Middle East

Ma’an News Agency | – – BETHLEHEM (Ma’an) — An Israeli Knesset member this week convened a meeting to stop Palestinians from “preventing the expansion” of Jewish-only settlements in the occupied West Bank. The Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee’s Subcommittee on Judea and Samaria — the biblical term used by the Israeli government for the […]

Islamic State of Iraq and Syria

Syria: Kurdish YPG Expels “bloodthirsty” ISIL “gangs” from Hasaka (VICE News)

contributors

VICE News | (Video Report) | – – “The northeastern city of Hasakah is one of the most ethnically and culturally diverse in Syria. Its population of Kurds, Sunni Arabs, and Christians was until recently politically divided between equal zones of Kurdish and Assad regime control. Immediately following the fall of the strategic border town […]

Bashar al-Assad

Putin pitches Grand Alliance against Daesh/ ISIL, but Syria Rebels want al-Assad Gone

Juan Cole

By Juan Cole | (Informed Comment) | – – The Russian Federation is a key player in Syria, and backer of the dictatorial government of Bashar al-Assad. Moscow on Wednesday and Thursday attempted some diplomacy, however, welcoming a delegation of Syrian rebels against the authoritarian al-Assad in Damascus. Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said just […]

Apartheid

Settlement Expansion Largely Responsible for Violence in Occupied West Bank

contributors

By Kanya D’Almeida | (Inter Press Service) | – – UNITED NATIONS (IPS) – Just weeks after an 18-month-old baby was killed in an arson attack in the Palestinian village of Duma, located south of Nablus city in the Occupied West Bank, a United Nations special committee has blasted Israel’s policy of settlement expansion, saying […]

Iran

Did Ayatollah Sistani just save Iraq from Iran-backed militias by pushing Gov’t Reforms?

contributors

Mustafa Habib | Baghdad | (Niqash.org)| – – During last week’s protests, secret plans were made to use demonstrations to topple the government. But a senior Shiite spiritual leader seems to have stepped in at the last minute to save the country from chaos. At the end of July thousands of locals took to the […]

Featured

Why Partitioning Iraq is a Terrible Idea

Juan Cole

By Juan Cole | (Informed Comment) | – – I think the remarks of outgoing US Army chief Gen. Ray Odierno on the possible partition of Iraq have been reported in a sensationalist way. He just said that Sunni-Shiite relations in Iraq are at a nadir and that the country could look different in the […]

Displaced and Refugees

Saudi-led war in Yemen provokes Humanitarian Crisis, 1.2 mn. displaced

contributors

By Kitty Stapp | (Inter Press Service) | – – UNITED NATIONS (IPS) – Doctors Without Borders . . . is warning that the violence in Yemen “has radically increased” since March, with the humanitarian group seeing mass casualties from bombings and thousands of severely injured. “Especially in Aden, the situation has been extremely difficult, […]

BDS Occupied Territories

Petition Calling For Israeli PM Netanyahu’s Arrest Goes Viral

contributors

By IMEMC | – – A British petition demanding the arrest of the Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu, upon his arrival in the UK next month, went viral in just a few days. A petition entitled “Benjamin Netanyahu to be arrested for war crimes when he arrives in London” is available at a petitions website […]

Bush

Memo to Jeb Bush: It was W’s Surge that created ISIL, not Hillary

Juan Cole

By Juan Cole | (Informed Comment) | – – Jeb Bush very unwisely went after Hillary Clinton last night on the grounds that her Iraq policies gave us Daesh (ISIS, ISIL). Bush may think he is cleverly pulling a Karl Rove, attacking his opponent on her strong point (foreign policy), as Rove swiftboated John Kerry […]