Middle East

The Biden Administration is back to calling Palestinians ‘Occupied,’ but can’t see them being Colonized

( Middle East Monitor) – In another move that shows US President Joe Biden is navigating between the Trump administration’s era and the return to the two-state politics, the US State Department’s 2020 Country Reports on Human Rights presented two facets of the current administration’s policy. The title reads, as it did during former US […]

Egypt

Suez canal: what the ‘ditch’ meant to the British empire in the 19th century

The Conversation

By Jonathan Parry | – The week-long blockage of the Suez canal by the Ever Given container ship has reminded us that the canal, though immensely important to the world’s commerce, is also very vulnerable. Since its completion in 1869, it has symbolised global interconnectedness. But it has also demonstrated how fears, rivalries and bottlenecks […]

Egypt

Egypt’s Sisi threatens ‘Instability that no one Can Imagine”: Will the Next Mideast War be over Water?

Juan Cole

Ann Arbor (Informed Comment) – The closure of the Suez Canal for a week by the Ultra Large Container Ship, the Ever Given, signaled the importance to world commerce and energy supplies of the canal, through which some 12 percent of world trade passes. Another danger to that world artery, which connects the Indian Ocean […]

Haredim

Israel’s Latest Election produces no Clear Winner, except the far Right and the Occupation

Ramzy Baroud

( Middle East Monitor ) – A “major setback” was the recurring theme in many news headlines reporting on the outcome of Israel’s General Election last week. While this referred specifically to Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s failure to secure a decisive victory in the country’s fourth election in two years, it is only part of […]

Haredim

Israeli election: Fundamentalist Mansour Abbas emerges as possible first Muslim kingmaker in nation’s history

The Conversation

By John Strawson | – For Israel, this has been the “no change, all change” election. No change in that the result appears inconclusive – just like the three previous elections. It’s also all change, as we are seeing the beginnings of the political normalisation between Jews and Arabs for the first time since the […]

Israel/ Palestine

Jewish Nat’l Fund Lawsuit against Palestinian Rights Advocacy in US Slapped down by Federal Judge on First Amendment Grounds

contributors

U.S. Federal Judge Dismisses Lawsuit Filed by Jewish National Fund Against Palestinian Rights Nonprofit Contact: press@ccrjustice.org Lawsuit “Not Persuasive,” Judge Rules ( Center for Constitutional Rights) – March 30, 2021, Washington, D.C. – A federal judge dismissed a lawsuit filed by the Jewish National Fund (JNF) and others against a U.S.-based Palestinian rights organization. The […]

Egypt

How the Imperial past set the Stage for Nile Dam Conflicts between Egypt, Sudan and Ethiopia

The Conversation

By Mahemud Tekuya | – Ever since construction began a decade ago, there’s been serious contention between Ethiopia, Egypt and Sudan over the Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam (GERD), a huge project straddling the Blue Nile in Ethiopia. For Ethiopia, the project is meant to offer a solution to its severe power problem, providing electricity access […]

Egypt

Nawal El Saadawi: Egypt’s grand novelist, physician and global activist

The Conversation

By Adele Newson-Horst | – Egyptian novelist, physician, sociologist and global activist Nawal El Saadawi died on 21 March 2021 at the age of 89. The author of more than 50 books, she told me in one of our many interviews, in 2007, that she self-identified as an African from Egypt, not from the Middle […]

China

Biggest East Asian move into Mideast since the Mongol Empire: In Open Challenge to US, China inks 25-year, $400 bn Deal with Iran

Juan Cole

Ann Arbor (Informed Comment) – On Saturday, IRNA reports, Iran and China signed a 25-year cooperation agreement. The signatures were affixed in Tehran by Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif and the Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi at a ceremony on the 50th anniversary of the establishment of modern diplomatic relations between Iran and China. […]