Israel

Oakland, Ca. (Special to Informed Comment) – How convenient that the dynamic of sports and politics now collides with the question of “Who is a Jew?”* And just in time for the closing ceremonies of the 2020 Olympics. The prompt for this age-old dialectic comes back to who has a right to marry whom in […]

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Palestinian Christians welcome U.S. United Church of Christ affirmation of right to Boycott Israel for Occupation of Palestinian Territories

Juan Cole

Palestinians UCC BDS Occupation Israel

Iran

Discussions of Iran’s Nuclear Enrichment ignore Israel’s Atom Bomb Arsenal: What if Iran’s Program is a Deterrent to War?

John Hickman

Mt. Berry, Ga. (Special to Informed Comment) – According to the latest news coverage, Iran-U.S. negotiations to revive the 2015 JCPOA are in trouble. The main sticking points involve a guarantee demanded by Tehran that Washington will not abandon the deal at some future date as it did in 2018 under the previous administration and […]

Government surveillance

Calls to hold Israel and its NSO Group Accountable for Global hacking scandal, as UAE Role bulks Large

Middle East Monitor

By Nasim Ahmed | – The global hacking scandal involving Israel’s notorious NSO Group has sparked fury around the world as the full extent of the industrial scale spying operation targeting politicians, academics and activists begin to emerge. As many as 50,000 phone numbers were said to have been targeted for surveillance by NSO Group’s […]

Evangelicals

As a new Generation Emerges, Evangelical support for Israel is neither permanent nor inevitable

The Conversation

By Walker Robins | – Israel’s former ambassador to the U.S., Ron Dermer, made waves in May 2021 when he publicly suggested that Israel should prioritize its relationship with American evangelicals over American Jews. Dermer described evangelicals as the “backbone of Israel’s support in the United States.” By contrast, he described American Jews as “disproportionately […]

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Israeli Supreme Court affirms Apartheid law limiting Sovereignty to Jewish Israelis, excluding 20% of Population

Juan Cole

Ann Arbor (Informed Comment) – The Israeli newspaper Arab 48 reports in an article edited by Mahmud Mujadalah that the Israeli Supreme Court on Thursday refused to strike down the basic law passed by the parliament or Knesset in 2018 declaring Israel a Jewish nation such that sovereignty is solely invested in the Jewish population. […]

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Israel and the Racial Politics of Palestinian Family Separation

Juan Cole

Ann Arbor (Informed Comment) – The Israeli newspaper Arab 48 reports that on Tuesday, Prime Minister Naftali Bennett slammed opposition parties, led by former PM Binyamin Netanyahu, for having voted against renewal of the Family Separation Law for Palestinian-Israelis married to Palestinians. He said that the opposition had done direct damage to Israeli security. The […]

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“Chaos” in Israeli Parliament over Apartheid-style Law against Family Unification for Palestinian-Israelis

Juan Cole

Ann Arbor (Informed Comment) – Al-Quds Al-Arabi [Arab Jerusalem] reports “chaos” in the Israeli parliament as it debated into the wee hours of Tuesday morning the renewal of a 2003 law that places obstacles to family unification inside Israel of Palestinian-Israelis who marry Palestinians living in the Occupied West Bank or Gaza. Members of parliament […]

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Far Right Israeli PM Bennett slams Iran Nuclear Talks for Tehran’s Poor Rights Record (Israel has 200 Nukes and has Killed Thousands of Occupied Palestinians)

Juan Cole

Ann Arbor (Informed Comment) – New extreme-right Israeli Prime Minister Naftali Bennett came out on Sunday to argue that the election of an extreme-right Iranian cleric (Ebrahim Raisi) as president of that country should cause the Biden administration to back off reviving the 2015 Iran nuclear deal. Bennett called Raisi the “hangman of Tehran” and […]