Middle East

By Juan Cole | (Informed Comment) | – – Saudi Arabia’s King Salman is visiting Turkey today, after his trip to Egypt this past weekend (I wrote about that at The Nation). There are things that have driven Saudi Arabia and Turkey apart, and things that have brought them together again. The tensions center on […]

Human Rights

Syria won’t have Peace until there is Accountability for War Crimes

contributors

By Neil Sammonds | (Inter Press Service) | – – GENEVA (IPS) – The negotiations on April 11, 2016 in Geneva and the recent reduction of hostilities in Syria may represent important steps towards a peaceful solution to more than five years of turmoil. Few would not welcome the guns falling silent once and for […]

Israel/ Palestine

Israeli Police, going into Palestinian West Bank, Detain & Abuse Children

contributors

Human Rights Watch | – – (Jerusalem) – Israeli security forces are abusing Palestinian children detained in the West Bank. The number of Palestinian children arrested by Israeli forces has more than doubled since October 2015. Expand Israeli border police arresting Ahmad Abu Sbitan, 11, in front of his school in East Jerusalem. The police […]

Iraq

Visualization: How ISIL vastly exaggerated its Influence and Everyone Bought it (The Atlantic)

contributors

By Kathy Gilsinan, Caitlin Cadieux, Daniel Lombroso | (The Atlantic Video Report) | – – “Americans are constantly being told that ISIS is a massive threat—but what does that mean? Are there ways to quantify how big the Islamic State actually is? Atlantic senior editor Kathy Gilsinan breaks down ISIS by the numbers, including the […]

Israel/ Palestine

Israel’s Nuclear Weapons Program and the Displacement of Palestinian Bedouins

contributors

By IMEMC | – – Fahwad Al-Khadoumi (nsnbc) : Lance Bartholomeusz, Director of UNRWA Operations in the West Bank condemned Israel’s latest round of large scale demolitions of homes in the Palestinian Bedouin refugee community Um al-Khair in the occupied Palestinian West Bank. Israel uses parts of the Negev desert for testing weapons with nuclear […]

Featured

Syria: Is al-Qaeda rising as ISIL is rolled Back? Is the US de facto Allied with it?

Juan Cole

By Juan Cole | (Informed Comment) | – – The cessation of hostilities in Syria never included Daesh (ISIS, ISIL) or al-Qaeda (the Nusra Front or Support Front), but it did include some of the de facto allies of al-Qaeda. The Syrian Arab Army and its Shiite militia allies, with Russian air support, have taken […]

Israel/ Palestine

Palestinians mark 68th anniversary of their massacre at Deir Yassin by Jewish Terrorists

contributors

Ma’an News Agency | – – BETHLEHEM (Ma’an) — Palestinians on Saturday marked the 68th anniversary of the massacre of more than 100 Palestinians civilians carried out by Zionist paramilitary groups in the village of Deir Yassin in 1948 prior to the establishment of Israel. Deir Yassin has long been a symbol of Israeli violence […]

Iraq

With Iraq’s Shiite Gov’t in Collapse, Can Country finally get past US-crafted Sectarianism?

contributors

Niqash.org | Baghdad | – – Iraq’s Crises Highlight Major Divide Between Country’s Shiite Politicians The Shiite political alliance that dominates Iraq is cracking under pressure from the country’s crises. But some who appear to be foes today, may actually be friends once the protest signs have been put away. The current protests against the […]

Democratic Party

If ISIL falls before November, how will it affect the US Election?

Juan Cole

By Juan Cole | (Informed Comment) | – – GOP frontrunner Donald Trump openly attributes his success at the polls to the terrorist attacks on Paris last fall, in which Daesh (ISIS, ISIL) was involved. Ever since Mosul fell to the organization (originally al-Qaeda in Mesopotamia) in June of 2014, it has provoked great concern […]