Middle East

Ann Arbor (Informed Comment) – The FBI released documents from its investigation of ties of personnel at the Saudi embassy in Washington, D.C., to al-Qaeda. The Saudi government was not behind the September 11 attacks, and these documents don’t indicate that it was. The Saudis are heavily invested in the U.S. stock market, and it […]

Children

The Palestinian scramble to earn a living in Israeli-Occupied Gaza starts at school age

Juan Cole

By Motasem A Dalloul | – ( Middle East Monitor ) – The start of the new school year in the besieged Gaza Strip saw just under 300,000 students aged between six and 17 turn up for classes; more than 20,000 are attending school for the first time, often in overcrowded classrooms. Despite the difficult […]

Bush

The Accumulated Evil of the Whole: That time Bush and Co. made the September 11 Attacks a Pretext for War on Iraq

Juan Cole

Ann Arbor (Informed Comment) – Kyle Swenson at the Washington Post reported in 2018 that Floridian Ishnar Lopez-Ramos was in love, but her intended only had eyes for another woman. So Ms. Lopez-Ramos enlisted two 22-year-old accomplices to target the other woman, who worked at the Ross Dress for Less at a shopping Center near […]

Afghanistan

September 11 and the Debacle of ‘Nation-Building’ in Iraq and Afghanistan

Foreign Policy in Focus

By Walden Bello | – ( Foreign Policy in Focus ) – In one of his interviews before the Taliban retook Afghanistan, John Bolton, Trump’s former national security adviser, blamed the American failure in Afghanistan on a change in Washington’s mission from anti-terrorism to “nation building.” In his view, Washington should just have held strategic […]

Israel/ Palestine

Palestinian Prisoners take hope from emptying of South African Apartheid Jails

Middle East Monitor

By Alie Komape | – ( Middle East Monitor ) – When you do an online search for South Africa’s Robben Island, one of the suggested words used is “escapes”. It is obviously a common research topic. Robben Island was the site of a prison for those who resisted colonial rule going back centuries. Early […]

Afghanistan

How Can America Wake Up From Its Post-9/11 Nightmare?

Medea Benjamin and Ariel Gold

By Medea Benjamin and Nicolas J. S. Davies | – ( Code Pink | – Looking back on it now, the 1990s were an age of innocence for America. The Cold War was over and our leaders promised us a “peace dividend.” There was no TSA to make us take off our shoes at airports […]

Epidemics

Israel was a leader in the COVID vaccination race – so why are cases spiralling there?

The Conversation

By Michael Head | – Israel has been one of the focal points of the pandemic in 2021 owing to its rapid rollout of COVID-19 vaccines. By late February, authorities had administered at least one dose to 50% of the population, with much of Israel’s immunisation programme using Pfizer vaccines. Society then in effect reopened […]

Israel/ Palestine

Israeli Soldiers have Killed 73 Palestinian Children this Year: When will the Siege of Civilians in Gaza End?

Asa Winstanley

( Middle East Monitor) – So much for the Israeli army supposedly wanting to “reduce” the number of Palestinians it shoots. An Israeli soldier shot and killed another Palestinian child in the besieged Gaza Strip on 21 August. Omar Hasan Abu Al-Nil was just 13. The boy succumbed to his wounds last Saturday. According to […]

Arab World

Don’t Compare Texas Abortion law to Islamic Law: Most Muslims are and have been More Liberal

Juan Cole

Ann Arbor (Informed Comment) – The Texas “heartbeat law” banning abortion after six weeks has prompted comparisons of Texas evangelicals to Afghanistan’s Taliban. There is a resemblance globally of religious-Right movements on women’s issues, since religious conservatism is usually patriarchal and aims at controlling women. If, however, the comparison is between Christianity and Islam in […]