Middle East

By Shalom L. Goldman | (Informed Comment) | – – Now that the Democratic senators have blocked a challenge to the Iran deal, pundits are looking at what the most persuasive arguments in the presentations to Democratic members of Congress were. What persuaded most Democrats to back the Iran deal, despite the well-funded campaigns against […]

Displaced and Refugees

Can Syrian Asylee Airlift from Turkey to Sweden be Crowd-Funded? Iranian Expats Think So

contributors

By Elisabeth Braw | (RFE/ RL) | – – A group of Iranian emigres and friends has announced an ambitious project to mount a crowdfunded airlift from troubled areas around the Mediterranean to Sweden, allowing would-be refugees to bypass hazardous land-and-sea journeys via what they’re calling Refugee Air. One of the organizers says he was […]

Palestine

Over Israeli, US Objections, UN votes to raise Palestinian flag at HQ

contributors

Ma’an News | – – BETHLEHEM (Ma’an) — The United Nations General Assembly voted late Thursday in favor of raising the Palestinian flag at its headquarters in New York by an overwhelming majority, in a symbolic diplomatic victory in the PLO’s campaign for statehood. A resolution was adopted by member states with 119 in favor, […]

Displaced and Refugees

Why Young Iraqis Are Risking Their Lives to Get to Europe

contributors

By Marwan Jabbar | Baghdad | (Niqash.org) | – – Iraq’s security crisis means that if you are “different”, you may be a threat to militias ruling the streets now. Would-be asylum seekers tell NIQASH why they want to leave Baghdad, despite good jobs and nice homes. Europe is dealing with an influx of refugees […]

Chemical Weapons

ISIL’s campaign may be going chemical – why no international outcry?

contributors

Michelle Bentley | (The Conversation) | – – Evidence is mounting that [so-called] Islamic State (IS) [group] is using chemical weapons in Iraq and Syria – and yet this egregious crime, which once used to be a “red line” for the rest of the world, has yet to provoke a proportionate response. One the most […]

al-Qaeda

Russia Ramping up Military Involvement in Syria?

Juan Cole

By Juan Cole | (Informed Comment) | – – Reuters reports, based on sources in Beirut, that Russia is increasing its involvement in Syria, backing the military of beleaguered dictator Bashar al-Assad. Russia appears to be offloading tanks at its Tartous naval base on the Syrian coast, and may also be establishing an interior air […]

Iraq

Kurds unite, from Conservatives to Far Left, in Fight against ISIL

contributors

By Karlos Zurutuza | (Inter Press Service) | – – KIRKUK, Iraq (IPS) – Reminders of the last occupants of camp K1 in the northern Iraqi city of Kirkuk are only visible on the murals at the main gate leading into the compound: Iraqi soldiers saluting the flag, pointing their weapons or being cheered on […]

Apartheid

Nearly all of Gaza’s Water ‘Undrinkable’

contributors

By Celine Hagbard – (IMEMC) | – – Reporters from RT (Russia Today) traveled to Gaza to look into last year’s report that 90% of Gaza’s water is undrinkable. As they sampled water from different parts of the coastal Strip, they found that the report is accurate – the water throughout Gaza is dirty, salty […]

Colonialism

The lost fortunes of Palestine’s dynamic Ottoman-era merchants

contributors

By Charlie Hoyle | (Ma’an News Agency) | – – The pink stone mansions hidden among the modern urban geography of Bethlehem —surrounded by an eight-meter high concrete wall and penned in by Israeli settlements — contain a rich untold history of phenomenal global success:The city’s pioneering 19th century merchants. An interior view of the […]