Informed Comment Homepage

Thoughts on the Middle East, History and Religion

Header Right

  • Featured
  • US politics
  • Middle East
  • Environment
  • US Foreign Policy
  • Energy
  • Economy
  • Politics
  • About
  • Archives
  • Submissions

© 2025 Informed Comment

  • Skip to content
  • Skip to primary sidebar

Juan Cole

Corruption
Manafort’s alleged Corruption is How America Works, not Deviance

Manafort’s alleged Corruption is How America Works, not Deviance

Juan Cole

Paul Manafort, Donald Trump’s campaign manager, is being tried for money laundering, keeping some 15 illegal foreign accounts, and cheating the government out of the taxes he rightfully owed, among a host of other crimes. Manafort joined Trump’s presidential campaign in March, 2016, having offered to work for free, and tried to persuade delegates to […]

Featured
Saudi Arabia bullies Canada with Economic Threats for Criticizing its Horrible Human Rights Record

Saudi Arabia bullies Canada with Economic Threats for Criticizing its Horrible Human Rights Record

Juan Cole

Saudi Arabia is attempting to bully Canada for criticizing the abysmal Saudi human rights record. (That is, if something as non-existent as Saudi human rights can be called abysmal). Riyadh has expelled the Canadian ambassador and has frozen all new purchases and investments in Canada. The Canadian foreign ministry had tweeted on Friday, “Canada is […]

Featured
Emolument? Saudi Stay in Failing Trump NYC Hotel Boosted Profits 1st Quarter

Emolument? Saudi Stay in Failing Trump NYC Hotel Boosted Profits 1st Quarter

Juan Cole

David A. Fahrenthold and Jonathan O’Connell at WaPo have revealed that the declining revenues at Trump’s hotel in New York City were turned around in the first quarter of 2018, with a 13% bump produced by the stay there of a Saudi retinue in connection with the visit to the US of Crown Prince Mohamed […]

Featured
Jared Kushner Tries to Strip Refugee Status, Aid from Millions of Displaced Palestinians

Jared Kushner Tries to Strip Refugee Status, Aid from Millions of Displaced Palestinians

Juan Cole

According to Jared Kushner and other hard line Zionists, the Palestinian people don’t exist. Ever since they ethnically cleansed the majority of Palestinians, the Israelis have been hoping that they will just go away. They look out on Galilee, the West Bank, Gaza, Jordan, and Lebanon, and ask, “why are you still here?” as though […]

Donald Trump
Turkish Party Proposes Seizing Trump Towers to Retaliate for US Sanctions

Turkish Party Proposes Seizing Trump Towers to Retaliate for US Sanctions

Juan Cole

The Turkish Press reports that the IYI Party is suggesting that the government seize the country’s Trump Towers and nationalize it. The threat shows the opposite of the emoluments problem– Trump is liable to economic blackmail because he refused to put his wealth in a blind trust. Turks are angered because the Trump administration placed […]

Featured
Did Tillerson lose his Job over Stopping a Saudi Invasion of Qatar?

Did Tillerson lose his Job over Stopping a Saudi Invasion of Qatar?

Juan Cole

Alex Emmons at The Intercept interviewed two former State Department officials and one intelligence official who confirmed to him that in early June, 2017, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates had been on the cusp of invading Qatar, but were stopped by Rex Tillerson. Emmons suggests that Tillerson lost his job over his intervention, […]

Featured
Israel's Druze Minority Furious over Apartheid Law, Given their Military Service.

Israel’s Druze Minority Furious over Apartheid Law, Given their Military Service.

Juan Cole

Israel may never have been paradise for the some 20% of its citizens who are non-Jewish and Arabic-speaking. They did face de facto and sometimes even legal discrimination. But at least in the eyes of the law, they were full citizens. After the passage last week of the “nationality” law, Israel is no longer multicultural. […]

Islam
Love in the Qur’an: 19:96

Love in the Qur’an: 19:96

Juan Cole

Despite the negative messaging nowadays about the Qur’an (the scripture of the Muslims) among the haters, it is a book replete with love, mercy, warmth and peace (to the extent that Muslims are bewildered by the odd opinions of it among outsiders–most of whom have never read it). My new book, out October 9, explores […]

Donald Trump
Trump Passive-Aggressive Offer to Meet Iranians Rebuffed b/c he is “Unreliable”

Trump Passive-Aggressive Offer to Meet Iranians Rebuffed b/c he is “Unreliable”

Juan Cole

At a news conference Monday with the prime minister of Italy, Trump blurted out that he was willing to meet with Iranian president Hassan Rouhani any time and without preconditions. “No preconditions. No. They want to meet, I’ll meet. Anytime they want. Anytime they want. It’s good for the country, good for them, good for […]

  • « Previous Page
  • Page 1
  • …
  • Page 268
  • Page 269
  • Page 270
  • Page 271
  • Page 272
  • …
  • Page 1599
  • Next Page »

Primary Sidebar

Support Independent Journalism

Click here to donate via PayPal.

Personal checks should be made out to Juan Cole and sent to me at:

Juan Cole
P. O. Box 4218,
Ann Arbor, MI 48104-2548
USA
(Remember, make the checks out to “Juan Cole” or they can’t be cashed)

STAY INFORMED

Join our newsletter to have sharp analysis delivered to your inbox every day.
Warning! Social media will not reliably deliver Informed Comment to you. They are shadowbanning news sites, especially if "controversial."
To see new IC posts, please sign up for our email Newsletter.

Social Media

Bluesky | Instagram

Popular

  • Siamese Criminals: Trump and Netanyahu
  • Early Farming in Middle East, Sometimes Matriarchal, Spread through Learning, not Conquest
  • Misreading and Misrepresenting Iran
  • 12 Days Of War: Takeaways From The Israel-Iran Conflict
  • Ibn Battuta, a 14th-century Judge and Ambassador, travelled further than Marco Polo. The Rihla records his Adventures

Gaza Yet Stands


Juan Cole's New Ebook at Amazon. Click Here to Buy
__________________________

Muhammad: Prophet of Peace amid the Clash of Empires



Click here to Buy Muhammad: Prophet of Peace amid the Clash of Empires.

The Rubaiyat of Omar Khayyam


Click here to Buy The Rubaiyat.
Sign up for our newsletter

Informed Comment © 2025 All Rights Reserved