Middle East

By Mustafa Fetouri | – Is Saudi Arabia losing its military campaign in Yemen despite being the stronger party enjoying the support of its many allies? The Saudi-led coalition includes countries like Egypt, Bahrain, Kuwait, the United Arab Emirates, Sudan, Jordan and Morocco, as well as Qatar before it fell out with Riyadh. Major countries […]

Haredim

The Fall of Netanyahu’s Government is a Struggle over the Meaning of Jewishness, not just a Power Play

The Conversation

By Joyce Dalsheim | – Benjamin Netanyahu has hit a snag that could derail his chances of becoming the longest-serving prime minister in the history of Israel. Netanyahu failed to form a governing coalition and dissolved parliament on May 29. That means Israel must hold fresh elections, which are scheduled for Sept. 17. Netanyahu is […]

Featured

Why Israeli Gov’t May Fall: Like US, Secularists and Fundamentalists are Polarized

Juan Cole

Ann Arbor (Informed Comment) – We’ll know later today whether prime minister Binyamin Netanyahu will succeed in forming a government. If not, Israel will have snap elections in September. In parliamentary systems, coalitions are often made after the election. In the US, the two big parties have already made their coalitions before the election. The […]

Israel/ Palestine

Israeli Army Accused Palestinians of self-arson, Then Video emerged of Israelis setting Fires

Middle East Monitor

Israeli human rights organisation B’Tselem has released a video showing illegal Israeli settlers setting fire to fields in the occupied West Bank, contradicting the Israeli army’s claim that the blaze was started by Palestinians. The Spokesperson’s Unit of the Israeli army was yesterday forced to change its original statement, in which it claimed to have […]

Featured

If Trump really only wants ‘No Iranian Nukes,’ then he should just rejoin the Nuclear Deal

Juan Cole

Ann Arbor (Informed Comment) – Trump said in Japan that he is not looking for regime change in Iran. Trump said at a news conference with Japanese Prime Minister ABE Shinzo, “We aren’t looking for regime change – I just want to make that clear. We are looking for no nuclear weapons. I really believe […]

Israel/ Palestine

Why Young Jews are Detouring from Israel to Palestine

Yes! Magazine

By Lornet Turnbull | – (Yes! Magazine ) – Some are using Birthright trips to draw attention to the Israeli occupation, its policy of oppression, and the call for a two-state solution. Sarah Brammer-Shlay is a rabbinical student in Philadelphia. She’s also an activist, part of a growing movement of young American Jews working to […]

Algeria

Veiling and Revolutions: From Algeria to Sudan

Open Democracy

By Ouissal Harize | – (OpenDemcocracy) – With women leading revolutions in Sudan and Algeria, it is natural to wonder again, will Arab uprisings be finished by women? In his famous essay, ‘Algeria Unveiled’, Frantz Fanon (1959, p. 35) writes: ‘The way people clothe themselves, together with the traditions of dress and finery that custom […]

Featured

Yemen: On Memorial Day, Remember the 233,000 Dead in US-Backed Saudi War

Juan Cole

Ann Arbor (Informed Comment) – Memorial Day should be rethought, as a day to mourn the death and destruction caused by war. Trump is using a legal loophole to declare an emergency in the Gulf and sell Saudi Arabia and its allies $8 billion in weaponry despite the opposition of Congress. Both houses of Congress […]

Iran

Would Israelis & Saudis be Targets in any Trump-Iran Conflict?

Middle East Monitor

By Maysam Behravesh | @behmash | – Although neither the United States nor Iran want war, tensions and along with them the likelihood of conflict-triggering miscalculations and accidents, have been running high since the Trump administration designated the Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC) a terrorist organisation and revoked sanctions waivers for buyers of Iranian oil. […]