Middle East

By Juan Cole | (Informed Comment) | – – After his critical comments in an interview in The Atlantic last month, Barack Obama’s visit to Saudi Arabia is going to be awkward, as DPA rightly says. The president accused the Gulf states of always trying to push the US into war for the accomplishment of […]

Featured

Top 7 Reasons Israel must give back the Occupied Golan to Syria

Juan Cole

By Juan Cole | (Informed Comment) | – – The far right wing regime of Binyamin Netanyahu pulled the stunt of holding its first cabinet meeting in the Occupied Golan Heights on Sunday, and Netanyahu engaged in some grandstanding, declaring that Israel will never relinquish this patch of Syria. Israeli propaganda maintains that Israel is […]

Israel/ Palestine

Israel has Kidnapped (“Detained”) a million Palestinians since 1967: Occupation as Imprisonment

contributors

By Saed Bannoura | (IMEMC) | – – The Palestinian Detainees’ Committee and the Palestinian Prisoners’ Society (PPS) have reported that Israeli soldiers have kidnapped around 1.000.000 Palestinians, including tens of thousands of women and children, since occupying the West Bank, the Gaza Strip and East Jerusalem in 1967. Two detainees died in 2015 due […]

Egypt

What’s behind Egyptian Protests over Islands given to Saudi Arabia?

contributors

By Ebrahim Shabbir Deen | (Informed Comment) | – – The recent return of the islands of Tiran and Sanafir to Saudi Arabia by the Egyptian government signals that the Sisi regime remains in need of external support to buttress its domestic control. The complex nature of the negotiations, and the islands importance to Israel […]

al-Qaeda

Saudis warn they will withdraw $750 Bn. from US economy if 9/11 Bill Passes

contributors

TeleSur | – – The Saudis threatened selling off almost a trillion dollars in U.S. assets if Congress makes it legal to hold Saudi citizens accountable for 9/11. Saudi Arabia has threatened the United States with economic reprisals should the U.S. pass a law allowing for its citizens to hold the oil-rich kingdom responsible for […]

Israel/ Palestine

Israel has detained 43 Journalists since October in Palestine, incl. 2 Westerners

contributors

Ma’an News Agency | – – GAZA (Ma’an) — The Committee to Support Palestinian Journalists said on Saturday that Israel has detained 43 journalists in the occupied Palestinian territory since October 2015, including two foreign reporters. The New York-based committee said in a report that during detention and imprisonment, journalists have reported torture, medical negligence, […]

Arab Spring

Thousands protest Gov’t in Egypt over Saudi Hegemony

Juan Cole

By Juan Cole | (Informed Comment) | – – Thousands of Egyptians came into the streets Friday in the first major demonstrations in 2 and a half years, to protest the bestowal of the islands of Tiran and Sanafir on Saudi Arabia. Many Egyptians believe that the islands belong to Egypt, and it is unconstitutional […]

Israel/ Palestine

Israeli Parliamentary committee debates racial discrimination in maternity wards

contributors

Ma’an News Agency | – – BETHLEHEM (Ma’an) — A meeting of a Knesset committee held Wednesday debated the issue of segregation between Palestinian and Jewish women in Israeli maternity wards, following media reports and allegations of racial discrimination in Israel’s hospitals, according to a Knesset press release. A recent report by Israel Radio exposed […]

Iraq

Daesh and Territorial Control Reconsidered

contributors

By Michael Degerald | ( History X ISIS ) | – – It might seem strange to open this essay by speaking about circulation and vitality in regard to Daesh [ISIS, ISIL]. Yet when we think of a nation-state, circulation is rarely the first thing that comes to our minds. Imagine a room where air […]