Israel/ Palestine

Palestinian authorities on Thursday protested the resolution passed by the US congress on Wednesday condemning movement toward a unilateral declaration by Palestinians of a Palestinian state. The congressional resolution was actually fairly weak, showing the tensions between the US and the far rightwing government of Binyamin Netanyahu, since it did call for the establishment of […]

Egypt

Egypt: Israel’s Nukes Destabilizing to Region (Wikileaks)

Juan Cole

Whenever any US official says that Iran’s civilian nuclear enrichment program is destabilizing the Middle East by posing a proliferation problem, I wince. A civilian enrichment program is not a proliferation issue, since only the construction of a nuclear warhead would violate the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty. The NPT explicitly allows countries to close the fuel […]

Israel/ Palestine

Obama Should Let the UN apply Economic Sanctions to Israel

Juan Cole

Israeli Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu and his far rightwing government have slapped President Obama in the face with mail gloves by refusing to extend the freeze on new colonies in the Palestinian West Bank. Palestine Authority president Mahmoud Abbas reaffirmed his refusal to go forward with direct negotiations if Israelis were going to be seizing […]

Israel/ Palestine

Israelis Jettison Peace Talks in Favor of Massive Land Theft; Brazil, Argentina Recognize Palestinian State

Juan Cole

The victory of the Republican right wing in the November elections for the House of Representatives has allowed the Israeli government to simply refuse to cooperate with a weakened President Barack Obama on a renewed peace process with the Palestinian leadership. The message of Israeli Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu to Obama? Translated from the Hebrew, […]

Israel/ Palestine

Cole in Truthdig: Iran is Winning, Israel Losing

Juan Cole

My new column is out in Truthdig: Leaks Suggest Iran Is Now Winning in the Middle East” Excerpt: Iran is winning and Israel is losing. That is the startling conclusion we reach if we consider how things have changed in the Middle East in the two years since most of the WikiLeaks State Department cables […]

Egypt

Egyptian Official: Israelis Might be Behind attacks by Sharks, which seem to be Beasts of Prey

Juan Cole

Even shark attacks in the Middle East get caught up in the Arab-Israeli conflict. The fifth victim of a shark attack this week at Sharm El Sheikh in Egypt’s Sinai, an elderly German woman, was killed this weekend. The governor of southern Sinai, Muhammad Abd al-Fadil Shosha, said that it is not unlikely that the […]

Israel/ Palestine

Is AIPAC a Wikileaks Operation?

Juan Cole

One of the supreme pieces of hypocrisy in Washington right now is all the politicians crying treason and death penalty on Wikileaks founder Julian Assange, when many of them are up to their gills in money arranged for them from the American Israel Public Affairs Committee. In 2003 Larry Franklin, the ‘go-to man on Iran’ […]

Environment

Israel’s Mega-Fire and Climate Change’s Drying Mediterranean

Juan Cole

You can’t relate a one-off event like Israel’s massive forest fire near Haifa to climate change, which has to be measured over a long series. It is the worst in Israel’s history. But what is true is that more and more such disasters will be faced by those regions of the earth that become dessicated […]

Israel/ Palestine

Zangeneh: Mahmoud Abbas needs to call Snap Elections in Palestine

Juan Cole

Hamid Zangeneh writes in a guest column for Informed Comment: We need a breakthrough in the Middle East peace process. One key problem is that the negotiator-in-chief for the Palestinians, President Mahmoud Abbas, lacks the legitimacy and grassroots support to represent his people properly. Abbas (Abu Mazen‎), has been the Chairman of the Palestine Liberation […]