Juan Cole

Karen Hughes Denies Israel Has Blank Check Fierce Fighting at Aita al-Shaab, Baalbak Karen Hughes, W.’s official in charge of public diplomacy to the Muslim world, must be about the loneliest person in the world right now. The Neocons inside the administration have been trying to undermine her, from what I hear in Washington (since […]

70 Killed in Civil Violence 45 Pilgrims Kidnapped Grand Ayatollahs Turn on Shiite Government? Amid a wave of bombings and violence on Tuesday, among the more dangerous developments was the kidnapping in al-Anbar Province of some 45 Shiite pilgrims on their way back up north after a pilgrimage to the holy city of Najaf. Given […]

Brown Guest Editorial: From Suez to Baalbak Kenneth Brown* writes: SUEZ A HALF-CENTURY ON: THE CONTINUATION OF WAR BY WAR As a visiting American student in Jerusalem in 1956, I became an inadvertent witness to some aspects of the ignominious tripartite invasion of Egypt and its aftermath in Israel. Fifty years later in unleashing its […]

Israeli Ground War Ramps Up; Worldwide Rallies; Iraqi Vice President Slams Israel There were widespread protests in the Muslim world on Monday against the Qana massacre. 120 Egyptian MPs marched to demand the recall of the US ambassador. There was also a demonstration in Shiite Sadr City, east Baghdad, and bigger demonstrations in Pakistan. Don’t […]

Sistani Fatwa on Qana The fatwa by Grand Ayatollah Ali Sistani condemning Israel for the Qana massacre and threatening the United States with consequences if it continued to block a ceasefire has now been published at Sistani’s web site in Arabic. I had commented on it yesterday. Below is my translation of it. A communique […]

Israeli-Hizbullah Battles in Deep South Israelis Bombed Qana while Relief and Rescue troops worked Update: Israeli war planes conducted further air raids Monday morning, despite Israeli officials’ earlier pledge to cease for 48 hours. The Israelis bombed a car with a Lebanese Army officer and soldiers, killing him. They have repeatedly bombed Lebanese army bases […]

What is Hizbullah? Western and Israeli pundits keep comparing Hizbullah to al-Qaeda. It is a huge conceptual error. There is a crucial difference between an international terrorist network like al-Qaeda, which can be disrupted by good old policing techniques (such as inserting an agent in the Western Union office in Karachi), and a sub-nationalist movement. […]

Sistani Threatens US over Israeli War on Lebanon The US punditocracy and ruling elite is fixated on Hizbullah as a “terrorist group” even though the organization hasn’t engaged in international terror against American civilians in many years. What they forget about Hizbullah is that it is also a Shiite religious party, and that that is […]

Why Mel Gibson is Wrong It is not very important or interesting that a Hollywood star has substance abuse problems. But the alleged sentiment expressed by Mel Gibson to the police who arrested him, as follows, is worth some comment: ‘ “Once inside the car, a source directly connected with the case says Gibson began […]