Middle East

Starving Civilians is an ancient military Tactic, but today it’s a War Crime in Ukraine, Yemen, Tigray and elsewhere

By Tom Dannenbaum, Tufts University; Alex De Waal, Tufts University; and Daniel Maxwell, Tufts University | – A hideous contradiction is playing out in war-torn Ukraine. Thousands of Ukrainians are starving in cities besieged by Russian forces. Meanwhile, the country’s grain stores are bursting with food, and the government is begging for international assistance to […]

Climate Crisis

Climate Emergency: Iran’s Abadan hits unprecedented 126° F., as Gov’t Offices are forced to Close

Juan Cole

Ann Arbor (Informed Comment) – Iran International reports that a temperature of 126 degrees F. (52.2C) has been recorded in Abadan. It is the highest temperature officially recorded in that city in the 70 years official records have been kept. Globally, it is one of the the higher temperatures observed before the summer solstice since […]

Apartheid

Israel’s Apartheid Law Causes Bennett Government to Fall, on Eve of Biden’s Visit

Juan Cole

Ann Arbor (Informed Comment) – The Israeli newspaper Arab 48 reports that Prime Minister Naftali Bennett will dissolve parliament and go to new elections. His government has lacked a majority in parliament for some time and recently lost an embarrassing vote on applying Israeli law to squatter-settlers in the Palestinian West Bank. Theirs will be […]

Israel/ Palestine

Interview: How Israel’s Travel Ban Crushes the Dreams of the Palestinians of Gaza

Human Rights Watch

By Paul Aufiero, Omar Shakir, and Abier Almasri | – ( Human Rights Watch ) This month marks the 15th anniversary of the Israeli government’s closure of the Gaza Strip, which effectively confines more than 2 million people into a 40-by-11-kilometer (25-mile by 7-mile) strip of land. Israeli authorities’ sweeping restrictions on the movement of […]

Modernism

New Identity: Religion, Nationalism and Foreign Policy in Turkey (Review)

Marc Martorell Junyent

Review of Filiz Çoban Oran, Religion, Nationalism and Foreign Policy: Discursive Construction of New Turkey’s Identity. London: I.B. Tauris, 2022. Tuebingen (Special to Informed Comment) – In 2009, US President Barack Obama advised Europe to welcome what was then called Turkey into its fold and benefit from the country’s “diversity of ethnicity, tradition and faith.” […]

Featured

Lutheran Church Denounces Killing of Abu Akleh, Calls for end of Israeli Occupation of Palestinian Territories

Juan Cole

Ann Arbor (Informed Comment) – The Lutheran World Federation Council has called for an end to the Israeli military occupation of the Palestinian Territories (Gaza and the West Bank). The statement said that “The Council is deeply concerned by the continued Israeli occupation of Palestinian territories and the recent escalation of violence, including the killing […]

Democracy

The fall of the House of Arslan: How a Lebanese political Newcomer ousted a Dynasty

Global Voices

By Omar Boutine | – ( Globalvoices.org ) – On May 15, 2022, Lebanese voters cast their ballots in the first parliamentary elections to be held in the country since the Beirut blast leveled the eastern half of the capital in August of 2020. Since then, a nation mired in an economic crisis the World […]

Featured

Al Jazeera: Image of Bullet that killed American Journalist Shireen Abu Akleh Proves it came from an Israeli M4

Juan Cole

Ann Arbor (Informed Comment) – The Al Jazeera news network, based in Qatar, has received from the Palestine Authority an image of the bullet that killed American journalist Shireen Abu Akleh and has concluded that it was certainly fired from an Israeli M4 rifle. The green-tipped, 5.56mm caliber bullet is deadly when fired at a […]

Iran

Hello Commander: new Pop Song aims to steel Iranian youth against Temptations of American Culture

The Conversation

By Arshin Adib-Moghaddam, SOAS, University of London | – The Tehran Times recently hailed what it referred to as: “A new epic song themed with generational support for the Islamic Revolution…” Hello Commander, which is being sung by schoolchildren across the country, is an attempt by the current conservative government of Iran to unify the […]