Middle East

Ma’an News Agency | – – GAZA (Ma’an) — The unemployment among women in the Gaza Strip has reached more than 60 percent, a women’s organization said on Saturday. Fida Abu Darbi, the executive officer for the Association Of Women’s Work Committees, said the unemployment of women in Gaza had reached “astronomical” levels at 63.3 […]

Featured

Will Syrian Kurds defeat ISIL , helping Democrats win White House in 2016?

Juan Cole

By Juan Cole | (Informed Comment) | – – Bad news came out of Syria for Daesh (ISIS, ISIL) on two fronts Friday: Aleppo and, in Syria’s far east, Hasakah. This has been a war with a lot of seesawing, so it is premature to make any decisive pronouncements. But this is an election year, […]

censorship

Iran: Poet of Gender Discrimination flees Lashes, 11.5 Year Sentence

contributors

By Golnaz Esfandiari | ( RFE/RL ) | – – To get her first book of poetry past the Iranian censor, Fatemeh Ekhtesari did what other Iranian writers often have to do: She used dots for words and sentences she thought would not get past the authorities. But Ekhtesari wasn't prepared for her voice to […]

France

France: Turkish-Russian ‘War’ Possible over Syria

contributors

TeleSur | – – The French president said Russia and Turkey could engage in war over Turkish involvement in Syria as Russia called for an urgent U.N. Security Council. There is risk of a Turkish-Russian war as a result of Ankara’s involvement in Syria, French President Francois Hollande warned Friday, as Russia called for a […]

Israel

Civility? Professor Proposes Israel “flatten” a City of 1 million

contributors

By Belén Fernández | ( TeleSur ) | – – No, Israel Should Not Flatten Beirut: A debate over whether Israel should commit war crimes and wipe out a city of at least 1 million people is somehow acceptable. This week, the prominent Israeli newspaper Haaretz ran an opinion piece by Amitai Etzioni, titled “Should […]

Israel/ Palestine

UN: Over 400 Palestinians displaced by Israel in 6 weeks

contributors

Ma’an News Agency | – – BETHLEHEM (Ma’an) — Over 400 Palestinians in the occupied West Bank have been displaced due to Israeli demolitions during the first six weeks of this year, a senior UN official said Wednesday. Coordinator for Humanitarian and UN Development Activities for the occupied Palestinian territory Robert Piper in a statement […]

Terrorism

Turkey’s New Normal?: Bombing in Ankara kills Dozens

contributors

By Winston Obertan | ( GlobalVoices.org ) | – – Ankara. Wikimedia image. A bomb blast, believed to have originated from a car bomb, has killed at least 28 people and injured scores in what appears to be a targeted attack on vehicles carrying Turkish military personnel. The explosion comes amid an intensification of fighting […]

military

Are Outside Interventions in Syria undermining Int’l Law & our own Security?

contributors

By Ingvild Bode | (The Conversation) | – – Since 2012, the war in Syria has lurched from one escalation to another. Syrians have been subjected to large-scale military force not only by their own government, but also by an array of rebel groups, Islamic State (IS), a US-led coalition and other states. The results […]

Iran

Can the Nuclear Deal survive the Iranian and American Elections?

contributors

By Farhang Jahanpour | (Inter Press Service) | – – OXFORD (IPS) – Although the implementation of Iranian nuclear deal has been welcomed by all those who had been involved in the negotiations as part of the P5+1, the deal has had many vociferous opponents. In the United States, the opposition to the Iranian deal […]