Israel/ Palestine

Rachel Corrie’s parents speak out on the tenth anniversary of her killing by the Israeli operator of a military bulldozer, who ran over her as he approached a Palestinian home he intended to demolish. There were two men in the cockpit, one to observe and the other to drive the machine. Rachel risked her her […]

Iran

Hagel Confirmed, but Bloodied by American Nationalists Seeking Wars & World Dominance

Juan Cole

The GOP senators have their own foreign policy, and it isn’t the same as that of President Obama or Secretary of Defense Chuck Hagel. For them, the US is a 900 pound behemoth that can boss the world around with its high-tech military at will. Their foreign policy is to shoot first and ask questions […]

Israel/ Palestine

Palestinian Prisoner Jaradat’s death in Israeli Cell Provokes Further Protests

Juan Cole

Arafat Jaradat was detained by Israeli authorities near Hebron last Monday at a protest of illegal Israeli squatting on Palestinian land. On Saturday the 30=year-old was reported dead in an Israeli jail cell. Thirty-year-old men are so healthy that the major cause of death for them is accidents, so the death is very suspicious. Palestinians […]

Israel/ Palestine

Israel-Palestine at the Oscars: Amy Goodman’s interviews on 5 Broken Cameras and the Gatekeepers

Juan Cole

Amy Goodman’s Democracy Now! has been interviewing the makers and subjects of Oscar nominees for best documentary, including the Palestinian film “5 Broken Cameras” and the Israeli one, “The Gatekeepers.” They are in remarkable agreement that the Likud government’s dedication to colonizing the Palestinian West Bank is a disaster for all concerned, including Israel. The […]

Israel/ Palestine

Palestinian child in the Cross-hairs (Israeli soldier photo on Instagram)

Juan Cole

An Israeli soldier posted on Instagram a picture of a Palestinian child in the crosshairs. The soldier said that he found the picture on the internet. Palestinians said it exemplified the brutality of the occupation regime. Given right wing Israeli discourse, as with Avigdor Lieberman, of the ‘demographic threat’ of Palestinians to Israel’s continuance as […]

Israel/ Palestine

Arts under the Occupation: Dispatch from Palestine (Quran)

Juan Cole

LAYLA QURAN writes at ISLAMiCommentary: Layla Quran (pictured outside Ofer Prison, left) is a sophomore global studies major at University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, and Palestinian-American who moved to the U.S. from Jerusalem when she was four-years-old. She spent 10 weeks in Palestine this past summer researching the impact and role of the […]

Israel/ Palestine

Cole : “The Syrian Regime Will Likely Fall, but it Could Take Time” (WorldView Show)

Juan Cole

I was interviewed by Denis G. Campbell of the UK Progressive for his internet news and affairs program, the WorldView Show, and the exchange has just been posted. We mainly talked about the ongoing violence in Syria and its regional implications, and about the plight of the Palestinians.

Egypt

Christmas 2012: The Flowering of Middle Eastern Christianity and the Challenges it Faces

Juan Cole

There are more Middle Eastern Christians than ever before, and they are poised between emergence as a new political force in a democratizing region and the dangers to them of fundamentalism and political repression. The arguments you see for Christian decline in the region are mostly wrong. If we count the Christians in the Arab […]

Israel/ Palestine

The Coming Conflict between the US and Israel (Chernus)

Juan Cole

Ira Chernus writes at Tomdispatch.com Are the U.S. and Israel Heading for a Showdown? No One Thinks So, But It Just Might Happen Here’s the question no one is asking as 2012 ends, especially given the effusive public support the Obama administration offered Israel in its recent conflict with Hamas in Gaza: Will 2013 be […]