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Juan Cole

Israel/ Palestine
Hawking joins Academic Boycott of Israel

Hawking joins Academic Boycott of Israel

Juan Cole

Physicist Stephen Hawking’s decision to boycott the annual President’s Conference in Jerusalem this year has been confirmed by Cambridge University. The university initially attempted to deny a political motive and said Hawkings was not going because of his health. It acknowledged the political motive when the Guardian newspaper provided it with a copy of Hawking’s […]

Israel/ Palestine
Russia Warns Israel:  Hands off Syria, as PFLP threatens Guerrilla Strike

Russia Warns Israel: Hands off Syria, as PFLP threatens Guerrilla Strike

Juan Cole

The Iranian press is reporting that Russian President Vladimir Putin has vehemently warned Israel against further airstrikes on Syria. Putin is said to be accelerating shipments of anti-aircraft batteries to Syria. Meanwhile Syrian leader Bashar al-Asad’s decision to permit guerrilla attacks on Israel from Syrian soil was welcomed by the Popular Front for the Liberation […]

Iraq
Another view of Baghdad: Timelapse Video

Another view of Baghdad: Timelapse Video

Juan Cole

Baghdad timelapse

Turkey
ReOrienting the Veil (Gökariksel)

ReOrienting the Veil (Gökariksel)

Juan Cole

Banu Gökariksel writes for for ISLAMiCommentary Fatih neighborhood of Istanbul, 2009. photo by Banu Gökarıksel Banu Gökarıksel The veil is a piece of fabric that is politicized like no other. It is the persistent topic of fiery political debates and possibly the most stigmatized, praised, banned, and enforced article of clothing. And it continues to […]

Uncategorized
A Million Newborns die the Day they are Born, every Year: Save the Children

A Million Newborns die the Day they are Born, every Year: Save the Children

Juan Cole

Save the Children reports that a million newborns every year die the same day they are born. Most of these babies die of infections and could be treated with inexpensive antibiotics. Video report:

Uncategorized
Fisk on Syria and Stenography “Journalism” (Democracy Now! Video)

Fisk on Syria and Stenography “Journalism” (Democracy Now! Video)

Juan Cole

Veteran Middle East correspondent Robert Fisk is interviewed by Amy Goodman on his experiences in Syria. In the course of the interview, he denounces the increasingly common stenography approach in Western journalism, where articles are written citing unnamed government intelligence analysts and security officials, with no fact-checking and no reporting from the ground:

Israel/ Palestine
On how Rightwing Israel-firsters don't actually like Jews: Glenn Beck's Nazi Bloomberg

On how Rightwing Israel-firsters don’t actually like Jews: Glenn Beck’s Nazi Bloomberg

Juan Cole

The wingnut psychopathology of Glenn Beck and many other hyper-conservatives doesn’t prevent them from being lionized in the media, turned into millionaires by media corporations, and having their own media (“The Blaze”) taken seriously on television. Meanwhile, we ordinary everyday liberals are considered by the corporate media to be too controversial to put on the […]

Uncategorized
Unsustainable:  The American Empire Project and the Health of the Planet (Engelhardt)

Unsustainable: The American Empire Project and the Health of the Planet (Engelhardt)

Juan Cole

Tom Engelhardt writes at Tomdispatch.com It stretched from the Caspian to the Baltic Sea, from the middle of Europe to the Kurile Islands in the Pacific, from Siberia to Central Asia.  Its nuclear arsenal held 45,000 warheads, and its military had five million troops under arms.  There had been nothing like it in Eurasia since the Mongols conquered […]

Uncategorized
The Worst Places to be a mother-- Save the Children

The Worst Places to be a mother– Save the Children

Juan Cole

Save the Children has issued its annual report on mothers and newborns. The best place to be a mother? Finland! The worst? The Congo. Save the Children issued a video on motherhood in Mozambique: The US only ranks 30th, with the worst infant mortality rate in the industrialized world. Every year here, 11,500 newborns die […]

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