Middle East

By Juan Cole Al-Zaman (The Times of Baghdad reports that Grand Ayatollah Ali Sistan is calling, just as is US Secretary of Defense Chuck Hagel, for the arming of Sunni tribes in al-Anbar Province to fight ISIL in Iraq. (The Shiite-dominated Iraqi government in Baghdad has been reluctant to move too quickly toward creating Sunni […]

Israel

Unprecedented Damage to Gaza & its People can’t be repaired with Just more Aid

contributors

By Sara Roy, Harvard University In the near three decades that I have been involved with Gaza and her people, I have never seen the kind of physical and psychological destruction that I see there today. In all Gaza’s long and tormented history, there is no precedent for its extraordinarily dangerous position in 2014. The […]

Apartheid

“Pilot Program” of Segregated Buses banning Palestinians in Israel

contributors

AJ+ “The defense minister [Moshe Ya’alon] … hasn’t issued a blanket ban but believes integrated buses are “a recipe for a terror attack.” So he’s launched a pilot program of segregated buses between Israel and the West Bank for “security considerations.” AJ+ “Israel Bans Palestinians From Riding Buses”

Featured

Far Right Extremist Avigdor Lieberman says Swedish Recognition of Palestine will Strengthen Extremists

Juan Cole

By Juan Cole There was a time when people like Avigdor Lieberman were not welcome in Israeli politics, or, indeed, in Jewish circles in the United States. Dogged by accusations of corruption (though acquitted in the Israeli courts) and widely considered a racist and flamethrower, Lieberman has emerged as Foreign Minister, a powerful cabinet post. […]

Israel

This day in History: Madrid Arab-Israeli Peace Conference (a Process that Netanyahu later Boasted of Derailing)

contributors

The Madrid peace conference convened October 30, 1991, hosted by President George H. W. Bush and Soviet Premier Mikhail Gorbachev, aimed at initiating a peace settlement between Israel and the Arabs. Bush senior warns that if Israel and Palestinians don’t make peace, sooner or later “weapons of mass destruction” could be deployed in the Middle […]

Islam

Jerusalem tensions over al-Aqsa Mosque turn bloody as Far Right-winger is Shot

contributors

BETHLEHEM (Ma’an) — Right-wing Jewish activist Yehuda Glick was shot and injured at a rally in Jerusalem on Wednesday evening, Israeli police and medical sources said. Glick was reportedly shot in his upper body at “close range” at an event outside the Menachem Begin Heritage Center in Jerusalem, where a number of Israeli members of […]

Christianity

The Kurdish 3rd Way: Democracy is “Radical” in Northern Syria

contributors

By Karlos Zurutuza (Inter Press Service) Garbage collection is among the many duties of the Democratic Self-Management in force in the three mainly Kurdish enclaves of northern Syria. Credit: Karlos Zurutuza/IPS AMUDA, Syria, Oct 28 2014 (IPS) – There was never anything particularly remarkable about this northern town of 25,000. However, today it has become […]

BDS Occupied Territories

BDS Success: Israeli Firm Sodastream Leaves Palestinian West Bank after Boycott

Juan Cole

By Juan Cole AJ+ SodaStream Leaving West Bank After Boycotts AJ+ : “Facing an intensive boycott campaign, the controversial Israeli company that makes home soda machines is leaving the West Bank. Bye, Sodastream!” Background: Informed Comment wrote on this issue last January: “The determination of the Likud Party to annex the Palestinian West Bank is […]

Colonialism

Centenary of the Ottoman Empire’s Entry into World War I

contributors

100 years ago, the Ottoman Empire bombarded two Russian ports, entering the war on the side of Germany and Austria. Below is rare footage of Ottoman forces operating during the war. The Ottomans lost, and victorious France and Britain carved up the Middle East into countries like Syria and Iraq, which have now fallen apart. […]