freedom: Rachel, Shireen, Mahsa and Ayşenur

Fariba Amini

Newark, Del. (Special to Informed Comment; Feature) – A few days before the invasion of Iraq by American forces under G.W. Bush, on March 16, 2003, a young woman from Seattle, Washington, who had gone to Rafah, in Gaza to help Palestinians halt the demolition of homes died under the bulldozer of the Israeli army. […]

Sudan

Sudan is Burning and Foreign Powers are Benefiting – what’s in it for the United Arab Emirates?

The Conversation

By May Darwich, University of Birmingham | – (The Conversation) – The United Nations has accused foreign players of prolonging the war in Sudan, making it harder for the country to find peace. The fighting between the Sudanese Armed Forces and the Rapid Support Forces started in April 2023. It was sparked by two generals […]

Egypt

Egyptian President al-Sisi’s Ankara Visit: A Turning Point in Turkey-Egypt Relations

Volkan Isbasaran

Istanbul (Special to Informed Comment; Feature) – On Wednesday, Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi made a historic visit to Turkey. This is the first time in 12 years that an Egyptian president has traveled to the country. After years of tension, it appears that Cairo and Ankara are beginning to bury the hatchet. During Sisi’s […]

Lebanon

Lebanon has made Survival an Art Form, after decades of War and Unrest

The Conversation

By Ian Parmeter, Australian National University | – (The Conversation) – I first visited Lebanon in 1978, three years into the civil war and six years before Theodore Ell was born. I mention this because, despite the fact our experiences of this fascinating country were at different times, his impressions and judgements in his excellent […]