Middle East

By Jacob Wirtschafter | ( Your Middle East) | A poverty report has added fuel to long-standing debates about religion, intercommunal politics, and Israel’s national priorities. An energy boom and its high-tech achievements as the vaunted “start-up nation” notwithstanding, Israel is seeing more and more of its children living in poverty. Figures released by the […]

Democracy

In the Middle East’s New Century, can Western Imperialism stop Thwarting Democracy?

contributors

By Jeffrey D. Sachs | (Project Syndicate) | – – Jeffrey D. Sachs | (@JeffDSachs) – – NEW YORK – The United States, the European Union, and Western-led institutions such as the World Bank repeatedly ask why the Middle East can’t govern itself. The question is asked honestly but without much self-awareness. After all, the […]

Bernie Sanders

Clinton: Trump chief recruiter for ISIL; Sanders: Take out Daesh First, Assad Later

Juan Cole

By Juan Cole | (Informed Comment) | – – The second Saturday-night Democratic debate had a lot of discussion on foreign policy. It is a shame that the Democratic National Convention put it on a Saturday, when its audience was much lower. Many Bernie Sanders supporters believe that the DNC supports Sec. Hillary Clinton and […]

Iraq

After Daesh/ ISIL, will Iraq be any Better?

contributors

Niqash.org | (Baghdad) | – – As the Islamic State becomes weaker in Iraq, locals anticipate a post-extremist era. But even the most optimistic Iraqis know it won’t be easy. Some of those crises may be more dangerous than the extremists. Recent reports from Iraq indicate that, although progress against the extremist group known as […]

Israel

Shin Bet: Jewish Terrorists Out to ‘Violently Overthrow’ Israeli Government

contributors

By IMEMC | – – Israel’s domestic security agency Shin Bet, on Thursday, cautioned that a Jewish terror organization is seeking to “violently overthrow” the Israeli government, Israeli media reported. Israeli soldiers at the Israeli outpost of Achiya near the Palestinian village of Duma on Aug. 4, 2015, a week after a deadly arson attack […]

Syria

Where are women’s voices in the Syria peace talks?

contributors

Lisa Davis | (OpenDemocracy) | – – The US may be tempted to congratulate itself for wrangling Russia to the table for today’s meeting on Syria’s peace talks. Yet an indispensable party is missing: Syrian women. Today, we face the prospect of a Middle East peace conference with disappointment at its delay and frustration that, yet again, […]

Israel/ Palestine

Israelis shoot 78 Palestinians & repress Santa Claus Protest in Bethlehem

contributors

Ma’an News Agency | – – NABLUS (Ma’an) — Israeli forces on Friday shot and injured at least 78 Palestinians, two critically, when clashes broke out across the occupied Palestinian territory for the second day in a row. Medical sources told Ma’an that a Palestinian was hit with live fire in the chest during clashes […]

Displaced and Refugees

Syrian Refugees from Civil War spiraling down into Extreme Poverty

contributors

By Thalif Deen | (Inter Press Service) | – – UNITED NATIONS, Dec 16 2015 (IPS) – When German Chancellor Angela Merkel defended her immigration policies early this week — and announced plans to absorb about one million refugees, mostly from Syria — she was apparently greeted with a nine-minute standing ovation by members of […]

Syria

Could an end to Syria’s civil war be in sight?

contributors

By James Gelvin | (The Conversation) | – – If, as cliché has it, the definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over and expecting different results, isn’t the recent flurry of diplomatic activity aimed at bringing about a negotiated settlement to the Syrian civil war insane? None of the previous attempts […]