Middle East

Gaza Marks Another Grim Anniversary: One Year Since Deadly Hostilities that Killed Scores of Civilians

By Abier Almasri | Research Assistant, Middle East and North Africa Division | – ( Human Rights Watch ) – Friends abroad often ask how I’m coping after last year’s escalation in Gaza. I struggle to find the words to describe the terror of lying awake at night not knowing if I’d see daylight again, […]

Bashar al-Assad

Was the Visit to Iran of Syria’s al-Assad impelled by Fear of Russian Failure in Ukraine?

Gilbert Achcar

By Gilbert Achkar | – ( Middle East Monitor ) – The President of the Syrian regime, Bashar Al-Assad, paid a surprise visit to Tehran last Sunday and, adding to its surprising nature, is the fact that he had rarely dared to leave his country since the popular uprising against his regime began in 2011. […]

Israel/ Palestine

World Bank observations on Palestine’s economy gloss over Israel’s Colonialism and Apartheid

Ramona Wadi

( Middle East Monitor ) – Humanitarian aid, which has played a major role in stagnating Palestine and Palestinians, is one of the factors mentioned in the latest World Bank analysis of the dire economic situation in the occupied Palestinian territories, as reported by the Palestinian Authority’s official news agency, Wafa. The report notes that, […]

Russia

Did the Ukraine War lead to Turkish-Saudi Rapprochement?

Middle East Monitor

Motasem A Dalloul | – ( Middle East Monitor ) – Turkish President Recep Erdogan visited Jeddah in July 2017 and met Saudi Arabia’s King Salman Bin Abdul Aziz and Crown Prince Mohammed Bin Salman to mediate for an end to the blockade imposed on Qatar by the Saudis, the UAE, Bahrain and Egypt. “No […]

Featured

Jared Kushner to invest Saudi Funds in Israeli Tech: Is MBS sidestepping his father King Salman on Palestine?

Juan Cole

Ann Arbor (Informed Comment) – Dion Nissenbaum and Rory Jones at the Wall Street Journal got the scoop that Affinity, Jared Kushner’s investment firm, will invest some of the $2 billion it got from Saudi Arabia’s sovereign wealth fund in Israel. Kushner told the WSJ that he sees building investment and business ties between the […]

Christianity

Cole Interview: The Qur’an, the Crucifixion and Jews: Rebutting Iranian War Propaganda against Byzantium

Juan Cole

Ziryab Jamal interviewed me on my article: Juan Cole, “‘It was made to appear to them so’: the crucifixion, Jews and Sasanian war propaganda in the Qur’ān,” Religion 51, 3 (2021): 404-422. He kindly permitted me to put up the raw video of the interview with video here: Some of the points in the article […]

Haredim

How Long can Israel’s Minority Government survive Wave of Racial, Petty Partisan Rivalries?

Middle East Monitor

Motasem A Dalloul | – Before forming the current dilapidated government coalition last year, the Israeli occupation state went through four elections in two years. Even after the fourth elections, neither of the Israeli parties has succeeded in winning enough seats in parliament to form a stable one-party government or a strong coalition government. There […]

Featured

US Double Standard: Russia Sanctioned for Ukraine Occupation, but 4,000 new Israeli invaders of Palestinian West Bank merely “Opposed”

Juan Cole

Ann Arbor (Informed Comment) – The Deputy Spokesperson for the State Department, Jalina Porter, on Friday condemned the Israeli government’s announcement that it would build 4,000 further housing units in the Palestinian West Bank, i.e., it would steal land owned by Palestinian families and bring in squatters from Israel to squat on that land. The […]

Featured

Occupied Bodies: How SCOTUS’ repeal of Roe and the Israeli Supreme Court’s Expulsion of Palestinians are Similar

Juan Cole

Ann Arbor (Informed Comment) – This week a leaked opinion by far right wing Justice Samuel Alito revealed that the Trump-Bush majority on the Supreme Court intended to reverse Roe v. Wade and allow states to make abortion illegal. Throughout Alito’s opinion ran a subtext, however, of denying the constitutional right to privacy, a notion […]