Middle East

By Oraib Al-Rantawi | – ( Middle East Monitor) – Just one drop will be enough for the cup of tension between the US and Iran in Iraq and the Gulf to overflow. Everyone’s fingers are on the trigger as each side accuses the other of preparing to launch a pre-emptive strike; any sense of […]

Brazil

How the son of a Lebanese Migrant and Street Sweeper became Brazil’s first Muslim Federal Judge

Middle East Monitor

By Eman Abusidu | – ( Middle East Monitor ) – Ali Mazloum is one of millions of migrants whose story illustrates the determination and success of so many Lebanese refugees. When his father Mohammed arrived in Brazil in 1950, he could never have known that his son would one day become a federal judge. […]

Arab Spring

Already a New Boss in Town: Saudis, afraid of Biden, Hurry to End their Blockade on Qatar

Juan Cole

Ann Arbor (Informed Comment) – Saudi Arabia announced Monday that it would lift its land and sea blockade against Qatar, and that Bahrain and the United Arab Emirates (the UAE) would allow Qatari aircraft to fly through their air space again. Saudi Arabia, the UAE, Bahrain and Egypt announced their boycott on the small peninsula […]

Authoritarianism

Turkey: Bill on ‘Preventing Terrorism’ actually Targets Freedom of Association, Civil Society

Human Rights Watch

( Human Rights Watch ) – (Istanbul) – The Turkish government should withdraw provisions in a draft law that would arbitrarily curtail nongovernmental organizations’ activities and have the potential to violate the right to freedom of association, Human Rights Watch said today. Parliament was due to vote on the law on December 24, 2020. The […]

Israel/ Palestine

With Raft of Normalizations with Israel, Everything changed for Palestinians this Past Year . . . but They’re still Occupied

Middle East Monitor

By Anjuman Rahman | – ( Middle East Monitor) – Landmark developments seem to have changed everything and nothing for Palestine this past year. The flurry of normalisation deals is one of them and arguably the most significant. In advance of the US presidential election and the possibility of these being his final months in […]

Donald Trump

Trump and Iran in Last 17 Days: Will they or Won’t They?

Juan Cole

Ann Arbor (Informed Comment) – There is a lot of buzz inside the Beltway, most of it generated inside the Beltway, about possible hostilities between Iran and the Trump administration in the Mad President’s last 17 days in office. Some of this buzz is around today’s January 3rd, 2020, anniversary of Trump’s assassination of Gen. […]

Displaced and Refugees

The Apartheid Pandemic: As 10% of Israelis get Covid Vaccine, Zero Occupied Palestinians have– Will wait Months

Juan Cole

Ann Arbor (Informed Comment) – Some ten percent of Israelis have already been given the coronavirus shot, showing what an efficient government can do for its citizens with the right medical and administrative infrastructure. The Trump administration has not been able to ramp up the actual shots in arms, despite shipping millions of doses of […]

Displaced and Refugees

In Iraq, Syria, Lebanon and Palestinian territories: Refugee camps contain the hidden victims of Covid-19

Ramzy Baroud

( Middle East Monitor) – With the onset of the Covid-19 pandemic in late 2019, interest in the plight of the world’s most vulnerable populations, refugees, began to wane. A year later, and it is as if the refugee crisis has disappeared completely. It hasn’t, though. In fact, the world’s erstwhile leading humanitarian crisis has […]

Epidemics

‘So Frustrated’: Iranians’ Fears Skyrocket That They Won’t Get Access To COVID-19 Vaccines

Golnaz Esfandiari

( RFE/ RL ) – Amid the launch of mass COVID-19 vaccination drives in the West, there’s growing concern among Iranians that they could be left behind. They fear U.S. sanctions and what some regard as the Iranian clerical establishment’s failure to prioritize the well-being of its citizens. Iranians, including health workers, have taken to […]