Middle East

By IMEMC | – – After nearly two years of delay, the leading suspect in the brutal death of 16-year-old Palestinian Mohammad Abu Khdeir was convicted of murder, this Tuesday. The Abu Khdeir family’s lawyer Muhannad Jbara told Ma’an News Agency that an Israeli court rejected insanity pleas presented by the lawyers of Yosef Chaim […]

Iran

Iran after Nuclear Deal: Renewed Isolation or a pay-off for Pres. Rouhani?

contributors

By Shahram Akbarzadeh | (Informed Comment) | – – President Hasan Rouhani’s honeymoon period is over. He faces mounting opposition in Iran, and very difficult questions abroad. How can he respond to these challenges? The gloss of the November 2015 nuclear deal that removed some international sanctions on Iran is losing its shine. President Hasan […]

Israel/ Palestine

Activists Ask IRS why Jewish National Fund gets Tax Break for Illegal Squatter Support

contributors

by IMEMC | – – On Tuesday, Tax Day, activists delivered a petition with more than 5,000 signatures to IRS offices across the United States demanding the tax-exempt status of the Jewish National Fund (JNF) be revoked due to its role in displacing Palestinians and supporting illegal Israeli settlements. The petition was delivered to offices […]

Arab World

Is Climate Change drying out the Middle East even More?

contributors

By Baher Kamal | (Inter Press Service) | – – CAIRO (IPS) – There is an oil producing country situated in the Gulf region, made of a cluster of islands. It is small, surface and population wise. But it holds the dubious privilege of ranking top of the list of 14 out of the 33 […]

Israel/ Palestine

Israeli police: Explosive device on bus in Jerusalem bus causes 21 injuries

contributors

Ma’an News Agency | – – BETHLEHEM (Ma’an) — An explosive device caused an Israeli bus to catch fire on Monday evening in southern Jerusalem, injuring 21, Israeli security sources said. Israeli police spokesman Micky Rosenfeld reported that bomb disposal experts had identified the cause of the blast as an explosive device on the bus. […]

Displaced and Refugees

Who are the Syrian Refugees, really, and where are they? Hint: Mainly women and children, & not in the West

contributors

By Jeffrey H. Cohen | (The Conversation) | – – Editor’s note: This article is part of our collaboration with Point Taken, a new program from WGBH that will next air on Tuesday, April 19 on PBS and online at pbs.org. The show features fact-based debate on major issues of the day, without the shouting. […]

Barack Obama

6 Policies Obama wants Saudi Arabia to Change

Juan Cole

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 […]