Israel/ Palestine

Ann Arbor (Informed Comment) – Tamim al-Hasan at the al-Mada newspaper in Baghdad reports that at a time when an imminent announcement is expected of the withdrawal of US troops from Iraq, Iraqi paramilitary groups have declared their solidarity with Lebanon’s Hezbollah in the struggle with Israel. Moreover, they are putting their drones where their […]

Featured

Hezbollah Targets Israeli Airbase as Lebanon-Israel Attacks Escalate; Americans told to Flee

Juan Cole

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 […]

Israel/ Palestine

A Ceasefire is not Enough in Gaza

John Feffer

( Foreign Policy in Focus ) – The numbers are clear. The temporary ceasefire between Israel and Hamas in November last year resulted in the release of 109 hostages. Compare that to Israeli military operations, which have managed to rescue 8 hostages while killing three by accident. The military has also recovered the bodies of […]

Israel/ Palestine

Israel’s Exploding Pagers Operation against Hezbollah was a Highly Illegal Booby Trap

The Conversation

By Mary Ellen O’Connell, University of Notre Dame | – (The Conversation) – The operation that used pagers and walkie-talkies to kill members of the Lebanese militant group Hezbollah was ingenious – but was it legal? Certainly, there are those who will argue that it was. That thinking goes like this: Hezbollah has been attacking […]

Cyber Warfare

From Stuxnet to Gospel to Pager Bombs, Israel is leading the Weaponization of the digital World

Ibrahim Al-Marashi

By Ibrahim Al-Marashi ( The National ) – A series of pager explosions across Lebanon, and secondary attacks on walkie-talkies the following day, have killed and maimed a number of Hezbollah operatives, as well as many civilians, including children. The attacks have also injured thousands, including Iran’s ambassador to Beirut. Israel normally does not claim […]

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 […]

Featured

Water, War and Women in Gaza

H. Patricia Hynes

Greenfield, Mass. (Special to Informed Comment; Feature) – In late 2020, a report titled Saving Gaza Begins with its Water stated: The water crisis in Gaza is a problem of daunting proportions, with grave implications for the more than 2 million inhabitants of the Palestinian enclave. The Coastal Aquifer from which Gaza pumps water is diminishing; but […]

Israel/ Palestine

How the Israeli Settlers Movement shaped Modern Israel

The Conversation

By Arie Perliger, UMass Lowell | – (The Conversation) – The increase in settler violence against Palestinians in the West Bank over the past year has been unprecedented. Since Hamas’ Oct. 7, 2023, attack and the start of the war, there have been more than 1,000 attacks, according to a new report from the International […]

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 […]