Over the past 15 months, the international community has failed to prevent genocidal atrocities in Gaza. Dismantling the UN refugee agency would perfect the nightmare. New York (Special to Informed Comment; Feature) – Early in the year, State Department officials briefed Joel Rayburn from the Trump transition team there could be a humanitarian “catastrophe” in […]
Archives for January 2025
Gaza Deal: What it means for Peace in the Middle East
By Scott Lucas, University College Dublin (The Conversation) – After 15 months of bitter conflict on the Gaza Strip, a ceasefire deal has been agreed which promises an end to the fighting and will allow for the access of food and other desperately needed humanitarian aid to the civilian population. Since the Israel Defense Forces […]
How the State Department Let Israel Get Away With Horrors in Gaza: A Year of Empty Threats and a “Smokescreen” Policy
by Brett Murphy ( ProPublica ) – Empty Threats: Since Oct. 7, 2023, Biden has repeatedly issued threats that Israel ignored. U.S. officials tried to enforce consequences — but they couldn’t. Internal Dissent: The State Department disregarded its own experts and cracked down on leaks. Some human rights officials said they were prevented from pursuing […]
Professor Katherine Franke on being Fired from Columbia Law School for Palestine Advocacy
Statement from Katherine Franke, January 10, 2025 For the last year and a half, as students at Columbia University and across the globe have protested against the Israeli government’s genocidal assault on Palestinians after the October 2023 attacks, a response that has resulted in horrendous devastation in Gaza, I have ardently defended students’ right to […]
Lebanon’s new President faces uphill Struggle to steer Country away from Brink of Collapse
By John Nagle, Queen’s University Belfast and Drew Mikhael, Queen’s University Belfast Lebanon’s parliament elected a new president on January 9 after a two-year political deadlock and 13 failed attempts. Joseph Aoun met the threshold for victory in the second round of voting after his rival, a Hezbollah-backed candidate called Suleiman Frangieh, withdrew from the […]
Angling toward Armageddon: The Return of Senator Strangelove
( Tomdispatch.com ) – A primary responsibility of the government is, of course, to keep us safe. Given that obligation, you might think that the Washington establishment would be hard at work trying to prevent the ultimate catastrophe — a nuclear war. But you would be wrong. A small, hardworking contingent of elected officials is […]
Representative, it is Shameful that you Voted to Sanction the Justices of the Int’l Criminal Court for Netanyahu Arrest Warrant
Letter to Representative Jared Golden (D-ME) Dear Representative Jared Golden: Your decision to vote in favor of sanctioning the International Criminal Court of Justice, (ICC) which had ordered Israel to take steps to prevent genocide in Gaza, was dismaying. This recent vote to sanction the ICC by Representatives of Congress erodes the ability of the […]
The Fall of Israeli Impunity: The World is Starting to hold Tel Aviv Accountable for the Gaza Genocide
( Middle East Monitor ) – A dramatic escape was cited by Israeli media as the reason that Yuval Vagdani, a soldier in the Israeli army, managed to escape justice in Brazil. Vagdani was accused by a Palestinian advocacy legal group, the Hind Rajab Foundation, of carrying out well-documented crimes in Gaza. He is not […]
How the US Religious Right is making Religion Unpopular
By Galen Watts, University of Waterloo (The Conversation) – In 1961, less than one per cent of Canadians identified as having no religion. In 2021, 43 per cent of those between 15 and 35 considered themselves religiously unaffiliated. Organized religion — and especially Christianity — is in decline. Secularization is advancing apace. Most sociologists of […]
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