Middle East

( Joint Statement of Human Rights Watch et al.) – The promulgation on September 22, of Presidential Decree No. 117 implicitly abrogating the constitutional order in Tunisia is a first step towards authoritarianism. This turning point threatens the human rights and democratic aspirations of the Tunisian people. While recognizing the limits of the current political […]

Featured

In Height of Hypocrisy, Nuclear-Armed Israeli PM Bennett slams Iran, which has no weapons or program, for “crossing all red Lines”

Juan Cole

Ann Arbor (Informed Comment) – The Israeli newspaper Arab 48 reports that far-right Israeli Prime Minister Naftali Bennett, in his address to the U.N. General Assembly on Monday, ignored the Israeli-Palestinian struggle and focused instead on the issue of Iran. He alleged that the Iranian nuclear program had “surpassed all red lines,” asserting that Iran […]

Israel/ Palestine

Gaza’s children choose between working and starving

We are not Numbers

By Aseel Kabariti | – Gaza ( We Are Not Numbers) – Child labor takes many forms. Many people picture a child in a factory, but sometimes it’s an adorable kid pulling on your sleeve in a market. “Could you please buy some mint from me?” asked a young boy with a warm smile and […]

Climate Crisis

Israeli Youth Protest Israel-UAE Oil Pipeline that Endangers Climate, Key Coral Reefs: The Dark Side of “Abraham Accords”

Juan Cole

Ann Arbor (Informed Comment) – The so-called Abraham Accords, which take the patriarch’s name in vain, were about many things, but genuine peace was not one of them. The were a series of bilateral horse trades with no implication for Israeli-Palestinian peace. Now it turns out that they were in part a plot against the […]

Featured

Palestinian Parties, Organizations Greet Abbas’s Pledge to take Israel to Int’l Court as “Historic” and Roadmap

Juan Cole

Ann Arbor (Informed Comment) – al-Quds [Jerusalem] reports that Palestinians in the West Bank greeted President Mahmoud Abbas’s UN speech, in which he pledged to take Israel to the International Court of Justice at the Hague* if its squatter-settlements weren’t withdrawn within a year, with widespread acclaim.* The ICJ “is the principal judicial organ of […]

Featured

Palestine President Mahmoud Abbas gives Israel a Year to Withdraw from Palestinian Territories or he will go to the Int’l Court

Juan Cole

Ann Arbor (Informed Comment) – According to Al Jazeera, Mahmoud Abbas, the president of Palestine, gave an uncharacteristically vehement speech at the UN General Assembly on Friday. He said, “The crimes against the Palestinians in their own country committed by the Israeli Occupation authority will not halt their struggle to achieve liberty on their land.” […]

Arab World

As Biden prepares to declare US 20-year War over at U.N., Remembering the Bush Lies that Started it all

Juan Cole

Ann Arbor (Informed Comment) – Aamer Madhani and Josh Boak at the Associated Press report that President Biden in his speech to the United Nations General Assembly this year will seek to bring the curtain down on 20 years of American war, and will argue that instead the US will wage a multilateral campaign against […]

Israel/ Palestine

Restricting US Military Aid to Israel in the Age of Normalization

Al-Shabaka

By Nadya Tannous | ( Al Shabaka ) – With the rise in global solidarity with Palestinians since the May 2021 Unity Intifada, United States policymakers and activists are calling for conditioning and halting US military aid to Israel. Al-Shabaka’s US policy fellow, Nadya Tannous, examines this shifting tide and offers recommendations for how policymakers, […]

Saudi Arabia

Saudi Arabia’s first batch of women military graduates encourages more debate on gender roles

Global Voices

By Rahma Alattar | – ( Global Voices.org) – Earlier this month, Saudi Arabia celebrated the graduation of its first-ever cohort of women military recruits, opening the door to a debate on the kingdom’s latest move to narrow the once-gigantic gender gap. In loose and long military fatigues, with their heads and sometimes faces covered […]