Israel/ Palestine

Ann Arbor (Informed Comment) – Running a small independent publication on controversial issues is fraught with problems. One of them is that people threaten to sue you. It happens time to time. For some reason the Israelis are particularly trigger-happy about threatening lawsuits. Many years ago the notorious MEMRI campaign to translate only the worst […]

censorship

Protesting Cornell University’s Suspension and threatened Deportation of graduate Student Momodou Taal for Protest

Committee on Academic Freedom

Committee on Academic Freedom | Middle East Studies Association | – Dear Interim President Kotlikoff, Provost Bala, Dr. Lombardi and Ms. Liang: We write on behalf of the Middle East Studies Association of North America (MESA) and its Committee on Academic Freedom to express our extreme concern about your decision to temporarily suspend Cornell graduate […]

Hizbullah

Hezbollah is not Finished Yet

Ibrahim Al-Marashi

( The National ) – The assassination of Hezbollah secretary general Hassan Nasrallah in Beirut will not diminish the group he once led. The killing demonstrates the counterintuitive notion that eliminating the head of an organisation does not always destroy it. Hezbollah has a bureaucratic set-up, with a robust ideology and communal support. Any armed […]

Hizbullah

Why an Israeli invasion of Lebanon is a Mistake

The Conversation

By Vanessa Newby, Leiden University and Chiara Ruffa, Sciences Po | – (The Conversation) – The death of Hezbollah’s leader, Hassan Nasrallah, in an Israeli airstrike in Beirut on September 27 has left the militant Lebanese organisation leaderless at a critical time. Two days earlier in a speech broadcast around the world, the head of […]

International Court of Justice

The War of Legitimacy: How the International Criminal Court and the UN Gen. Assembly Challenged Israeli, US Impunity

Ramzy Baroud

( Middle East Monitor ) – Two historic events regarding the Israeli occupation of Palestine took place on 19 July and 18 September. The first was a most comprehensive “advisory opinion” by the International Court of Justice (ICJ), which reiterated that the Israeli occupation of Palestine is illegal and must come to an immediate end. […]

Featured

Water as a Weapon of War in Gaza (The New Lines Institute)

Juan Cole

Ann Arbor (Informed Comment) – Here are the first few paragraphs of my long essay for The New Lines Institute on the Israeli use of water as a weapon of total war in Gaza. Read the whole thing here . The Israeli use of water as a weapon of war in Gaza in 2023-2024 turned […]

Hizbullah

Both Israel and Hezbollah are Blatantly Violating the Laws of War by Harming Civilians

The Conversation

By Emily Crawford, University of Sydney | – (The Conversation) – As the violence between Israel and Hezbollah has escalated dramatically in recent days, civilians have paid a heavy price. Hundreds of people in southern Lebanon have been killed and more than 1,600 wounded in Israeli airstrikes. Hezbollah, meanwhile, has fired hundreds of rockets and […]

China

At UN, China slams US Sanctions on Iran, Accuses Israel of ‘Indiscriminate attacks on Civilians’

Juan Cole

Ann Arbor (Informed Comment) – Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian, during his first appearance at the annual UN General Assembly meeting, met on the margins of the conference with Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi. He elicited from the Chinese one of the strongest statements of Chinese support we have seen. According to the UAE’s al-Khaleej, Wang […]