Middle East

Eylon Aslan-Levy | – – “THE RUNDOWN | With injuries and fatalities mounting on the #Gaza border with #Israel, some NGOs are standing up to the IDF. The #IDF, however, is saying they’ve been duped by Hamas. Our Eylon Aslan-Levy has the story.” i24News: “NGOs Stand Up to IDF Amid Gaza Protest Casualties”

Arms Sales

Saudi Arabia world’s 3rd highest military spender but 41st in World Population

Middle East Monitor

Saudi Arabia has ranked third across the world with military spending which reached $69.4 billion in 2017. It replaces Russia, the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (SIPRI) said in a new report on Wednesday. According to the report, military spending across the world has increased by 1.1 percent in 2017 compared to the previous year […]

Antisemitism

Palestinian president widely condemned for ‘anti-Semitic’ comments

AFP

By Jean-Luc Renaudie | – – Jerusalem (AFP) – Palestinian president Mahmud Abbas drew widespread condemnation Wednesday, including from the European Union and the United States, over alleged anti-Semitic comments suggesting the “social function” of Jews in banking had led to past massacres. The 82-year-old Abbas made the comments during a free-wheeling speech that led […]

Iran

Netanyahu’s Theatrics backfire, making the case for Iran deal

Meysam Tayebipour

Benjamin Netanyahu created a global media storm when he announced ownership of new documents that would question Iran’s nuclear deal. Twitter feeds were full of conjecture debating what he would reveal – most probably some information showing Iran had continued its nuclear activities clandestinely after the nuclear deal had been reached between Iran and the […]

Elections

How Troll Farms & Fake News are being Weaponized against Iraq’s Women Politicians

Niqash

Special Correspondent | Niqash.org | – – (Baghdad) As Iraqi elections near, the epidemic of disturbing and divisive fake news on local social media only gets worse. But who exactly is behind it? And are they motivated by profit, popularity or a political agenda? Last week, a rumour swept social media in Iraq: The authorities […]

Featured

Netanyahu: Don’t look here where we’re shooting children, look over there at Iran

Juan Cole

Israeli Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu, a notorious warmonger, serial liar and supremacist racialist who used to lead the closest thing Israel has to a fascist party until parties even more extreme got elected to parliament, is attempting to bamboozle the clueless Trump into getting on a war footing with Iran. Netanyahu’s breathless announcement that there […]

Displaced and Refugees

Why is Israel Summarily Expelling Tens of Thousands of African Refugees?

Howard Adelman

This past November, Israel announced that it had arranged to relocate 38,000 Eritrean and Sudanese refugee claimants to an African nation — widely rumoured to be Rwanda and perhaps Uganda. The internment camp at Holo[t] would be closed. Israel claims that the vast majority are illegal migrants or, as Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu calls them, […]

Israel/ Palestine

Saudi Crown Prince to Palestinians: Accept US/Israeli Apartheid Plan or Shut up

Maan News Agency

BETHLEHEM (Ma’an) — Saudi Arabia’s crown prince, Mohammed bin Salman reportedly told a collection of Jewish leaders that Palestinian leadership have no choice but to accept Donald Trump’s ‘peace’ proposal, according to Israeli media. The meeting took place behind closed doors in New York last month, where Mohammed bin Salman (MBS) disapproved of the leadership […]

Featured

Why is Pompeo Suddenly against Saudi Arabia’s War on Yemen?

Juan Cole

According to a State Department leak to the New York Times, Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, when he was in Riyadh on Saturday, pressured the Saudi government to wind up the war in Yemen. If this report is true, it is puzzling. In contrast, Secretary of Defense James Mattis has urged President Trump to stay […]