Middle East

Mustafa Habib | Baghdad | (Niqash.org) | – – Nobody in Iraqi politics appears to like Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi much anymore. Some dislike him for his proposed reforms, others for not reforming enough. It’s a no-win scenario. How long can he last? PM Haider al-Abadi: The senior politician may have run out of friends […]

Israel/ Palestine

In Palestine’s Hebron district Israeli Occupation troops impose ‘draconian’ measures

contributors

Ma’an News Agency | – – HEBRON (Ma’an) — As Hebron remains at the center of violence in the occupied Palestinian territory, Israeli rights group B’Tselem on Friday condemned Israeli actions there as “immoral” and “awful.” At least 22 Palestinians have been killed by Israeli forces in the Hebron district since the beginning of last […]

Israel/ Palestine

Obama gives up on Israeli-Palestinian peace during his Administration

contributors

Ma’an News Agency | – – BETHLEHEM (Ma’an) — United States president Barack Obama concluded that a peace treaty or direct talks between Israel and Palestinian leadership would not be carried out in his time left in office, a White House spokesperson said Thursday. With thanks to FreeOnlinePhotoEditor Israeli media reported that Obama’s senior adviser […]

Islamic State of Iraq and Syria

Russian Branch of Syria’s al-Qaeda appeals for Funding from Russian Muslims

contributors

By Joanna Paraszczuk | ( RFE/RL “Do you think you’re safe from the fires of hell? Give yourself a chance — help mujahedin on the path of God!” Thus reads a new fund-raising advertisement published on the VKontakte social network this week by the Russian-speaking battalion of Al-Qaeda’s Syrian affiliate, the Al-Nusra Front. “Do you […]

Bush

Bush Sr. Blames Neocons for Ruining W.’s Presidency: Is he Warning Jeb?

Juan Cole

By Juan Cole | (Informed Comment) | – – In interviews given for a new biography, George H. W. Bush, 91 lets loose against Dick Cheney and Donald Rumsfeld, whom he clearly blames for many of the failures of the presidency his son, George W. Bush. But if you attend carefully to what he said, […]

Iraq War

Al-Qaeda, ISIS, and the wider fallout from the Iraq invasion

contributors

By David Morrison | (OpenDemocracy) | – – Tony Blair was warned by his intelligence chiefs that invading Iraq would increase the terror threat facing Britain. If MPs had known this, would they have voted for war? Baroness Eliza Manningham-Buller was the director general of MI5, the UK’s domestic intelligence agency, from October 2002 until […]

Democracy

Will Turkey’s winning Justice & Development Party seek Imperial Presidency?

contributors

By ERDAĞ GÖKNAR | (ISLAMiCommentary) | – – Erdağ Göknar The Nov. 1 parliamentary elections in Turkey resulted in an outcome that few commentators or polls had predicted: Another outright parliamentary majority for President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan’s ruling AK Party (AKP). In the almost five months since the AKP lost its parliamentary majority on June […]

Israel/ Palestine

Has Slain Israeli Peacemaker Yitzhak Rabin been denied his Legacy?

contributors

By Brent E Sasley | (The Conversation) | – – On November 4 1995, Yitzhak Rabin, the prime minister of Israel, was murdered by Yigal Amir, an extremist religious Jew opposed to his peace deals with the Palestinians. The Oslo process, which culminated with the awkward handshake between Rabin and Yasser Arafat on the White […]

Israel/ Palestine

Palestinians in own city of Hebron live in Fear of Israel Squatters, Soldiers

contributors

By: Charlie Hoyle | Ma’an News Agency | – – BETHLEHEM (Ma’an) — Israel’s response to an upsurge in violence since the beginning of October has seen unprecedented closures of Hebron’s Old City, with residents living in a constant state of fear amid killings by the Israeli army and attacks from Jewish settlers. Hebron, the […]