Middle East

By Reese Erlich | (The Progressive) | – – When President Barack Obama started bombing Syria in 2014, he enjoyed bipartisan support in Washington, D.C. Americans were appalled by the atrocities of the Islamic State, which had massacred Yazidis, and seized swaths of territory in Syria and Iraq. At the time I warned that, […]

Featured

Syria: War is over at the Center, but Powers nibbling at Edges

Juan Cole

By Juan Cole | (Informed Comment) | – – Where people live and how many of them there are constitute basic questions for any social scientist but these basics are often ignored by the writers of headlines in the press. There is a rash of articles about how Syria’s war is heating back up. It […]

Israel

Joining BDS, Israeli Gov’t to Boycott Israeli Film in Paris

contributors

Middle East Monitor | – – The Israeli government is to boycott the Paris Film Festival over the organiser’s decision to air a movie that is said to “hurt the reputation of Israel’s military”. Culture Minister, Miri Regev, is said to be on a mission to stop the film “Foxtrot” gaining wide recognition. The Israeli […]

censorship

Robots, kittens and Netflix: Turkish curbs on the media reach ludicrous levels

Juan Cole

By Ozge Ozduzen | (The Conversation) | – – Regulation and censorship mechanisms have recently reached absurd levels in Turkey. Two stark recent examples illustrate the banality of the recent creeping controls. On February 6, a robot was reformatted in Ankara because it warned the Turkish Transport, Maritime and Communications Minister Ahmet Arslan to speak […]

Israel/ Palestine

‘Fake News!’: the view from Israel’s Occupation

contributors

By Rebecca L. Stein | (OpenDemocracy.net | – – Over the course of the last two decades, amidst the ascendance of nationalist extremism in Israel, the fraudulence charge has grown ever stronger among the Jewish right-wing public. Screenshot Facebook post by Prime Minister of Israel, May 7, 2017. Among the numerous ideological affinities and governing […]

Featured

Russia warns Israel on Syria strikes, danger to Russian Troops

Juan Cole

By Juan Cole | (Informed Comment) | – – BBC Monitoring reports on a statement in Russian at the site of its Ministry of Foreign Affairs, reacting to the Israeli air attacks on Syria and the shoot-down by the Syrians of one Israeli fighter-jet. The Foreign ministry expressed “serious concern” over the Israeli air strikes, […]

Bahrain

Bahrain is even Deporting its own Citizens (Shh, don’t Tell Trump)

contributors

Human Rights Watch | – – (Beirut) – Bahraini authorities have deported eight stateless Bahrainis, whom they had previously stripped of their citizenship, since January 29, 2018, Human Rights Watch said today. The deportations followed an appeals court decision to uphold a 2012 ruling that ordered the deportation and stripping of citizenship of nine Bahraini […]

Kurds

Turkish Helicopter Downed by Syrian People’s Protection Units

contributors

TeleSur | – – The Turkish military launched an offensive against Kurdish-held Afrin region over three weeks ago. Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan has reported the downing of a Turkish military helicopter in Syria. Speaking to members of his Justice and Development Party (AK Party) on Saturday Erdogan said “these things will happen, we are in […]

Israel/ Palestine

Severe Humanitarian Crisis in Occupied Palestine looms with Trump Cuts

contributors

IMEMC | – – AIDA, an International non-governmental organization (INGO) coordination body consisting of more than 70 of such organizations working in the occupied Palestinian territory (oPt), expressed alarm at the United States government’s recent decision to politicize its assistance to millions of Palestinian refugees. Reducing funding to UNRWA, the UN agency whose primary mandate […]