Middle East

By Joseph Chamie | (Inter Press Service) | – – NEW YORK (IPS) – It first happened in Italy in 1995. Five years later it happened in six additional countries, Bulgaria, Germany, Greece, Japan, Portugal and Spain. Today the total number of countries where it has occurred stands at 30, including most members of the […]

Israel/ Palestine

Gaza Strip: Blockade Causing an End to Fresh Water Resources

contributors

By IMEMC News | – – International Solidarity Movement | Gaza Team | – – As every year, during the summer, the water shortage in the Gaza Strip is accentuated. At the same time, the energy shortage caused by the blockade prevents engines and water pumps from pushing it from wells and tanks to houses […]

Israel/ Palestine

Google Sparks Outrage by Abolishing Palestine on Maps

contributors

TeleSur | – – Google’s decision to wipe Palestine from its map app and portray the occupied territories as Israel sparks online protest campaign. Journalists and activists have excoriated Google for wiping Palestine completely off its map app, depicting the entire occupied Palestinian territories as part of the state of Israel. The Palestinian Journalists’ Forum […]

Bashar al-Assad

Looming Aleppo Battle indicts both sides of Civil War for breaking Cease-Fire

Juan Cole

By Juan Cole | (Informed Comment) | – – The only thing worse than the new hero status of now-covert al-Qaeda operative Abu Muhammad al-Julani and his Army of Syrian Conquest (ASC) is the news that he plans to subject all of Aleppo. Aleppo is Syria’s largest city, or at least it used to be, […]

Russia

Will Syria Issue derail Turkey-Russia Rapprochement?

contributors

By Abbas Djavadi | ( RFE/RL ) | – – Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan travels to St. Petersburg on August 9 to meet with Russian President Vladimir Putin. They will focus on improving cooperation in two main areas: the effort to find a shared and joint solution to the Syria crisis, and in business […]

Democratic Party

Democrats Are Still Divided on Israel, But Clinton Runs Way to the Right

contributors

By Naomi Dann | Foreign Policy in Focus | (Originally published in Lobelog) Some see Democratic VP pick Tim Kaine as a promising counterbalance to Clinton’s hawkishness. Following Debbie Wasserman-Schultz’s exit as chair of the Democratic Party after the release of emails revealing efforts to undermine Bernie Sanders’s campaign, political analyst Donna Brazile will take […]

Featured

Syria: Key ISIL Smuggling city, Manbij, falls to Kurd-Arab Force

Juan Cole

By Juan Cole | (Informed Comment) | – – The Syrian War is nowhere near over, but the Daesh (ISIS, ISIL) episode may be drawing to an end. Alarabiya reports that the US-backed Syrian Democratic Forces, which is largely leftist Kurds of the YPG but includes a small Arab auxiliary faction, has taken almost all […]

Featured

ISIL Captures Thousands trying to flee it in Iraq, Executes a Dozen

Juan Cole

By Juan Cole | (Informed Comment) | – – The Oman Daily’s Jabbar al-Rubaie reports that Iraqi security sources announced yesterday that Daesh (ISIL, ISIS) had executed a number of the residents of the city of Hawija near Kirkuk in northern Iraq because they attempted to escape the city, over which Daesh holds sway. Hawija […]

Featured

Obama not only did not pay Iran Ransom, he denied Iran Billions it had Coming to It

Juan Cole

By Juan Cole | (Informed Comment) | – – Zack Beauchamp at Vox has a very clear explanation of why the $400 million the US paid to Iran in January was not a ransom for hostages. The fact is that the Obama administration dodged a likely ruling by an arbitration court against the United States […]