Israel Lobby

By Juan Cole | (Informed Comment) | – – The European Union will probably issue a ruling today that goods produced in the Occupied Palestinian West Bank by Israeli squatters must be so labeled. Such labeling is already carried out in some European countries, but this ruling would extend the practice to all 28 EU […]

Haredim

‘Bibi in Bible Land’: The Likud Party Miscalculates and loses on Iran Deal

contributors

By Shalom L. Goldman | (Informed Comment) | – – Now that the Democratic senators have blocked a challenge to the Iran deal, pundits are looking at what the most persuasive arguments in the presentations to Democratic members of Congress were. What persuaded most Democrats to back the Iran deal, despite the well-funded campaigns against […]

Iran

Israel’s Netanyahu & Iran: Even former Intel Officials think he’s Unhinged

contributors

By Jeffrey Rudolph | (Detailed Political Quizzes) | Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu cannot be taken seriously when he talks about Iran. While Netanyahu is a master at exploiting fear in a particularly fearful society, the following points demonstrate that thinking people can ignore his claims dealing with Iran. “Netanyahu and other Israeli leaders blasted […]

Hamas

What is terrorism? The Charleston massacre and Palestinian resistance

contributors

By Heike Schotten | (Ma’an News Agency) | – Well before the advent of the US “War on Terror,” Edward Said wrote: “As a word and concept, ‘terrorism’ has acquired an extraordinary status in American public discourse.” Among other things, Said observed the ways in which “terrorism” functioned to deflect attention away from America’s misdeeds […]

Hamas

Selling the Gaza Assault: Israel’s Self-Inquiry is Self-Serving

contributors

John Hickman | (Informed Comment) | – – The document titled “The 2014 Gaza Conflict, 7 July – 26 August 2014: Factual and Legal Aspects” released by the Israeli government on May 2015 reeks of the sort of compromises in content that unhappy committees produce. Also the blood of the innocent. Read it and you […]

censorship

PM Netanyahu wants a Free Press, just not in Israel

contributors

By Ari Heistein | (Informed Comment) | – – Continuing his assault on transparency and independent voices in the media, Prime Minister Netanyahu denied investigative journalist Raviv Drucker’s Freedom of Information Law request last week regarding the frequent telephone calls between the Prime Minister and Amos Regev, the editor-in-chief of Israel’s biggest daily Israel Hayom. […]

Apartheid

As new Gaza Aid Effort sets Sail, Activists mark 5 years since Israeli attack

contributors

GAZA CITY (Ma’an) — Activists in Gaza City on Sunday marked five years since Israel’s deadly attack on the first Freedom Flotilla in 2010, a day after the ship leading Freedom Flotilla III arrived in the port of Bueu in Spain en route to Gaza. Israeli naval forces killed nine activists On May 31, 2010 […]

Apartheid

Israeli Supreme Court Upholds ‘Anti-Boycott Law’

contributors

By Sarah Saadoun | (Human Rights Watch) – On Wednesday, Israel’s Supreme Court upheld key provisions of the country’s “anti-boycott law,” which makes it a civil offense for people or groups to advocate boycotting Israeli or settlement products, institutions, or individuals, and the advocacy has a reasonable chance of succeeding. The decision legitimizes violations of the […]

Barack Obama

Obama-Netanyahu Tiff worsens: US won’t rule out using UN to create Palestine

Juan Cole

By Juan Cole | (Informed Comment) – President Obama put some further hints out there on Tuesday about how he might proceed on Israeli-Paletinian relations in his final two years. Asked if he’d be willing to go through the United Nations to achieve Palestinian statehood, he replied, “We’re going to do that evaluation . . […]