Israel

Ann Arbor (Informed Comment) – Karim A.A. Khan, Prosecutor of the International Criminal Court (ICC), said Monday that he is asking the ICC to issue arrest warrants for several Hamas leaders as well as Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Secretary of Defense Yoav Gallant. It is the first time the ICC has sought warrants […]

Displaced and Refugees

Biden’s Potemkin Village: US Aid Dock Theatrics as Gaza Drowns in Starving Refugees amid Rivers of Shit

Juan Cole

Ann Arbor (Informed Comment) – The story has it that Russian noble and officer Grigory Potemkin, who stole the Crimea from the Ottoman Empire in 1783, faced a dilemma. The place was a mess after the Russian conquest, but Tsarina Catherine the Great wanted to see her new possession. So Potemkin set up fake façades […]

Apartheid

Protesting Israel’s Arrest and Continued Questioning of Professor Nadera Shalhoub-Kevorkian

Committee on Academic Freedom

Committee on Academic Freedom | Middle East Studies Association Asher Cohen President, Hebrew University of Jerusalem . . . We write on behalf of the Committee on Academic Freedom of the Middle East Studies Association of North America (MESA) and the Association for Middle East Women’s Studies (AMEWS) to express our grave concern over the […]

censorship

Israel Bans Al Jazeera Journalists, Network, Joining Syria and Iran as Repressive Regime

Juan Cole

Ann Arbor (Informed Comment) – The Committee to Protect Journalists on Sunday condemned the Israeli cabinet’s decision to ban the Al Jazeera news network in Israel. The network’s office was closed and its equipment was confiscated. Israeli cable channels were forced to delete Al Jazeera from their offerings, and even its website has been blocked […]

Featured

Tens of Thousands of Israelis Demonstrate against Netanyahu, Demand Hostage Exchange Deal, New Elections

Juan Cole

Ann Arbor (Informed Comment) – The Israeli newspaper Arab 48 reports that tens of thousands of Israelis rallied Saturday night against the government of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in Tel Aviv and other cities, including Jerusalem, Beersheba and Haifa. The protesters were responding in part to dueling news releases about the possibility of a breakthrough […]

Donald Trump

Top Ways MAGA and Right Wing Zionism Converge, and Why Smotrich is Embracing Trump

Juan Cole

Ann Arbor (Informed Comment) – Going back to the late nineteenth century, Zionism has had a complex and storied history, and there have been many strains of the ideology. Some early Zionists did not insist on colonizing Palestine, while others did (and colonizing it was the word they used). All agreed that the Jewish religion […]

Genocide

Netzah Yehuda: the ‘Violent and Aggressive’ IDF unit the US is Thinking of Sanctioning

The Conversation

Israel War Crimes

Anti-Zionism

Zionism’s Expired Shelf-Life: Why Naomi Klein is right that it has become Pharaoh

H. Scott Prosterman

Oakland, Ca. (Special to Informed Comment; Feature) – Previously I’ve argued that Zionism has run its course as a political movement, and accomplished its goal: The creation of a viable Jewish nation-state. I’ve also argued that Zionism under Israeli PM Benjamin Netanyahu (Bibi) has become a driving force in nurturing global anti-Semitism. He has perverted […]

Haredim

The Ideological Coup: How Far Right Kahanist Extremists Became the Face of Israel

Ramzy Baroud

( Middle East Monitor ) – Throughout history, fringe religious Zionist parties have had limited success in achieving the kind of electoral victories that would allow them an actual share in the country’s political decision-making. The impressive number of 17 seats won by Israel’s extremist religious party, Shas, in the 1999 election was a watershed […]