By Susan Hutchinson, Australian National University | – (The Conversation) – Last month, the Taliban passed a new “vice and virtue” law, making it illegal for women to speak in public. Under the law, women can also be punished if they are heard singing or reading aloud from within their homes. It was approved by […]
Archives for September 2024
From Stuxnet to Gospel to Pager Bombs, Israel is leading the Weaponization of the digital World
By Ibrahim Al-Marashi ( The National ) – A series of pager explosions across Lebanon, and secondary attacks on walkie-talkies the following day, have killed and maimed a number of Hezbollah operatives, as well as many civilians, including children. The attacks have also injured thousands, including Iran’s ambassador to Beirut. Israel normally does not claim […]
Does Israel’s Weaponizing of Hezbollah Pagers signal the Start of a Regional War?
Israel’s massive cyber-attack on Lebanon on 17 and 18 September, with the near-simultaneous explosion of 3,000-4,000 pagers and walkie-talkies, has killed a few dozen Hezbollah members and many civilians, including some children and health workers, has blinded and maimed hundreds of people and wounded many thousands. Hezbollah’s leader Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah, in a long speech […]
Sudan’s civilians urgently need protection: the options for international peacekeeping
By Jenna Russo, City University of New York | – (The Conversation) – In September 2024, the United Nations’ independent fact-finding mission to Sudan issued its first report. Citing grave human rights violations amounting to war crimes and crimes against humanity, the report called for the immediate deployment of an independent and impartial force to […]
For-Profit US Healthcare System—Once Again—Ranks Dead Last Among Its Peers
Jake Johnson ( Commondreams ) – A report out Thursday shows that the United States’ for-profit healthcare system still ranks dead last among peer nations on key metrics, including access to care and health outcomes such as life expectancy at birth. The new analysis from the Commonwealth Fund is the latest indictment of a corporate-dominated […]
Water, War and Women in Gaza
Greenfield, Mass. (Special to Informed Comment; Feature) – In late 2020, a report titled Saving Gaza Begins with its Water stated: The water crisis in Gaza is a problem of daunting proportions, with grave implications for the more than 2 million inhabitants of the Palestinian enclave. The Coastal Aquifer from which Gaza pumps water is diminishing; but […]
Israel’s Booby-Trapped Pagers wound Thousands, many Innocent Lebanese Civilians, Contravening Int’l Law
Human Rights Watch – (Beirut) – Thousands of pagers simultaneously exploded across Lebanon and parts of Syria on September 17, 2024, resulting in at least 12 deaths, including at least two children and two health workers, and at least 2,800 injuries, according to Lebanon’s Ministry of Health. Photographs and videos filmed by victims and witnesses to the […]
How the Israeli Settlers Movement shaped Modern Israel
By Arie Perliger, UMass Lowell | – (The Conversation) – The increase in settler violence against Palestinians in the West Bank over the past year has been unprecedented. Since Hamas’ Oct. 7, 2023, attack and the start of the war, there have been more than 1,000 attacks, according to a new report from the International […]
The Sphinx and the Sultan: How Biden’s Bear Hug of Netanyahu Caused Washington’s Near East Policy to Crash and Burn
I’m reprinting here my most recent Tomdispatch essay for The Nation Institute, on the possible emergence of a centrist Sunni bloc that aims to offset Israeli power in the region. Check out, as well, Tom Engelhardt’s essential introduction, here. At least one thing is now obvious in the Middle East: the Biden administration has failed […]
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