Middle East

BEERSHEBA (Ma’an) — Some 250 Palestinians performed Friday prayers outside a mosque in Beersheba in southern Israel that Israeli authorities have kept closed since 1948. The prayers came amid heavy Israeli police presence, with police sealing the roads leading toward the mosque. The initiative was called for by Sheikh Hassan Abu Ubeid from al-Ramla along […]

Featured

Fatal Triangle: Saudi, Iran, US Tensions spike over continued Yemen Airstrikes

Juan Cole

By Juan Cole | (Informed Comment) | – The attention span of US television news is so short that it is difficult for it to cover ongoing wars in which there isn’t dramatic news every day. Not to mention that getting a camera crew into some conflict zones is highly dangerous or just impossible (television […]

Apartheid

Israeli PM Begins Forming Pro-Settlement Coaltion

contributors

By IMEMC | – Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu signed coalition deals with two parties on Wednesday, in his first steps toward constructing a new government, one week before the deadline to present a cabinet. Israeli PM Benjamin Netanyahu in cabinet meeting, April 19, 2015. (AFP/Menahem Kahana, File) Israeli PM Benjamin Netanyahu in cabinet meeting, […]

BDS Occupied Territories

The One-State Conundrum: The Everyday Politics of Confinement in Palestine

contributors

By Sandy Tolan | (Tomdispatch) | – The SUV slows as it approaches a military kiosk at a break in a dull gray wall. Inside, Ramzi Aburedwan, a Palestinian musician, prepares his documents for the Israeli soldier standing guard. On the other side of this West Bank military checkpoint lies the young man’s destination, the […]

Africa

Global Connections: World History as Social History – a New Synthesis

Juan Cole

I and colleagues have just brought out a world history. Because of the fine and exciting writing of my co-authors, it is more than just a textbook. My readers often ask me about history books – here’s one I can recommend. By John Coatsworth, Juan Cole, Michael Hanagan, Peter C. Perdue, Charles Tilly, and Louise […]

Iraq

“We had to destroy Tikrit to save it from ISIL”: Recovered Iraqi City a Ghost Town

contributors

By Mustafa Habib | Tikrit | (Niqash.org) – It’s been almost a month since the Islamic State group was expelled from Tikrit. NIQASH went there and found a graffiti-covered ghost town ruled by opposing groups of gunmen, none of whom trust one another. In Basha Street in the centre of the Iraqi city of Tikrit, […]

Afghanistan

The Middle East Policy of President Bernie Sanders

Juan Cole

By Juan Cole | (Informed Comment) | – Bernie Sanders opposed the 2003 invasion of Iraq and subsequent occupation of that country. Sanders wanted to get out of Afghanistan from 2011 much faster than the timetable announced by President Obama. Obama has now more or less extended a US military presence in Afghanistan, advertised as […]

censorship

Don’t Be Fooled by Saudi’s Reshuffle

contributors

By Adam Coogle | (Human Rights Watch) | – King Salman’s promotion of his nephew Mohammed bin Nayef to the position of crown prince and heir apparent marks a change of direction for Saudi Arabia, raising the possibility that power in the kingdom may be put directly into the hands of the House of Saud’s […]

African-Americans

Iran’s Khamenei weighs in on Baltimore: ‘Hollywood-style Policing’

contributors

Elliot Hill and Mark Sovel | (TheLipTV) The anchors debate the following speech from last Sunday of Iran’s Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, in which he contrasted Iranian policing to the “Hollywood-style policing” of the United States, and slammed the treatment of African-Americans. The anchors discuss the question of whether, while the ayatollah has a point, he […]