Middle East

Jeremiah Goulka writes at Tomdispatch: The Dogs of War Are Barking: Mitt Romney’s Team Wants to Let ‘Em Loose in Iran It’s the consensus among the pundits: foreign policy doesn’t matter in this presidential election. They point to the ways Republican candidate Mitt Romney has more or less parroted President Barack Obama on just about […]

Egypt

Abdel Nasser Jokes about Outrageous Muslim Brotherhood Demand that all Women Veil

Juan Cole

Then Egyptian President Gamal Abdel Nasser tells anecdotes (early 1960s?) about his meetings with the Muslim Brotherhood and their demand that he make all Egyptian women wear headscarves in public. How much things have changed is apparent in the humorous way Abdel Nasser dealt with what he saw as a completely unrealistic request. Ironically, the […]

Iran

Iran still Suffers from the illegal Diplomatic Hostage-Taking of 1979 (Azad)

Juan Cole

Armin Azad writes in a guest column for Informed Comment For more than three decades, there has been a government-organized demonstration in front of the former US Embassy in Tehran on November 4, though this year the rally was held early. The crowd gathers there to mark the anniversary of the militant Islamic students’ seizure […]

Syria

Syrian Regime flies 60 bombing Raids against Rebel City Quarters

Juan Cole

The Baath regime of Bashar al-Assad spent the final day of a supposed 4-day cease-fire on Monday intensively bombing its own cities, with fighter jets flying dozens of sorties against rebel positions. Some bombs were so powerful that they kicked up mini mushroom clouds. Neighborhoods of the capital, Damascus, were bombed, as were rebellious cities […]

Iran

Syria crisis Shakes Lebanon, Iraq, Saudi Arabia as Cease-Fire Crumbles

Juan Cole

The inability of the Syrian government to crush an 18-month-old revolutionary movement is putting increasing pressure on its neighbors. Not only have hundreds of thousands of refugees from Syria poured into Jordan, Turkey, Lebanon and Iraq, but political forces in each of those countries are having to choose sides and to reevaluate their choices over […]

Israel/ Palestine

Brandeis U. Owes Jimmy Carter an Apology: Israelis agree they run Apartheid State, as Far Right Wing Coalition Emerges

Juan Cole

In 2007, Jimmy Carter’s book Palestine: Peace, not Apartheid created a firestorm of controversy. Brandeis University initially said it would only allow Carter to speak on the book on campus if he would debate gadfly apologist Alan Dershowitz. Carter stood his ground and eventually did speak on campus, but many in this audience were distinctly […]

Egypt

Egypt President condemns Israeli Air Raids on Gaza

Juan Cole

Aljazeera Arabic is reporting on a speech by Egyptian President Muhammad Morsi on Wednesday evening Cairo time, in which the Muslim Brotherhood figure condemned Israeli attacks by fighter jet on the Gaza Strip. Morsi was careful to say that Revolutionary Egypt continues to respect all its treaties and international obligations, reassuring Washington and Tel Aviv […]

Libya

Open Source Center Reports from Sept. 12 on Libya Consulate Attack Support Crowd Protests

Juan Cole

Republican critics of the Obama administration’s evolving accounts of what happened in Benghazi on September 11, 2012 imply that there was early certainty in the US intelligence community that it was an attack staged by an al-Qaeda affiliate. In fact, the theories of who was behind the attack were multiple and conflicting for days afterward. […]

Bahrain

US must Pressure Bahrain on Human Rights (Strindberg)

Juan Cole

Anders Strindberg writes in a guest column for Informed Comment All is not what it seems: Bahrain and U.S. strategic interests On the last Friday night of September, Bahraini police shot seventeen-year old Ali Ne’amah in the back with bird shot, in the village of Sadad. He died on site. Ali’s family insists that he […]