Israel/ Palestine

By Farrah Hassen | – ( Otherwords.org ) – “If I must die, you must live to tell my story,” wrote Dr. Refaat Alareer, a 44-year-old Gazan poet and literature professor. A few weeks later, Alareer was killed while sheltering in his sister’s apartment, along with six family members. In the densely populated Gaza Strip, […]

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“Tell me how this ends” – Gaza Edition

Juan Cole

Ann Arbor (Informed Comment) – General David Petraeus, as he prepared to help lead an invasion of Iraq, famously asked journalist Rick Atkinson, “Tell me how this ends.” No one doubted that the US could invade and occupy Iraq. It just wasn’t clear even to insiders what the US could possibly do to get back […]

Displaced and Refugees

US must Back UN Protection of Gaza’s Civilians, not Veto Resolutions to halt Mass Atrocities

Human Rights Watch

By Louis Charbonneau | – United Nations Director @loucharbon ( Human Rights Watch) – This week, US President Joe Biden warned Israel it was losing international support because of its “indiscriminate bombing” of Gaza, which are laws-of-war violations. The United States should now back those words by acting at the United Nations Security Council to […]

Islamic State of Iraq and Syria

Is Hamas the same as ISIL (the so-called ‘Islamic State Group’)? No . . . and Yes

Brian Glyn Williams

( The Conversation ) – In the aftermath of Hamas’ bloody raid into Israel on Oct. 7, 2023, many Israelis and people around the world equated the newly ultraviolent and audacious Palestinian militant organization with the world’s deadliest terrorist group, ISIL or ISIS – the so-called “Islamic State group” in Iraq and Syria. Israeli Prime […]

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The Plague as Life: 327,000 Stricken with Infectious Diseases in Gaza

Juan Cole

Ann Arbor (Informed Comment) – In Albert Camus’ novel The Plague, a character at one point asks, “But what does it mean, the plague? It’s life, that’s all.” The plague has come to Gaza. What happens when you force 1.8 million people into a postage-stamp-sized territory and destroy or damage half of their dwelling places, […]

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Why did Biden suddenly accuse Israel of War Crimes in Gaza?

Juan Cole

Ann Arbor (Informed Comment) – On Tuesday, President Joe Biden de facto accused Israel of war crimes in Gaza. He said at a donor event, “Israel’s security can rest on the United States, but right now it has more than the United States. It has the European Union, it has Europe, it has most of […]

Israel/ Palestine

Getting Serious about Halting Israeli Genocide

Medea Benjamin and Nicholas J.S. Davies

( Code Pink ) – On Friday, December 8, the UN Security Council met under Article 99 for only the fourth time in the UN’s history. Article 99 is an emergency provision that allows the Secretary General to summon the Council to respond to a crisis that “threatens the maintenance of international peace and security.” […]

Israel/ Palestine

The Horrors of Gaza: Any Solution to the Current Crisis must Put Palestinians at the Center of Decision-Making

John Feffer

Originally published in Hankyoreh. ( Foreign Policy in Focus ) – The greatest horror of the war between Israel and Gaza is that it shouldn’t have happened in the first place. Israeli intelligence received a 40-page document a year before the October 7 attack that provided precise details of the plan of the militant Hamas […]

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From Kishinev to Gaza

Yakov M. Rabkin

Montréal (Special to Informed Comment; Feature) – Pogrom. This Russian term denotes a violent riot incited with the aim of massacring Jews and destroying their property. One of the deadliest pogroms (50 Jews were killed and nearly 600 wounded) took place in Kishinev a hundred and twenty years ago, in April 1903. But the trauma […]