US Foreign Policy

( Foreign Policy in Focus ) – The Biden administration’s approach to the Middle East crisis that erupted in the wake of October 7, 2023 is on the brink of collapse. Israel’s aggressive maneuvers, coupled with Iran’s growing involvement, are pushing the region toward a full-scale war, one that the Biden administration ostensibly hoped to […]

Constitution

“A Bad” effing “guy!” – Biden cursed out Netanyahu but then let him do as he pleased – Hamlet on the Potomac

Juan Cole

Ann Arbor (Informed Comment) – Joe Biden has many achievements as a domestic president, including the biggest investment ever made in green energy and fighting climate change. Whatever one thinks of how he has handled the Ukraine crisis, he certainly has been decisive and has galvanized allies to act alongside him. But on the Middle […]

Israel/ Palestine

Inside the State Department’s Weapons Pipeline to Israel

ProPublica

By Brett Murphy | – ( ProPublica ) – Ambassador Jack Lew urged Washington to give thousands more bombs to the Israelis because they have a “decades-long proven track record” of avoiding killing civilians. A Thank-You: After State Department officials spent months working through weekends and after hours on arms sales, the Israelis sent cases […]

Food Insecurity

USAID Concluded that Israel was Blocking Aid to Gaza; Antony Blinken Lied about it to Congress

ProPublica

By Brett Murphy | – (ProPublica ) – The U.S. government’s two foremost authorities on humanitarian assistance concluded this spring that Israel had deliberately blocked deliveries of food and medicine into Gaza. The U.S. Agency for International Development delivered its assessment to Secretary of State Antony Blinken and the State Department’s refugees bureau made its […]

Featured

US State Department declines to Condemn Israel for Shooting American Activist in the Head, Killing Her

Juan Cole

Ann Arbor (Informed Comment) – Basil Maghrebi at the Israeli newspaper Arab 48 reports that on Friday, Israeli troops killed an American observer in the West Bank with a gunshot to her head, as she participated in a procession at Beita south of Nablus in the Palestinian West Bank. Aysenur Eygi, 26, a US citizen, […]

Israel/ Palestine

Is Gaza America’s Heart of Darkness?

William J. Astore

( Tomdispatch.com ) – During World War II, American leaders proudly proclaimed this country the “arsenal of democracy,” supplying weapons and related materiel to allies like Great Britain and the Soviet Union. To cite just one example, I recall reading about Soviet armored units equipped with U.S. Sherman tanks, though the Soviets had an even better […]

Iran

Is Iran’s anti-Israel and -American Rhetoric all Bark and no Bite?

Shahram Akbarzadeh

(The Conversation) – On August 27, Ali Khamenei, the supreme leader of the Islamic Republic of Iran, told the newly elected president, Masoud Pezeshkian, and his cabinet that talking to the enemy may be useful. In a thinly veiled reference to Iran’s engagement with the international community – and specifically the United States – Khamenei […]

Featured

Time to end the “No Daylight” Approach to America’s Israel Policy

Glenn E. Robinson

Monterey, Ca. (Special to Informed Comment; Feature) – Last month’s sad passing of Martin Indyk provides an opportunity to reflect on the US Middle East project over the past three decades, and to assess the potential need for new directions. This is particularly true given the events in Gaza over the past ten months and […]

Iran

Qatar, Upset with failed Israeli-Palestinian Talks and Haniyeh Assassination, may Turn to Mediating between Iran and West

The Conversation

By Kristian Coates Ulrichsen, Rice University | – (The Conversation) – When the longtime political chief of Hamas was assassinated in late July 2024, it didn’t just leave the entire Middle East on edge. It also created a political headache in Qatar. That’s because the death of Ismail Haniyeh, the result of an apparent Israeli […]