Middle East

Ann Arbor (Informed Comment) – Some American political leaders are talking about a religious war between Christianity and Islam in the aftermath of the Hamas attacks on Israel of October 7 and after. This rhetoric is ignorant and bigotted. Although Hamas calls itself an “Islamic” resistance movement, it is in fact a dangerous cult that […]

Colonialism

Irish History Resonates in Gaza

Hugh J. Curran

“I and the public know/ What all schoolchildren learn/ Those to whom evil is done/ do evil in return.” — W. H. Auden | Orono, Maine (Special to Informed Comment; Feature) – There were elements in Ireland whose anger against Britain overwhelmed any other sentiment. Three hundred years of settler colonialism, dispossession and denigration of […]

Central Intelligence Agency

The Real U.S. Intelligence Failure in Gaza: For years, U.S. officials have known that dire Conditions in Gaza could lead to violence

Foreign Policy in Focus

By Edward Hunt ( FPIF ) – As officials in Washington scramble to address the rapid outbreak of war in Israel and Palestine, they are sidestepping the fact that they believed that such a dramatic outburst of violence was likely. Since May 2021, when Hamas and Israel clashed in a brief war that left more […]

Featured

Israel’s Colonial Revenge Genocide in Gaza is only the latest in a Long History of such Massacres

Juan Cole

Ann Arbor (Informed Comment) – I find peculiar the conviction of so many politicians in Europe and North America, not to mention Israel itself, that the Hamas attacks of October 7 and after justify the casual murder of thousands of Palestinian noncombatants in Gaza by the Israeli armed forces, including through aerial bombardment on densely […]

Israel/ Palestine

Breaking Free from the Cycle of Violence: The Reality of the Gaza Conflict

Middle East Monitor

Al-Rimal neighbourhood in Gaza on Oct 10, 2023 [Mohammed Asad/Middle East Monitor] by Omer Carullah Sevim (Middle East Monitor ) – At the start of the colonial era, the imperial powers not only seized natural and human resources, but also sought to occupy time, space and minds. Those who were colonised learned to resist the […]

Eastern Europe

Israel-Gaza Conflict: An Opportunity for Putin in Ukraine while the World is Distracted

The Conversation

By Robert M. Dover, University of Hull | – Time is an ally of Russia in the Ukrainian conflict. Russia needs to reduce its rate of battlefield deaths and remain militarily active in Ukraine for as long as possible. A great aid to Vladimir Putin would be a disruption in the supply of weapons to […]

Featured

Israel in Palestinian Gaza: Revenge is more satisfying than Peace

Richard Forer

(Special to Informed Comment; Feature) – Over the years, the United States has endowed Israel with more than $150 billion in assistance, making it possible for the Jewish state to maintain its occupation, its ethnic cleansing of the indigenous people of the land, its unremitting seizure of territory, and its settlement project, the latter of […]

Israel/ Palestine

The Gaza Strip: Why the History of this Densely Populated Enclave is Key to understanding the Current Conflict

The Conversation

By Maha Nassar, University of Arizona | – (The Conversation) – The focus on conflict in the Middle East has again returned to the Gaza Strip, with Israel’s defense minister ordering a “complete siege” of the Palestinian enclave. The military operation, which involves extensive bombing of residences, follows a surprise attack on Oct. 7, 2023, […]

Israel/ Palestine

Why the Al-Aqsa Mosque Complex is Important to the Current Palestinian-Israeli Clashes

The Conversation

By Ken Chitwood, University of Southern California | – As a scholar of global Islam, I teach an introduction to Islam course and include a discussion about Al-Aqsa as part of the syllabus. That’s because Al-Aqsa has deep religious significance for Muslims around the world. But it is also important to highlight its remarkable political […]