Middle East

Fred Abrahams | (Human Rights Watch) | — The fighting began one year ago and lasted for 51 days. In Gaza, Israeli attacks from land, air, and sea killed 551 children and injured 3436, ten percent of them suffering a permanent disability. In Israel, one child was killed by Palestinian rocket and mortar fire; dozens […]

Druze

How the Washington Post got Taken in by Syria’s Taliban

Juan Cole

By Juan Cole | (Informed Comment) Making alliances of convenience is a perennial temptation in Washington, where policy-makers often have more ambition than ethics or common sense. Thus, the Washington Post just published a slick op-ed by a representative of the Islamic Movement of Syrian Free Men (Ahrar al-Sham) claiming that the group is “moderate” […]

Apartheid

Israel to Destroy Homes of 40 Bedouin Families

contributors

By IMEMC | – – Israeli administration has delivered notices for the demolition of dozens of makeshift Bedouin homes of Abu Nawar village, east of Jerusalem. Accordig to the PNN, the notices of demolition delivered by Israeli administrative staff were of two parts. The first part was an order for house owners to halt the […]

Iraq War

George W. Bush Started War, then Charged $100,000 to Help US Veterans Charity

contributors

Brian Ross | (ABC News Video) | – – ““It’s not right,” says wounded Marine hero.” ABC News: “George W. Bush Charged $100,000 to Help US Veterans Charity” Estimates of US troops wounded in Bush’s illegal war of aggression range from 32,000 to 100,000

Featured

Iraq: As Battle Royale to take Falluja from Daesh/ ISIL Looms, Fears for Civilians

Juan Cole

By Juan Cole | (Informed Comment) | – – Falluja is surrounded and under siege by the Iraqi Army and its Shiite militia auxiliaries, as these pro-Baghdad forces make plans to take the city back away from Daesh (ISIS, ISIL). The militias call the looming operation “Cutting off the head of the Snake.” Some 20,000 […]

Authoritarianism

While Saudi Arabia Goes to War Abroad, It’s Simmering at Home

contributors

By Giorgio Cafiero and Daniel Wagner | (Foreign Policy in Focus) | – To hear Saudi leaders tell it, the primary threat to the kingdom’s stability is the Islamic Republic of Iran. Worried over Washington and Tehran’s slowly improving relationship, Riyadh has projected an increasingly militarized and sectarian foreign policy aimed at countering Iran’s alleged […]

Bashar al-Assad

4 Million Syrian Displaced Abroad: ‘Biggest Refugee Population From a Single Conflict in a Generation’

contributors

By Kanya D’Almeida | – – UNITED NATIONS, (IPS) – Barely 10 months ago, the United Nations Refugee Agency (UNHCR) said the refugee population from Syria had reached the three million mark. Today, the latest data from the field show that the number has passed four million. “This is the biggest refugee population from a […]

Hamas

What is terrorism? The Charleston massacre and Palestinian resistance

contributors

By Heike Schotten | (Ma’an News Agency) | – Well before the advent of the US “War on Terror,” Edward Said wrote: “As a word and concept, ‘terrorism’ has acquired an extraordinary status in American public discourse.” Among other things, Said observed the ways in which “terrorism” functioned to deflect attention away from America’s misdeeds […]

Apartheid

Amira Hass: “Let me be blunt: Gaza is a Huge Concentration Camp”

contributors

By Amira Hass / Julie Poucher Harbin | ( ISLAMICommentary) | – – by JULIE POUCHER HARBIN, EDITOR, ISLAMiCommentary Amira Hass, Haaretz correspondent for the Occupied Territories This past Spring Amira Hass, correspondent for Haaretz, spoke at the Forum for Scholars and Publics at Duke University. Hass, an Israeli who has won numerous awards for […]