Middle East

By Vrinda Narain, McGill University and Fatemeh Sadeghi, UCL (The Conversation) – As the international community celebrates the fall of another dictatorship following the collapse of Syria’s Assad regime, the future of women’s rights remains precarious. Global leaders are commending Syria’s liberation and discussing the return of 5.5 million refugees, but women’s rights advocates are […]

Israel/ Palestine

The long-term Impact of Israel’s Gaza Genocide will only become Clear as the Toxic Dust Settles

Middle East Monitor

by Dr Emma Keelan by Dr Brendan Ciarán Browne ( Middle East Monitor ) – As the toxic dust begins to settle, it is hard to even fathom the complex feelings of our Palestinian friends and colleagues, many of whom have families in Gaza who are beginning the arduous task of returning home and […]

Featured

Let us be Joyous about the Release of all Hostages, Israeli and Palestinian, in Gaza Peace Deal, including 21 Palestinian Children

Juan Cole

Ann Arbor (Informed Comment) – It is wonderful news that on Sunday and Monday Israeli and Palestinian hostages were released as part of the ceasefire deal brokered by Qatar, Egypt and the United States. Hamas released Romi Gonen, 24, kidnapped from the Nova music festival on October 7, 2023. Emily Damari, 28, was kidnapped from […]

Israel/ Palestine

Tevet, Palindromes, and the Ceasefire in Gaza

Shamai Leibowitz

( The Times of Israel ) – On the occasion of the ceasefire in Gaza, let’s reflect on the current Hebrew month of Tevet: This word is a linguistic treat—it’s the only month that forms a palindrome, a word or phrase that reads the same backward and forward. However, in Hebrew, this palindrome magic doesn’t […]

Donald Trump

UK Parliamentary Committee to British Gov’t: Recognize Palestinian State for Sustainable Peace

Juan Cole

Ann Arbor (Informed Comment) – The British Parliament has the longest history of any parliament, since it was the first, so it has had time to make a lot of mistakes. On the other hand, it is generally far less an embarrassment than the U.S. Congress. This principle was demonstrated on Friday when the International […]

Israel

Shock Waves: The Out-Migration of Tens of Thousands of Young Jews from Israel in Past 2 Years

Middle East Monitor

by Aziz Mustafa ( Middle East Monitor ) – The report by the Israel Central Bureau of Statistics at the beginning of the new year, 2025, regarding the reverse immigration of Jews was like fuel poured on the fire of political conflicts in Israel, because the bleak number appearing in the headlines of the Israeli […]

Featured

Biden Reveals Netanyahu’s Determination to Turn Gaza into Hiroshima, and his own Complicity

Juan Cole

Ann Arbor (Informed Comment) – President Joe Biden’s interview with MSNBC’s Lawrence O’Donnell demonstrates that the project of right-wing Zionism, led by Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, is to repeal post-World War II international law and take the world back to the jungle of the 1930s and 1940s, when the world’s great powers polished off […]

Israel

Protesting the Impact of the Israeli Military Campaign on Education in Lebanon

Committee on Academic Freedom

Middle East Studies Association Board Joint Statement with the Committee on Academic Freedom Concerning the Impact of the Israeli Military Campaign on Education in Lebanon The Board of Directors of the Middle East Studies Association (MESA) and its Committee on Academic Freedom register our profound concern regarding the interruption of education and the damage to […]

Featured

The Fatal Despair of Exile: An Iran they could neither Live in nor Leave Behind

Fariba Amini

Nothing takes me from the butterflies of my dreams to my reality: not dust and not fire. What will I do without roses from Samarkand? What will I do in a theater that burnishes the singers with its lunar stones? Our weight has become light like our houses in the faraway winds. We have become […]