Middle East

By Andrew J. Bacevich | ( Tomdispatch.com) | – – Dear Mr. Sulzberger: Congratulations on assuming the reins of this nation’s — and arguably, the world’s — most influential publication. It’s the family business, of course, so your appointment to succeed your father doesn’t exactly qualify as a surprise. Even so, the responsibility for guiding […]

Israel/ Palestine

Rights group says Past Year was the worst year in Gaza’s history

contributors

Middle East Monitor | – – The Director of Al-Mezan Centre for Human Rights said on Sunday that 2017 was the worst year in the history of the Gaza Strip in terms of political, economic, cultural, social and health conditions, Felesteen.ps has reported. Issam Younis told journalists in the besieged territory that the coming days […]

Featured

Turkey takes Afrin, pulls down Statue Now-Ruz Revolutionary Kaveh

Juan Cole

By Juan Cole | (Informed Comment) | – – Tuesday, March 20, is the spring equinox this year. Iranians, Kurds, Central Asians and many in Pakistan and India celebrate the equinox as the New Year, which after all makes a lot more sense than starting it in the dead of winter. Spring is symbolically the […]

astronomy and outer space

A Prototype Mars Colony in the Middle East: Dubai’s Mushrif Park

contributors

Middle East Monitor | – – The United Arab Emirates continues to build the world’s largest space city at a cost of $136 million, Director General of UAE Space Agency, Dr. Mohammed Nasir al-Ahbabi said. Dr. Al- Ahbabi posted on Twitter that the city is a viable prototype that can be replicated on Mars which […]

Featured

Thousands flee E. Ghouta as Regime Army Advances, Rebels ask for Talks

Juan Cole

By Juan Cole | (Informed Comment) | – – Thousands of civilians fled the southern pocket of the East Ghouta suburb of Damascus on Thursday and Friday and Saturday, carrying what few belongings they could with them. The rate seems to have been about 10,000 people a day until today. Russian sources are saying 11,000 […]

Israel/ Palestine

Israel’s new Jewish state bill ‘institutionalising the apartheid regime’

contributors

Middle East Monitor | – – The Israeli Knesset is fast tracking a “nation-state bill” which opposition groups have denounced as “institutionalising the apartheid regime”. Knesset members approved the final draft of the bill defining Israel exclusively as a nation for Jews. The “Zionism’s flagship bill”, as it’s been described by Israeli politicians, will permit […]

Donald Trump

Pompeo’s rise at State will make Mideast war more likely

contributors

By Gregory Aftandilian | (The Conversation) | – – After U.S. president Donald Trump fired his secretary of state, Rex Tillerson, many analysts have focused on how this high-level ouster took place: unceremoniously, on Twitter, not in a face-to-face meeting. As a former Middle East analyst at the State Department, though, I think the real […]

Donald Trump

Did United Arab Emirates lobbying instigate Tillerson’s sacking?

contributors

Middle East Monitor | – – US President Donald Trump has sacked Secretary of State Rex Tillerson, one week after the BBC obtained emails revealing efforts by the UAE to have him sacked at “a politically convenient time.” Was this an unlikely coincidence? Should Americans not wake up to the power of lobby groups that […]

Donald Trump

Pompeo, Big Oil and the attack on Iran Deal

Juan Cole

By Juan Cole | (Informed Comment) | – – All you need to know about Mike Pompeo, the four-term congressman from Kansas who is actually from California, is that most of his life he has been in business with the Koch brothers. His appointment as Secretary of State puts a seal on Trump’s withdrawal from […]