Middle East

By Anjuman Rahman | – ( Middle East Monitor ) – Violence has become a permanent feature of Ramadan for the people of occupied Palestine. The first day of the fasting month this year began with the Israeli army breaking locks and cutting the wires to the loudspeakers at Al-Aqsa Mosque in Jerusalem to silence […]

Featured

How Biden Enabled Israeli Ethnic Cleansing of Palestinian E. Jerusalem by affirming Trump move of US Embassy There

Juan Cole

Ann Arbor (Informed Comment) – The post of U.S. ambassador to Israel is still vacant, but the charge d’affaires, Jonathan Shrier, sent over some objections to caretaker Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu last month complaining about the Israeli construction of squatter settlements on Palestinian land in East Jerusalem. The “Green Line” that separates Israel within 1948 […]

Saudi Arabia

With 50K Yemenis starving to death and 3 mn displaced by War, Western Gov’ts still Back Saudi War

Helen Lackner

( OpenDemocracy.net ) – Two months ago, with the war in Yemen entering its seventh year, the UN secretary general, in his appeal to funders at the annual pledging conference, reminded everyone that “More than 16 million people [in the country] are expected to go hungry this year. Nearly 50,000 Yemenis are already starving to […]

Featured

90K Palestinians force Israeli Security to back down, allow them to Pray in Jerusalem, as nearly 100 are injured Protesting Ethnic Cleansing

Juan Cole

Ann Arbor (Informed Comment) – Al Jazeera reports that despite the Israeli security forces’ attack on worshipers at al-Aqsa Mosque on Friday evening, some 90,000 came back for special evening prayers on Saturday. Initially, the Israeli forces had intended to prevent the worshipers from arriving there from the West Bank, but given the violence they […]

Iran

A Thaw in Coldest of Mideast Cold Wars? Saudi Arabia is suddenly talking to Iran

Middle East Monitor

By Omid Shokri | – ( Middle East Monitor) – Relations between Iran and Saudi Arabia have been strained in recent years. Both countries pursue conflicting interests in particular issues in the region with a specific ideology in foreign policy. The two countries are rivals not only in the Islamic world and the region, but […]

Featured

Not “Clashes”: Israeli Security Wounds Nearly 200 Palestinians in Ongoing Ethnic Cleansing Campaign at 3rd Holiest Islamic Site

Juan Cole

Ann Arbor (Informed Comment) – Diya’ Hajj Yahya of Arab 48 reports that at least 180 Palestinians were injured Friday night by Israeli security forces in their crackdown on worshipers at the al-Aqsa Mosque, the third holiest shrine for the world’s 1.8 billion Muslims. The US press and television news, where they report the events […]

Israel/ Palestine

Why Human Rights Watch Designating Israel’s Crimes as Apartheid Is a Very Big Deal

Phyllis Bennis

By Phyllis Bennis | – ( Commondreams ) – Human Rights Watch is the best-known and arguably the most influential among Washington elites of any of the many human rights organizations in the United States. So when HRW issues an unsparing, 200-plus page legal and factual report concluding that Israeli government authorities are guilty of […]

Arab World

Middle Eastern monarchies: how do Arab ruling families hold on to power?

The Conversation

By David B Roberts | – When the Jordanian royal family gathered on April 11 to celebrate 100 years since the kingdom’s foundation, it was a picture of dynastic unity. Alongside King Abdullah was his half-brother, the former crown prince Hamzah bin al-Hussein, who had only days ago been placed under house arrest, following what […]

Authoritarianism

Chickens coming home to Roost: Liz Cheney’s Father Pioneered the GOP Big Lie and Authoritarian Tactics in Iraq War

Juan Cole

Ann Arbor (Informed Comment) – Rep. Liz Cheney has emerged as a voice for truth-telling in Trump’s Republican Party, standing up to the Big Lie that Trump won the 2020 election and denouncing her fellow representatives who sought to prevent the certification of Joe Biden’s victory and who thus helped provoke the Capitol Insurgency. Cheney […]