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Juan Cole

Uncategorized
Mission Failure: Afghanistan (Engelhardt)

Mission Failure: Afghanistan (Engelhardt)

Juan Cole

Tom Engelhardt writes at Tomdispatch.com Mission Failure: Afghanistan:A Message Written in Blood That No One Wants to Hear By Tom Engelhardt Imagine for a moment that almost once a week for the last six months somebody somewhere in this country had burst, well-armed, into a movie theater showing a superhero film and fired into the […]

art and photography
Dear Mr. Romney: Palestinians are Poor Because You Stole from them and Kept them Stateless

Dear Mr. Romney: Palestinians are Poor Because You Stole from them and Kept them Stateless

Juan Cole

Mitt Romney, a privileged white man worth a quarter of a billion dollars who has sheltered his money from taxes in Bermuda, the Cayman Islands and Switzerland, and who never misses a square meal, stooped to a new obscene low in blaming the victim on Monday by slamming the Palestinians for not being richer. Palestinian […]

Uncategorized
Can You Pass the Hezbollah Quiz?  (Rudolph)

Can You Pass the Hezbollah Quiz? (Rudolph)

Juan Cole

CAN YOU PASS THE HEZBOLLAH QUIZ? By Jeffrey Rudolph Hezbollah, a Lebanese Shia Islamic organization, has evolved over the last three decades from a guerilla movement to the most influential political and military power in Lebanon. Given that Hezbollah is a crucial part of the Iran-led “Axis of Resistance”, it is not surprising that the […]

art and photography
Looking out from the Misrata War Memorial Museum, Libya (Photo)

Looking out from the Misrata War Memorial Museum, Libya (Photo)

Juan Cole

Photograph by Juan Cole, late May 2012. View from the Misrata War Memorial Museum, looking across the street. The Misrata revolutionaries raided Qaddafi’s compound in Tripoli and confiscated the famous sculpture of a fist grasping a US fighter jet, erected after President Ronald Reagan bombed Tripoli and Benghazi in 1986. The Qaddafi memorial falsely claimed […]

art and photography
“Now the King loved science and geometry…” (Chagall Lithograph from Arabian Nights)

“Now the King loved science and geometry…” (Chagall Lithograph from Arabian Nights)

Juan Cole

Marc Chagall, “Now the King loved science and geometry…” Color lithograph 14 1/2 x 11 inches 1948 “Four Tales from the Arabian Nights,” Plate 10. Marc Chagall (1887-1985) was a Russian-French modern artist of Jewish heritage. He synthesized movements such as Expressionism, Cubism and Fauvism. Unlike many European Jewish modernist artists, he explored explicitly Jewish […]

Israel/ Palestine
Romney on Jerusalem: A World of Hurt for America

Romney on Jerusalem: A World of Hurt for America

Juan Cole

As expected, Mitt Romney in Israel tried his hardest to make casino mogul and Likud Party stalwart Sheldon Adelson happy. Adelson has pledged $100 million to Romney’s presidential campaign. Romney put all options on the table (a euphemism for illegally launching a war) with regard to Iran. But in an interview with Jim Muir of […]

art and photography
“Kuwait Stock Exchange” (Andreas Gursky Photograph)

“Kuwait Stock Exchange” (Andreas Gursky Photograph)

Juan Cole

Andreas Gursky, “Kuwait Stock Exchange,” Photograph, 2007. Discussed here at Quaerentia as showing us a new way of looking at ‘capitalism in its temple.’

Israel/ Palestine
Top Ten Most Distasteful things about Romney Trip to Israel

Top Ten Most Distasteful things about Romney Trip to Israel

Juan Cole

The trip of Republic Presidential hopeful Mitt Romney to Israel is in bad taste for lots of reasons. 1. He is holding a fundraiser at the King David Hotel in Jerusalem. It is distasteful for an American political candidate to hold a high profile fundraiser abroad, implying a commitment to a foreign country as a […]

art and photography
“Dubai World III” (Gursky Photograph)

“Dubai World III” (Gursky Photograph)

Juan Cole

Andreas Gursky, “Dubai World III,” Photograph, 2008. Gursky (b. Leipzig, 1955) studied at the Dusseldorf Art Academy and is known for his large scale prints and interest in world tourist sites. This photograph references the controversial “Dubai World” project started by Nakheel Properties, which built artificial islands off the United Arab Emirates, with the ensemble […]

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