US Foreign Policy

With Israeli Expulsionists in Power, US SecState Blinken can’t Assuage Palestinian Fears With talk of defunct “Two-State Solution”

( Middle East Monitor) – With Likud’s Benjamin Netanyahu set to return as Israeli prime minister, US Secretary of State Antony Blinken spoke with Palestinian Authority leader Mahmoud Abbas, spouting yet another round of futile rhetoric about improving the quality of life for Palestinians and, of course, reaffirming Washington’s adherence to the — surely defunct […]

Climate Crisis

The Planet Earth We Grew up With, R.I.P.

Tom Engelhardt

( Tomdispatch.com ) – Oddly enough, I’ve read obituaries with fascination from the time I was quite young. And yet, in all these years, I’ve never really reflected on that fact. I don’t know whether it was out of some indirect fascination with death and the end of it all or curiosity about the wholeness […]

Israel

Why Israel Defies the United States, Stays on the Good Side of Russia’s Putin in Refusing Aid to Ukraine

Middle East Monitor

By Adnan Abu Amer | – ( Middle East Monitor ) – The Ukrainian war continues to have negative effects on Russian-Israeli relations where, recently, there was a warning by former Russian President, Dmitry Medvedev, to Israel that if it offered military assistance to Ukraine, it would seriously harm relations with Moscow. This warning came […]

Arms Sales

Ukraine war: Iranian ‘kamikaze’ drones can inflict serious damage but will not be a gamechanger

The Conversation

By Dominika Kunertova, Swiss Federal Institute of Technology Zurich | – Many Ukrainians are facing the prospect of a winter of power outages after about 30% of the country’s power stations were knocked out in just over a week. The deputy head of the president’s office, Kyrylo Tymoshenko, has warned that the country needs to […]

Afghanistan

The Ukraine Moment: Lessons from the War on Terror

Karen J. Greenberg

( Tomdispatch.com ) – Ukraine is obviously a powder keg. With each passing day, in fact, the war there poses new threats to the world order. Only recently, Vladimir Putin’s Russia intensified its attacks on civilian targets in that beleaguered land, while threatening to use tactical nuclear weapons and adding Ukraine’s neighbor Belarus to its […]

Greece

Could Tensions between Greece and Turkey spiral into yet another European war?

The Conversation

By Yasar Bukan, Toronto Metropolitan University | – Tensions are flaring between Turkey and Greece over the militarization of the eastern Aegean islands and a host of other issues. Considering Russia’s military expansion across the region, it would be strategically wise for the two NATO members to de-escalate and improve relations based on mutual trust […]

Climate Crisis

Turbocharging Green Energy would Allow Ukraine, Europe better to defy Putin’s War

Juan Cole

Ann Arbor (Informed Comment) – Dan Sabbagh (in Kyiv) and Patrick Wintour report in The Guardian that recent Russian drone, rocket and missile attacks on Ukraine’s infrastructure have knocked out nearly a third of Ukraine’s power stations. Facing severe battlefield losses and the potential isolation of Crimea with a bombing of the bridge connecting it […]

Arms Sales

Iranian drones used by Russia in Ukraine show that there’s already one Victor in that War: Iran

The Conversation

By Aaron Pilkington, University of Denver | – The war in Ukraine is helping one country achieve its foreign policy and national security objectives, but it’s neither Russia nor Ukraine. It’s Iran. That was starkly clear on the morning of Oct. 17, 2022, as Iranian-made drones attacked civilian targets in Ukraine’s capital, Kyiv. Russia used […]

Donald Trump

US officials, having Stabbed Palestinians in the Back for Decades, now “Offended” that President Abbas doesn’t Trust them and Wants Russia Involved

Juan Cole

Ann Arbor (Informed Comment) – Barak Ravid at Axios reports that Biden administration officials are furious about remarks by Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas saying he lacked confidence in the US as a mediator. What Ravid does not say is that Washington has no right, none, to get on a high horse. Since the US sponsored […]