Mitt Romney, a privileged white man worth a quarter of a billion dollars who has sheltered his money from taxes in Bermuda, the Cayman Islands and Switzerland, and who never misses a square meal, stooped to a new obscene low in blaming the victim on Monday by slamming the Palestinians for not being richer. Palestinian […]
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Middle East
Romney on Jerusalem: A World of Hurt for America
As expected, Mitt Romney in Israel tried his hardest to make casino mogul and Likud Party stalwart Sheldon Adelson happy. Adelson has pledged $100 million to Romney’s presidential campaign. Romney put all options on the table (a euphemism for illegally launching a war) with regard to Iran. But in an interview with Jim Muir of […]
Top Ten Most Distasteful things about Romney Trip to Israel
The trip of Republic Presidential hopeful Mitt Romney to Israel is in bad taste for lots of reasons. 1. He is holding a fundraiser at the King David Hotel in Jerusalem. It is distasteful for an American political candidate to hold a high profile fundraiser abroad, implying a commitment to a foreign country as a […]
Tripoli, Libya: Martyr’s Square (Photo)
Martyr’s Square, Tripoli, Libya on a Friday afternoon. This is the area of the former “Green Square” where Qaddafi gave his hours-long crackpot speeches. It now has a carnival atmosphere on the weekends. Families are out, into the evening, and according to the informal interviews I did, most seem quite happy with the new political […]
Egypt: Military Pulls the Strings (Tahrir Graffitti)
Photograph by Juan Cole of graffiti, Tahrir Square, mid-May 2012, showing the Supreme Council of the Armed Forces as the puppeteer of Egyptian politics. (Since erased in a government campaign to clear graffiti).
Syrian Baath Escalates, Uses Jets to Bomb Aleppo
When I was interviewed by the BBC last week about rebel advances in Damascus, I cautioned that putting some armed bands in some neighborhoods would not result in a revolution. Nor did even a big bombing of security officials. I said that that a significant proportion of the population of the capital would have to […]
Cole Twitter, Facebook,, Email, Books (Repeat)
Some book keeping for new readers. Subscribe to postings by email here You can follow the blog via Twitter @jricole. The Facebook Informed Comment fan page is here One of my Facebook pages is here. Those who like reading history and want a background on Egypt might enjoy these books of mine: Napoleon’s Egypt: Invading […]
Free Syrian Army Controls Border Areas
Free Syria exists along Syria’s borders with Turkey and Iraq. The Free Syrian Army, somewhat to my surprise, is beginning to take and hold territory, acting more like a conventional army than like a guerrilla movement. Admittedly, the territory is in the boondocks. But these boondocks are crucial because they control border areas and roads […]
Top Ten Implications of the Damascus Bombing
The bombing of the Security Headquarters of the Baath government of Syria on Wednesday killed the Minister of Defense, the deputy Minister of Defense, and the Assistant to the vice-president and head of crisis management office Gen Hassan Turkomani. It wounded the Minister of the Interior (i.e. head of the secret police) and a member […]