By Juan Cole | (Informed Comment) | – – Revised A lot of smoke is being generated to cover up the fact that the horrific Florida school shooting that has left at least 17 dead results from a virtual absence of meaningful gun controls in the US, such that a few gun manufacturers are allowed […]
Celebrities speak out for Jailed Teen Ahed Tamimi: Israel/Palestine
IMEMC | – – Celebrities and civil rights figures declared their support for imprisoned Palestinian teenager Ahed Tamimi, 17, who was detained by Israeli forces on December 15, after a video of her slapping an Israeli soldier who broke into her house in Nabi Saleh village, near Ramallah, went viral. A number of high-profile entertainers, […]
What Does Netanyahu Corruption Case tell us about Trump’s Fate?
By Juan Cole | (Informed Comment) | – – Israeli police have recommended that Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu be indicted for corruption. The recommendation now goes to attorney general Avichai Mandelblit, who may or may not decide to act on it. Although 60% of Israelis in polling have said they wanted Netanyahu to step down […]
Syria: War is over at the Center, but Powers nibbling at Edges
By Juan Cole | (Informed Comment) | – – Where people live and how many of them there are constitute basic questions for any social scientist but these basics are often ignored by the writers of headlines in the press. There is a rash of articles about how Syria’s war is heating back up. It […]
Robots, kittens and Netflix: Turkish curbs on the media reach ludicrous levels
By Ozge Ozduzen | (The Conversation) | – – Regulation and censorship mechanisms have recently reached absurd levels in Turkey. Two stark recent examples illustrate the banality of the recent creeping controls. On February 6, a robot was reformatted in Ankara because it warned the Turkish Transport, Maritime and Communications Minister Ahmet Arslan to speak […]
Russia warns Israel on Syria strikes, danger to Russian Troops
By Juan Cole | (Informed Comment) | – – BBC Monitoring reports on a statement in Russian at the site of its Ministry of Foreign Affairs, reacting to the Israeli air attacks on Syria and the shoot-down by the Syrians of one Israeli fighter-jet. The Foreign ministry expressed “serious concern” over the Israeli air strikes, […]
A Crisis of Democracy: Trump’s block of Dem Response to Nunes
By Juan Cole | (Informed Comment) | – – Trump’s refusal to release the response of the Democratic minority on the House Intelligence Committee to the declassified Nunes memo cherry-picking intelligence reports has been decried as a politicization of intelligence. It has been pointed out by legal scholar Laurence Tribe that Congress could in any […]
Russia-aided Syria shoots down Israeli F-16 after downing of Iranian Drone
By Juan Cole | (Informed Comment) | – – Syrian anti-aircraft batteries scored a rare shoot-down of an Israeli F-16 late Saturday morning local time. It is being alleged by a whole range of analysts that this shoot-down could not have happened without Russian help. It required that the anti-aircraft personnel break Israeli radar jamming. […]
US, having Destroyed Iraq, won’t give a Dime to Reconstruction
By Juan Cole | (Informed Comment) | – – In an exclusive, Reuters reports today that the Trump administration is going into the Iraq reconstruction conference in Kuwait next week with no plans to contribute a dime to the effort. Secretary of State Rex Tillerson will attend. Iraqi Prime Minister Haydar al-Abadi estimates that Iraq […]
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