By Juan Cole Former British Prime Minister Tony Blair has agreed to advise the government of Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi. Blair maintains that he will not be paid to do so, but critics suggest that he will have an opportunity to engage in influence-peddling with British firms investing in Egypt. Blair is rumored to […]
Juan’s Interviews re: “The New Arabs,” Majority Report, The World, Daily Beast
By Juan Cole Today is the anniversary of the overthrow of Muhammad Morsi in Egypt, one year ago. I have a detailed account of this event and of the movement that led up to it in my new book, The New Arabs, which came out Tuesday. Here are some interviews I’ve done around it recently. […]
Not War on Poverty but War on the Poor: Washington’s Real Foreign Policy Aims
By Noam Chomsky via Tomdispatch The question of how foreign policy is determined is a crucial one in world affairs. In these comments, I can only provide a few hints as to how I think the subject can be productively explored, keeping to the United States for several reasons. First, the U.S. is unmatched in […]
Israel’s search for missing settlers shines light on depth of the West Bank’s occupation
By: Ola al-Tamimi Ramallah – What does the occupied West Bank look like 47 years into the occupation? The Palestinian state was about to be announced but negotiations failed again. The two major political parties, Fatah and Hamas, declared they consent implicitly and explicitly, and agreed on a state within the June 4, 1967 borders. […]
Syrian Opposition: Baghdadi “Caliphate” lame attempt to take Spotlight off his Crime Spree
By Juan Cole Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi’s proclamation of himself as “caliph” is rather like the Grand Wizard of the Ku Klux Klan declaring himself the Holy Roman emperor. A small criminal/ terrorist group making claim on an archaic institution is more worthy of ridicule than awe. Having offended educated Muslims around the world, the extremely […]
In the Deaths of 3 Israeli Teens, Likud Policies are also Implicated
By Juan Cole The kidnapping and killing of three Israeli squatter youth whose parents usurped Palestinian land has produced a paroxysm of hatred and calls for reprisals in Israel. Whoever is responsible for it, the killing of the youth was a horrid and inexcusable crime, and the heart of any parent goes out to the […]
What the Arab Youth Movements have Wrought: Don’t Count them Out Yet
By Juan Cole via Tomdispatch.com Three and a half years ago, the world was riveted by the massive crowds of youths mobilizing in Cairo’s Tahrir Square to demand an end to Egypt’s dreary police state. We stared in horror as, at one point, the Interior Ministry mobilized camel drivers to attack the demonstrators. We watched […]
Photo of the Day: Egyptian Youth Demanded end to Military Trials for Civilians
By Juan Cole Now On the June 30 anniversary of the determined masses gathered in their millions at Tahrir Square and in city centers throughout Egypt, demanding a recall election for then Muslim Brotherhood president Muhammad Morsi, Tahrir Square in Cairo was blocked off and deserted. Early on Monday, two bombs were detonated outside the […]
The Debacle of the Caliphates: Why al-Baghdadi’s Grandiosity doesn’t Matter
By Juan Cole Ibrahim al-Badri, a run-of-the-mill Sunni Iraqi cleric, gained a degree from the University of Baghdad at a time when pedagogy there had collapsed because of the Saddam Hussein dictatorship and international sanctions. After 2003 he took the name Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi and turned to a vicious and psychopathic violence involving blowing up […]
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