By Amin Saikal, The University of Western Australia For all its claims of being a democracy that adheres to international law and the rules of war, Israel’s global reputation is in tatters. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s latest plan for a full military takeover of Gaza, along with the expanding starvation crisis in the strip and […]
Archives for August 2025
On Occidental College’s Disciplining of Students Protesting Gaza
Committee on Academic Freedom | Middle East Studies Association of North Africa | – Letter to the administration of Occidental College about disciplinary proceedings against students accused of participating in protest activity Tom Stritikus President, Occidental College president@oxy.edu . . . Dear President Stritikus, Deans Leonard and Santiago, Ms. Kahn and Trustees: We write on […]
War Crimes Then and Now: Hiroshima to Gaza
This week marks 80 years since the United States used its nuclear weapons against the civilian population of Japan in August 1945. Prior to that, the U.S. began the mass firebombing of Japanese citizens. On the night of March 9, U.S. bombers, “dropped 1,665 tons of incendiary bombs on Tokyo, unleashing a firestorm that incinerated […]
Wildfire Season is starting Weeks earlier in California – a new Study shows how Climate Change is driving the Expansion
By Gavin D. Madakumbura, University of California, Los Angeles and Alex Hall, University of California, Los Angeles (The Conversation) – Fire season is expanding in California, with an earlier start to wildfire activity in most of the state. In parts of the northern mountains, the season is now starting more than 10 weeks earlier than […]
Gaza: Israeli School Strikes Magnify Civilian Peril (HRW)
Israeli forces’ deadly attacks on schools sheltering Palestinian civilians highlight the absence of safe places for displaced people, the vast majority of Gaza’s population. Hundreds of Israeli attacks since October 2023 have struck over 500 school buildings, many used as shelters, killing hundreds of civilians and causing significant damage to nearly all of Gaza’s schools. […]
We are What we Eat: A Step We all Can take to Fight Climate Breakdown
Greenfield, Mass. (Special to Informed Comment; Feature) – Nuclear physicist Edward Teller predicted in 1959 that the risks of burning fossil fuels, by increasing carbon dioxide (C02) in the atmosphere, may be sufficient in time to melt polar icecaps and submerge all coastal cities. These predictions, which are proving accurate, were buried by the fossil […]
“Awake my little ones and fill the Cup!” FitzGerald’s Rubáiyát of Omar Khayyám 1:2
Persian poetry of life and love
The Verdict of History: How political Calculations betrayed Gaza
( Middle East Monitor ) – The Israeli human rights organization B’Tselem released a comprehensive report on 27 July describing the Israeli war on Gaza as genocide. However, the delay in publishing such an indictment is troubling and adds to an existing problem of politically motivated decision-making processes that have, in their own right, prolonged […]
Flames to Floods: How Europe’s Devastating Wildfires are fuelling its next Climate Crisis
By Ioanna Stamataki, University of Greenwich (The Conversation) – In recent years, I have all too often found myself passing over an active wildfire when flying from London to my family home in Greece during the summer months. The sky glows an eerie, apocalyptic red, and the scent of smoke fills the cabin. Silence falls […]
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