Can Iraqi forces take back Saddam’s Birthplace from ISIL?
By Juan Cole Joint Iraqi and Kurdish forces began moving into Tikrit on Tuesday night into…
By Juan Cole Joint Iraqi and Kurdish forces began moving into Tikrit on Tuesday night into…
By Juan Cole Calling the bottom of a river a “bed” is a metaphor. Imagine the…
By Juan Cole The Iraqi military is maintaining that it has successfully relieved the town of…
TheLipTV: “Solar panels are being denied to certain states as utilities companies and politicians are looking out for their own interests in an effort to eliminate the competition. We look why homes…
By Shalom Goldman In our time, Judaism, in all of its magnificent complexity and subtlety, has been reduced to supporting “team Israel” — whatever its policies or methods. Yes, American Jews, according…
Colbert Report: “ISIS Panic” The Colbert ReportGet More: Colbert Report Full Episodes,The Colbert Report on Facebook,Video Archive ——-
By Juan Cole Calling the bottom of a river a “bed” is a metaphor. Imagine the river restlessly sleeping on its muddy mattress. But when we’ve so internalized a metaphor that we…
“In collaboration with Louisiana Public Broadcasting, the PBS NewsHour examines the vanishing coastline of Louisiana and the vulnerability of its native tribes to rising sea levels. This report is part of our…
AJ+ “An American, Douglas McAuthur McCain was killed fighting for the Islamic State group (formerly known as ISIS or ISIL) in Syria. He’s not the only American to have been killed fighting…
Natalie Zemon Davis , among our most distinguished living historians and past president of the American Historical Association, has written a heartfelt appeal to Chancellor Phyllis M. Wise at the University of…
CBS New York buries the lead: “A 9-year-old New Jersey girl accidentally killed an Arizona shooting instructor as he was showing her how to use an automatic Uzi, authorities said Tuesday. CBS…
By Nicole Girard via Liberals Unite Mitch McConnell really does not care about our problems. The way he talks about the needs of average Americans, you’d think we were his sworn, personal…
John Oliver explores America’s wage gap between men and women and proposes a possible solution. Note: Solution proposed is 100% sarcastic. Last Week Tonight with John Oliver: The Wage Gap between Women…
By Aviva Chomsky via Tomdispatch.com Call it irony or call it a nightmare, but the “crisis” of Central American children crossing the U.S.-Mexican border, which lasted for months amid fervent and angry…
Note by Juan Cole: In the early 1950s, under the influence of Sen. Joseph McCarthy (R-WI), a national witch hunt was conducted for leftists. McCarthy claimed to have a list of 100…
The Young Turks: “A Ferguson, Mo. official was having none of Fox News host Sean Hannity’s attempt to “educate” her on police brutality Wednesday night. Hannity kicked off an interview with Democratic…
AJ+ People around the world have watched Ferguson, Missouri in disbelief that what they’re seeing is taking place in the United States. But Ferguson is actually quite American. AJ+ host Dena Takruri…
By Chris Cocking, University of Brighton The town of Ferguson, Missouri has now seen ten days of almost nightly disorder following the shooting of black teenager Michael Brown by the police. The…
By William J. Astore via Tomdispatch.com When you do something again and again, placing great faith in it, investing enormous amounts of money in it, only to see indifferent or even negative…
By Juan Cole The 45 million African-Americans in the United States are unequal before the law vis-a-vis European-Americans and becoming moreso. In the age of Jim Crow (the white South’s attempt to…
AJ+ “One million people worldwide have been swept up by TIDE, the Terrorist Identities Datamart Environment. It’s a list of people suspected of being terrorists that’s managed by the U.S. National Counterterrorism…
AJ+ “If a police officer were to stop you on the street in the U.S. and start questioning you, what would you do? Check out our quick list of six things you…
Emory University: “Climate Change: The Physics of Glacier Loss” Related press release from UC Irvine from this spring: “ Greenland will be far greater contributor to sea rise than expected Major UCI-NASA…
Foreign Policy
Iraq Flashpoint: Can the Kurds defend themselves from ISIL?
By Verena Gruber, Talalward, Kurdistan (Special to Informed Comment) There is something incredibly odd about seeing the black flag of the so-called “Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL)” flapping in…
Israeli settlers destroy Palestinian grape vines as Israel Steals More Land
HEBRON (Ma’an) — A group of Israeli settlers chopped down grape vines on Palestinian agricultural property in northern Beit Ummar on Monday, a popular committee spokesman said Monday. Muhammad Awwad said the…
History and Betrayal: UNSCOP and Palestine, 1947
By William Polk The British Foreign Secretary told Parliament on February 18, 1947 that “there is no prospect of resolving this conflict by any settlement negotiated between the parties.” Further, he said,…
Can Iraqi forces take back Saddam’s Birthplace from ISIL?
By Juan Cole Joint Iraqi and Kurdish forces began moving into Tikrit on Tuesday night into Wednesday after victories over the so-called Islamic State of Syria and the Levant in villages around…
“Let my People Fish”: After the war, Israeli Blockade leaves Gaza Civilians Protein Poor
DW: “People in Gaza are trying to rebuild their lives as the ceasefire holds. Fishermen have returned to work [still under severe restrictions]; people salvage what they can from the wreckage of…
Israel extends detention of Palestinian for Facebook posts
HEBRON (Ma’an) — An Israeli court on Friday extended the detention of a Palestinian activist who was detained for political activities on Facebook for a week, a Ma’an reporter said on Saturday.…
Chechens Now Fighting On Both Sides In Ukraine
By Liz Fuller via RFE/ RL Eighteen years after the signing of the Khasavyurt Accord that ended the 1994-96 Chechen war, a veteran Chechen field commander has issued a timely reminder that…
Pro-Israel Attacker puts British MP George Galloway in Hospital
UK Respect Party Member of Parliament George Galloway was assaulted by a pro-Israel fanatic on Friday evening, leaving him with a broken jaw, broken ribs, and other injuries. The attacker shouted about…
Iraq: Is the Battle of Amerli a Turning Point?
By Juan Cole The Iraqi military is maintaining that it has successfully relieved the town of Amerli (pop. 15,000) in northern Iraq from a siege by ISIL (the so-called Islamic State of…
Could a Palestinian Boycott Pinch Israeli Economy?
NABLUS (Ma’an) — In the last two months, Palestinians across the West Bank have begun heeding calls to boycott Israeli goods in increasing numbers as popular campaigns have taken to the street…
Iraq Crisis: Will Sunni Tribes of Besieged Falluja Turn on IS There?
By Mustafa Habib | Fallujah | via Niqash.org Recently most of the attention has been on northern Iraq. But military action in western Iraq has been going on for months, after areas…
Ukraine: What is the word for What is Happening There?
By Daisy Sindelar via RFE/RL Oleksandr Chernov, a doctor and journalist from eastern Ukraine, spent 10 days as a captive of pro-Russian separatists based in Slovyansk. During that time he was blindfolded,…
Israelis Alarmed as al-Qaeda Captures Golan, UN Peacekeepers
By Juan Cole Israel now has a border with al-Qaeda! Israeli observers have been alarmed by the capture of the Quneitra checkpoint between Syria and the Israeli-Occupied Golan Heights by the al-Qaeda…
Obama, al-Assad and ISIL update FB Status: It’s Complicated
AJ+ AJ+ Will The US Bomb IS Group (AKA ISIS) In Syria?
ISIS: How to Defeat a Phony “Caliphate”
By John Esposito via Huffington Post Containing and ultimately defeating ISIS will require both short and long-term response. ISIS expansion has been made possible by political conditions in Syria and Iraq, ethnic-religious/sectarian…
US Public Worried about ISIL, Putin– But Climate Change is Real Challenge
By Juan Cole In a new Pew/ USA Today poll, the American public shows itself alarmed by the rise of the so-called Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant in northern Iraq…
Israel War Aftermath: Epidemic feared in Gaza sheltering centers as skin infections spread
BETHLEHEM (Ma’an) — Displaced Gaza residents in sheltering centers are suffering from dangerous skin infections which could become a epidemic as a result of water shortage, the Ministry of Health says. Speaking…
Syrian Rebels welcome US Air strikes on ISIL Terrorists
By Juan Cole Ilaf reports that rebels in East Aleppo, Syria are deeply divided over the prospect of President Obama ordering US air strikes on the so-called “Islamic State” (IS). IS is…
As Int’l Powers focus on Kurds and Sunni Arabs, have Shiite Politicians lost Iraq Forever?
Mustafa Habib | Baghdad | via Niqash.org In Baghdad [last] week, Iraq’s most senior Shiite Muslim politicians are lamenting their increasing isolation from the international community. The EU and the US are…
Can you Pass the Hamas Quiz?
By Jeffrey Rudolph (updated) The degree of mainstream media distortion concerning Hamas is endemic in the US and Canada. In my local newspaper, the Montreal Gazette, one searches in vain for meaningful…