Middle East

By Thalif Deen UNITED NATIONS, Nov 6 2014 (IPS) – Ongoing military conflicts in the strife-torn Middle East – specifically in Iraq, Syria, Libya and Palestine – have resulted in widespread civilian casualties, impacting heavily on the most vulnerable in besieged communities: women and children. The biggest death toll has stemmed from the civil war […]

Iraq

Iraq War 3.0? What could possibly Go Wrong?

contributors

By Peter Van Buren (Tomdispatch.com) Karl von Clausewitz, the famed Prussian military thinker, is best known for his aphorism “War is the continuation of state policy by other means.” But what happens to a war in the absence of coherent state policy? Actually, we now know. Washington’s Iraq War 3.0, Operation Inherent Resolve, is what […]

Bush

ISIL Grew out of Bush’s Destruction of Iraq’s Socialist Economy

contributors

By Noah Bassil via The Conversation To explain the disaster befalling Iraq, as well as the rise of Islamic State (IS), you have to go back a century – before modern Iraq even existed. That’s not to discount the shared culpability of Iraq’s numerous leaders, from King Faisal I to Saddam Hussein and Nuri al-Maliki, […]

Israel

In Creeping Annexaton, Israel Plots to Apply Israeli Law in Palestinian West Bank

contributors

BETHLEHEM (Ma’an) — Palestinian official Nabil Shaath said Sunday that a proposed Knesset bill to apply Israeli laws to West Bank settlements was dangerous and aimed to eventually annex the territory. “The (Palestinian) Authority completely opposes applying the Israeli law to settlements in the West Bank because this creates a political context where these settlements […]

Featured

Ferguson & Israel? Netanyahu Calls for Stripping Palestinian-Israelis of Citizenship

Juan Cole

By Juan Cole On Sunday Israeli Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu said he was looking into whether Israel could strip citizenship from those who speak out against the continued statelessness of the Palestinians. (There are millions of stateless Palestinians outside Israel. Netanyahu began his political career as a far-right Likud politician calling for the forced deportation […]

Israel

Israeli PM Netanyahu Is a National Security Risk—And Washington Knows It

contributors

An anonymous U.S. official caused a dustup when he called the Israeli prime minister "chickenshit." Others might have said worse. By Adil E. Shamoo and Peter Certo, November 6, 2014. Print (Photo: Wikimedia Commons) Last month, an anonymous U.S. official stirred a tempest in a teapot when he called Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu “a […]

European Union

EU Foreign Affairs Head: A Palestinian State or Endless Conflict

contributors

Frederica Mogherini, the European Union High Representative for Foreign Affairs in the Juncker Commission, is a former Foreign Minister of Italy and a member of the Italian Democratic Party and Progressive Alliance of Socialists and Democrats. She visited Gaza, where she called for a Palestinian state, saying that it is not only the people of […]

Apartheid

Palestinians Break open Illegal Apartheid Wall to Commemorate Fall of Berlin Wall

contributors

JERUSALEM (Ma’an) — Palestinian activists affiliated with local popular resistance committees in the villages northwest of Jerusalem on Saturday broke open a hole in the separation wall to commemorate the 25th anniversary of the fall of the Berlin Wall. “No matter how high walls are built, they will fall. Just as the Berlin Wall fell, […]

Featured

Why it Isn’t that Important Whether ISIL Leader was Killed

Juan Cole

By Juan Cole Revised 11/10 Rumors are swirling that ISIL leader Ibrahim al-Samarra’i (who goes by the nom de guerre of Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi) was severely wounded and that some of his chief lieutenants were killed by a US air strike on a meeting of ISIL leaders on Friday. (Update: ISIL is confirming the injury […]