US Foreign Policy

Israel’s Lavender Murderbot is Programmed to Kill up to a Third of all Palestinian Civilians in Gaza

Ann Arbor (Informed Comment) – The incredibly brave and resourceful Israeli journalist Yuval Abraham revealed Wednesday in a hard-hitting piece of investigative journalism that the Israeli military has used two artificial intelligence programs, “Lavender” and “Where’s Daddy,” to target some 37,000 alleged members of the military wings of Hamas and Islamic Jihad. The programs used […]

Featured

Was Israel’s Strike on Iranian Embassy in Damascus an attempt to draw the US into the War?

Juan Cole

Ann Arbor (Informed Comment) – Israel’s airstrikes Monday on the Iranian embassy in Damascus, which killed a senior general of the Iranian Revolutionary Guards Corps and six other Iranian military advisers, as well as Syrians, is a violation of the Vienna Convention on Diplomatic Relations. Israel itself has squawked when its embassies and embassy personnel […]

Democratic Party

Poll: Most Americans don’t agree with Biden Administration’s support for Israel’s Military Campaign

Nazita Lajevardi

East Lansing, MI (Special to Informed Comment; Feature) – For 176 days, the world has borne witness to Israel’s use of disproportionate, and arguably, genocidal force against the people of Gaza. The civilians, children, sons, daughters, sisters, brothers, mothers, fathers, grandparents, and neighbors of Gaza. As of the time of this writing, Al-Jazeera reports that […]

Israel/ Palestine

The Most Dangerous Wars: When Local Conflicts become Geopolitics

Foreign Policy in Focus

By Walden Bello ( Foreign Policy in Focus ) – The three major wars or conflicts that are ongoing today demonstrate the volatility of the intersection between the local and the global. In the Hamas-Israeli conflict, we see how the maintenance of the Israeli settler-colonial state is intertwined with the preservation of the global hegemony […]

Israel

The US Administration’s Hypocrisy and Israel’s Cockiness

Gilbert Achcar

( Middle East Monitor ) – It is truly astonishing that Washington abstained in voting on the resolution adopted by the UN Security Council on Monday, although the resolution is consistent with the US position that rejects the call for a permanent ceasefire, as it only calls for “an immediate ceasefire for the month of […]

Displaced and Refugees

State Department finding Israel not in Violation of Int’l Law Contradicted by Resigning Official

Juan Cole

Ann Arbor (Informed Comment) – US arms transfers are conditioned by federal law, as the Congressional Research office explains, which “prohibits security assistance to ‘any country the government of which engages in a consistent pattern of gross violations of internationally recognized human rights.’” (Foreign Assistance Act of 1961, as amended in 1976 with Section 502B(a)(2) […]

Featured

Naked Hypocrisy: The US once cited UNSC Resolutions to Invade Iraq, now calls Gaza Ceasefire Demand “Non-Binding”

Juan Cole

Ann Arbor (Informed Comment) – State Department spokesperson Matthew Miller on Tuesday characterized the United Nations Security Council resolution 2728 demanding an immediate ceasefire in the Gaza conflict as “non-binding,” a phrase also used by US ambassador to the UN Linda Thomas-Greenfield. The US was rebuked by China, according to Akmal Dawi at VOA: “‘Security […]

Apartheid

As Israel defies UNSC demand for Gaza Ceasefire, UN Human Rights Body slams ongoing “Genocide”

Juan Cole

Ann Arbor (Informed Comment) – The UN Security Council has finally passed a ceasefire resolution for Gaza, from which the US abstained, so it was passed by the other 14 members. Although UNSC resolutions are binding, and countries like Iraq and Iran have been severely punished for disobeying them, the US is running interference for […]

Algeria

The Middle East Ranks at the Bottom of Gallup’s Happiness Index, except for Rich Oil States; is the US to Blame?

Juan Cole

Ann Arbor (Informed Comment) – The annual Gallup report on happiness by country came out this week. It is based on a three-year average of polling. What struck me in their report is how unhappy the Middle East is. The only Middle Eastern country in the top twenty is Kuwait (for the first time in […]