Juan Cole

Aljazeera English reports on the economic difficulties facing the Palestinian Christians of Bethlehem: Palestinian Christians are calling on the world community to end their occupation, saying, “In the absence of all hope, we cry out our cry of hope.” For more on Palestinian Christians see Timothy Seidel. End/ (Not Continued)

Religious passions, guerrilla attacks, and politics marred Christmas Eve in Iraq, as the Shiite holy day of Ashura also approaches on Sunday. A wave of bombings targeting churches or Shiite mourning sessions struck throughout the country Thursday and Friday, killing 27 and wounding over 100. The biggest attack, in the Shiite city of Hilla, killed […]

Iran protests spread in heartland — latimes.com The LAT reports further on Wednesday’s demonstrations in Isfahan and Najafabad, pointing out that these central regions are strongholds for the regime in general, making the challenge mounted there seem especially threatening. There were also further demonstrations at Tehran University and the eastern city of Mashad. There was […]

The Real News Network on Grand Ayatollsh Montazeri snd Iranian democracy. Dr. Nader Hashemi is interviewed. End/ (Not Continued)

Unrest continued in Iran on Tuesday and Wednesday as dissidents combined mourning ceremonies for Grand Ayatollah Hosain Ali Montazeri with anti-regime demonstrations. In the important city of Isfahan, security forces attacked a throng of mourners and fifty were arrested. The ceremony was held at Sayyid Mosque, with reformist cleric Jalal al-Din Taheri presiding. The regime […]

By spring of 2000, Texas governor George W. Bush was wrapping up the Republican nomination for president, and he went on to dominate the rest of the decade. If Dickens proclaimed of the 1790s revolutionary era in France that it was the best of times and the worst of times, the reactionary Bush era was […]

Funeral of Iranian cleric Montazeri turns into political protest | World news | The Guardian The mourning procession for Grand Ayatollah Hosain Ali Montazeri in the holy city of Qom south of Tehran turned into a huge Opposition rally, according to the Guardian, with protesters wearing green and chanting against Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei, with […]

Enduring America reports that the funeral procession for Grand Ayatollah Husain Ali Montazeri began at 9:30 am in Iran. The initial regime announcement of the senior cleric’s death omitted his titles. Once in line to succeed Imam Ruhollah Khomeini as Iran’s supreme leader, he broke with the regime in 1988 over massacres of dissidents, and […]

Gershon Shafir writes in a guest column for Informed Comment: The Obama Administration, like every other American administration, has failed to convince Israel to freeze the expansion of its settlements on the occupied West Bank. It has belatedly extracted a 10-month long moratorium, but only after Netanyahu has excluded Jewish neighborhoods in east Jerusalem and […]