Middle East

Tehran (AFP) – Syrian President Bashar al-Assad met Iran’s supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei Monday on his first visit to the Islamic republic since the start of the Syrian conflict. During the meeting, Assad expressed his gratitude to Iran for all that it has done for Syria during the conflict, according to the Syrian presidency’s […]

Middle East

With Trump AWOL, Europe Woos Mideast, fearing Russian & Chinese Dominance

AFP

By Lachlan Carmichael and Menna Zaki in Cairo | – Sharm el Sheikh (AFP) – European and Arab leaders on Sunday opened their first summit in a bid to bolster cooperation as EU President Donald Tusk said neighbours “should not leave it to powers far from our region”, alluding to China and Russia. Host Egyptian […]

Israel/ Palestine

A Teenage War Resister in Israel: An Antiwar Story from the Embattled Middle East

Tomdispatch

By Rory Fanning | – (Tomdispatch.com) – Hilel Garmi’s phone is going straight to voicemail and all I’m hoping is that he’s not back in prison. I’ll soon learn that he is. Prison 6 is a military prison. It’s situated in the Israeli coastal town of Atlit, a short walk from the Mediterranean Sea and […]

Featured

Can AIPAC sell Netanyahu’s Kahanist Terrorists to Middle America?

Juan Cole

Ann Arbor (Informed Comment) – American television news, having fainted with the vapors at the very idea that Rep. Ilhan Omar (D-MN) might openly say that the American Israel Public Affairs Committee is a lobby for Israel that directs money to the campaigns of American politicians, has abruptly fallen silent on the issue of Israel’s […]

Bernie Sanders

Bernie Sanders returns Palestine to the Center of Political Debate in the US

Middle East Monitor

By Ray Hanania | – Last month, leading Israeli journalist Tal Schneider told a teleconference hosted by Americans for Peace Now that the issue of the occupation and Palestinian rights has almost vanished from the Israeli political conversation. In previous years, it loomed heavy over nearly every election campaign. The shift in Israeli politics has […]

Israel/ Palestine

Israeli Snipers Kill 15-year-old Peaceful Protester, Wound 41, as Crowds Mourn

Maan News Agency

GAZA CITY (Ma’an) — A Palestinian teen who was shot and killed by Israeli forces during protests weekly at the eastern borders of the besieged Gaza Strip, was laid to rest in Gaza City, on Saturday. The funeral procession of Youssef al-Dayeh, 15, set off from the al-Shifa Hospital in western Gaza City, towards his […]

Featured

Leftist Syrian Kurds Rejoice that Trump will Keep Hundreds of US Troops in Syria

Juan Cole

Ann Arbor (Informed Comment) – The left wing Democratic Union Party of Kurds in Northeast Syria and its paramilitary, the People’s Protection Units (YPG), warmly welcomed President Trump’s about-face and decision to keep at least 200 US troops in Syria on Friday. A YPG militia commander said that this American step “will prevent the region […]

Saudi Arabia

Who Was Behind the Plan to Give Saudi Arabia Nuclear Power, and What Was Their Agenda? — “Trump, Inc.” Extra

ProPublica

By Charles Herman (Propublica) – For a year, “Trump, Inc.” has been digging into the 2017 inauguration. That reporting led us to look closely at the man Donald Trump picked to run the event, Tom Barrack, a wealthy businessman who’s been friends with Trump for decades. As we were finishing our Barrack episode — just […]

Israel/ Palestine

The Escalation of Israeli Collective Punishment of Palestinians

Al-Shabaka

by Nada Awad | – The Israeli authorities forcibly transferred Palestinian Nadia Abu Jamal from Jerusalem in 2017, following the demolition of her family home in 2015. Israel’s National Insurance Institute also revoked healthcare and other social security entitlements from Abu Jamal’s three children, two of whom suffer from chronic medical conditions. The orders came […]