Middle East

By Brian M Downing | (Informed Comment) | – Ramadi, the capital of Anbar province, has fallen to forces of the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant. ISIL has now reversed a string of defeats since it swept into northern and central Iraq last summer. This will improve the movement’s recruitment and reaffirm its […]

Apartheid

Israel Pushes Negev Bedouin Palestinians into a Corner

contributors

By Ari Heistein | (Informed Comment) | – Israel’s latest move to demolish a Bedouin village and replace it with homes for Jewish citizens is no surprise to anyone familiar with the state’s policies in the Negev. Beginning in the 1970s, the State of Israel launched a campaign to push the Negev Bedouin from […]

Apartheid

Who does Jerusalem belong To?

Juan Cole

By Juan Cole | (Informed Comment) | – Far right Israeli Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu commemorated Israel’s “Jerusalem Day” with a speech in which he said, “Jerusalem was always the capital of the Jewish people only, and no other,” and warned that Muslim terrorism menaced it. Jerusalem, Daru Shalem, was founded sometime between 6500 and […]

Counter-Terrorism

As ISIL takes Ramadi: America’s Hydra Problem in the Middle East

contributors

By Inge Fryklund | (Foreign Policy in Focus) | — In the Greek myth, Heracles battles the Hydra — a multi-headed reptilian monster that was terrorizing the Greek countryside. However, every time a head was cut off, two grew in its place, so cutting off one head at a time was an ineffective plan of […]

Apartheid

Illegal Israeli Squatters uproot hundreds of Palestinian olive trees near Hebron

contributors

HEBRON (Ma’an) – Israeli settlers destroyed and uprooted hundreds of olive saplings in the Palestinian town of al-Shuyoukh northeast of Hebron in the southern West Bank. Local activist Ahmad al-Halayqa told Ma’an that about 80 acres of land planted with olive saplings had been vandalized by Jewish settlers from nearby illegal settlements and outposts. This […]

Arab Spring

Death Sentence for Morsi: Egypt’s Junta takes another step toward being N. Korea

Juan Cole

By Juan Cole | (Informed Comment) | – That the only freely elected president Egypt has ever known has been sentenced to death is only to be expected from the current military junta, which made a coup in July, 2013, and declared the former ruling party, the Muslim Brotherhood, to be a terrorist organization indistinguishable […]

Apartheid

Palestinian Christians, under Pressure, Honored by Pres. Abbas as they welcome New Saints

contributors

BETHLEHEM (Ma’an) — In the run up to Pope Francis’ canonization of two Palestinian nuns, President Mahmoud Abbas praises Palestinian Christians for the “distinctive dimension” their community and history gives to the Palestinian struggle. “On this holy occasion we would like to express appreciation to our Palestinian Christian brothers for their steadfastness and effective contribution […]

Archaeology

Syria: Roman Palmyra Monuments in danger as ISIL Fighters Near

contributors

BBC News | Video | – “Islamic State militants move to within a few miles of one of the world’s oldest and most important archaeological cities, Palmyra, in the latest stage of their campaign in Syria.” Islamic State: Fighters near site at Palmyra – BBC News

Featured

Cole: Iraq’s Ramadi falls to ISIL as Shiite Gov’t refuses to Arm Sunni Tribes

contributors

By Juan Cole | (Informed Comment) The Times of Baghdad (al-Zaman) reports that fighters of the Daesh (ISIL, ISIS) terrorist group raised their black flags over the central government building in Ramadi on Friday. The city, just sixty miles due west of Baghdad, is the capital of al-Anbar Province. Daesh announced their victory with megaphones […]