Middle East

By Amy Maguire | (The Conversation) | – – Israel is preparing to make its largest land seizure in the West Bank since August 2014. Israeli settlers are already farming the 154 hectares in the Jordan Valley, displacing Palestinian communities. United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon has called on Israel to change its settlement policies. Settlements […]

Featured

Top 5 Ways Putin has won big in Syria and why Europe is embracing him

Juan Cole

By Juan Cole | (Informed Comment) | – – Russia is so far winning big in Syria, and making Moscow’s projection of force in the Middle East a reality that the other great powers have to recognize. As Russia has emerged as a major combatant against Syrian al-Qaeda and against Daesh (ISIS, ISIL), it is […]

Foreign Policy

Why has Turkish Foreign Policy Gone Rogue & What does it mean for the US?

contributors

By Nader Habibi | (The Conversation) | – – Turkey has become one of America’s most vital partners in the Middle East in promoting stability and growth in the region and a key ally in the West’s fight against the Islamic State, or ISIS. This is partly because of its status as the only majority-Muslim […]

Israel

Are Palestinian-Israelis going from 2nd Class Citizens to 3rd Class?

contributors

By Nadim Nashif and Raya Naamneh | Al-Shabaka | (Ma’an News Agency) | – – Israel still portrays itself as a Jewish and democratic state. Yet in practice, as its Palestinian citizens can attest, it functions as a Jewish ethnocracy, leaving small margins of freedom for its Palestinian citizens that have been steadily shrinking in […]

Arab Spring

Tahrir 5 Years Later: The Hurdles to Democratization & Arab Youth Revolts

Juan Cole

By Juan Cole | (Informed Comment) | – – A frequently met-with Western political and often journalistic narrative of the 2011 youth revolts in the Arab world is that idealistic young people came out into the streets and managed to overthrow four dictators, but then the essential Arab nature (violent, fanatical, tribal and sectarian) came […]

Iraq

The Kurdish Women fighters taking on Daesh/ ISIL: An Eyewitness Account

contributors

By Brian Glyn Williams | (Informed Comment) | – – It was the sort of invitation that causes both excitement and trepidation, an invite to visit the autonomous mountain enclave in northern Iraq known as Kurdistan to carry out field research. It was exciting because we were being given an “inside track” to a moderate […]

Israel/ Palestine

Netanyahu voices support for Israeli squatter takeover of Palestinian Buildings in Hebron outside Israel

contributors

Ma’an News Agency | – – BETHLEHEM (Ma’an) — Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu reiterated his government’s support of illegal settlements in the West Bank and occupied East Jerusalem “at any time” on Sunday when discussing the case of settlers who took over two buildings in Hebron this week. Israeli forces evicted more than 80 […]

China

Dragon & Phoenix: Khamenei Lauds New Sino-Iranian ‘Strategic Partnership’

Juan Cole

By Juan Cole | (Informed Comment) | – – Iran’s clerical leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, spoke Saturday on the occasion of the state visit to Iran of Chinese President Xi Jinping. He said, “The government and people of Iran have always looked and are still looking for expanding relations with independent and trustworthy countries like […]

Apartheid

71 UK doctors call on World Medical Association to Expel Israel over Torture

contributors

Ma’an News Agency | – – ‘BETHLEHEM (Ma’an) — A group of British doctors is pushing for the World Medical Association (WMA) to expel the Israeli Medical Association (IMA), the IMA’s chairman said on Wednesday during a meeting of the Knesset Science and Technology committee. In a discussion dealing with the academic boycott of Israel, […]