Israel, Yemen Authorities Targeting Media Workers Niku Jafarnia Bahrain and Yemen Researcher, Middle East and North Africa Division ( Human Rights Watch ) – A new report by Human Rights Watch documents attacks by all the warring parties in Yemen on journalists. An attack on a media center in Sanaa, the capital, by Israeli forces […]
Archives for September 2025
The “Defense” Department has always been about War
By Eric Ross ( Tomdispatch.com ) – The renaming of the Defense Department should have surprised no one. Donald Trump is an incipient fascist doing what such figures do. Surrounded by a coterie of illiberal ideologues and careerist sycophants, he and his top aides have dispensed with pretense and precedent, moving at breakneck speed to […]
Smotrich’s Apocalyptic “Decisive Plan” for Gaza
Bezazel Smotrich is one of political leaders of Israel’s Messianic far-right. But he is also a shrewd administrator executing a biblical “decisive plan” of ethnic cleansing in Gaza, which he is incorporating into Israel. New York (Special to Informed Comment; Feature) – Notorious as an extremist both in Israel and overseas, yet beloved as a […]
“And those who husbanded the Golden Grain:” FitzGerald’s Rubáiyát of Omar Khayyám 1:15
Stanza 15 of the first edition of Edward FitzGerald’s Rubáiyát of Omar Khayyám has for its theme a denial of the afterlife and resurrection. XV. And those who husbanded the Golden Grain, And those who flung it to the Winds like Rain, Alike to no such aureate Earth are turn’d As, buried once, Men want […]
The West Needs to Expedite Visas, Study Permits, Safe Passage for Palestinians in Gaza
Committee on Academic Freedom | Middle East Studies Association of North America | – Letter to Canadian officials about visas and study permits for Palestinian scholars The Right Honourable Mark Carney Prime Minister of Canada pm@pm.gc.ca . . . Dear Prime Minister Carney, Minister Metlege Diab and Minister Anadasangaree: We write on behalf […]
The Middle East faces Climate Breakdown, but its Media ignores it
By Marianna Poberezhskaya, Nottingham Trent University; Imad El-Anis, Nottingham Trent University, and Marwa Mustafa, Nottingham Trent University (The Conversation) – The Middle East is experiencing a period of intense political and economic turbulence, with several countries in the region embroiled in conflict. These conflicts are taking place against the backdrop of an escalating climate crisis. […]
Assassinating Peace: How Bernadotte’s Murder Ended the Israel-Palestine Two-State Dream
Chicago (Special to Informed Comment; Feature) – The UN General Assembly has just (September 12) endorsed the New York Declaration on the two-state solution between Israel and Palestine. A day earlier, Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu vowed that a “Palestinian state will not be established.” Israel managed to secure 10 votes, including those of the United […]
“Like Snow upon the Desert’s dusty Face:” FitzGerald’s Rubáiyát of Omar Khayyám 1:14
Quatrain 14 emphasizes how short life is, even with all the good things the earth offers us (of which we should take advantage while we can). XIV. The Worldly Hope men set their Hearts upon Turns Ashes — or it prospers; and anon, Like Snow upon the Desert’s dusty Face Lightning a little Hour or […]
Genocide as Spectacle: The Smartphone Era of War
by Ismail Salahuddin ( Middle East Monitor ) – In an age where our phones glow with the endless stream of breaking news, short videos, and curated feeds, genocide itself has been transformed into consumable content. We live not simply in an era of wars but in what might be called the Netflix era of […]
© 2026 All Rights Reserved