Middle East

By Juan Cole | (Informed Comment) | – – Note: Apparently the Trump administration at Israeli urging threatened to defund the UN if this report was not withdrawn. The UN Secretary-General caved, and the executive director of ESCWA (who was also an under-secretary general of the UN), Rima Khalaf, has resigned. The legal case built […]

Hizbullah

Israeli Pol threatens Crimes against Humanity in Lebanon

contributors

TeleSur | – – A far-right Israeli minister said Lebanese civilians must be direct targets in a future war over Hezbollah’s rising political sway in Lebanon. The next war Israel will launch against Lebanon must take the country back to the “Middle Ages” and should target civilians in the country, far-right Israeli Education Minister Naftali […]

Climate Change

Trump & Saudi Arabia: Oil Boycott or Bromance?

Juan Cole

By Juan Cole | (Informed Comment) | – – Trump is meeting this week with Muhammad bin Salman, the deputy heir apparent of the Saudi Arabian throne and the minister of defense. He had lunch with him at the White House on Tuesday, and will have more extended talks on Thursday, according to white House […]

Israel/ Palestine

Israel’s Natural Gas war on Palestinians

contributors

Ma’an News Agency | – – Israel’s occupation of Palestinian territory does not only exist above ground. Since 1967, Israel has systematically colonized Palestinian natural resources and, in the field of hydrocarbons, has prevented Palestinians from accessing their own oil and gas reserves. Such restrictions have ensured the continued dependence of Palestinians on Israel for […]

Featured

Is Russia trying to take back over Libya from NATO, Radicals?

Juan Cole

By Juan Cole | (Informed Comment) | – – Reuters is reporting that some 22 Russian special operations forces have set up a base in Western Egypt near the Libyan border in preparation for an intervention in Libya. Other recent reports have suggested that Russian mercenaries have been active in eastern Libya. The Russian government […]

Arab World

New Scientific Evidence that Middle East may become Uninhabitable

contributors

By Baher Kamal | (Inter Press Service) | – – ROME (IPS) – New evidence is deepening scientific fears, advanced few years ago, that the Middle East and North Africa risk becoming uninhabitable in a few decades, as accessible fresh water has fallen by two-thirds over the past 40 years. The water table is falling […]

Israel/ Palestine

Banksy hotel opens in Bethlehem, eliciting heated reactions by Palestinians

contributors

By Jaclynn Ashly and Reem Alqam | (Ma’an News Agency) | – – BETHLEHEM (Ma’an) — Israel’s infamous separation wall in the occupied West Bank, while cutting off Palestinians from their lands and religious sites, isolating communities, and eroding the livelihood of scores of Palestinians along its route, has become an unlikely breeding ground for […]

al Qaeda in the Arabian Penisula

Under Trump, More Coalition Strikes on Yemen in a Week than in a Year under Obama

contributors

TeleSur | – – More drone and airstrikes have rained on Yemen in the past week than in any year of Barack Obama’s administration, with dozens of U.S. coalition airstrikes hitting schools, hospitals, markets and private homes. The strikes have reportedly targeted Al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula, AQAP, yet also killed civilians, including at […]

Israel/ Palestine

Israeli forces detain Palestinian writer over new novel

contributors

Ma’an News Agency | – – JERUSALEM (Ma’an) — Israeli forces detained Palestinian writer Khalida Ghusheh on Saturday morning after raiding her home in the neighborhood of Beit Hanina in occupied East Jerusalem. Ghusheh’s manager, Amani Abd al-Karim, said that Israeli police had raided Ghusheh’s home, before detaining her and transporting her to a police […]