Europe

By Svante Lundgren, Lund University | – The Armenian quarter in Jerusalem’s Old City is facing its biggest crisis in a long time. A Jewish businessman with connections to the radical settler movement is poised to develop a quarter of the neighbourhood’s territory, with plans to build a luxury hotel. If this goes ahead, it […]

Displaced and Refugees

Netherlands Judges Halt Export to Israel of F-35 Parts: “Disproportionate Civilian Casualties including Thousands of Children”

Juan Cole

Ann Arbor (Informed Comment) – Dutch News reports that an appeals court in The Hague, Netherlands, has ruled that the Dutch government must cease sending spare parts for the F-35 fighter-jet to Israel. The spare parts are technically owned by the U.S., but are kept in storage at Woensdrecht Air Base. The news site quotes […]

Featured

From the Siege of Leningrad to the Siege of Gaza: Colonialist Mentality

Yakov M. Rabkin

Montréal (Special to Informed Comment) – Eighty years ago, on January 27, 1944, people in the street were hugging each other and weeping with joy. They were celebrating the end of a nearly 900 days brutal siege. Soviet forces lifted the siege of Leningrad after ferocious battles. Exactly a year later they liberated Auschwitz. Even […]

Donald Trump

Trump’s Far Right Allies Plot to Take over the European Union and Sink its Green Deal

John Feffer

( Tomdispatch.com) – It would be funny if it weren’t so potentially tragic — and consequential. No, I’m not thinking about Donald Trump’s 2024 presidential campaign but a related development: the latest decisions from the European Union (EU) about Ukraine. As 2023 ended, European nations failed to agree on a $54-billion package of assistance for […]

Africa

Namibia, Victim of Germany’s 1904 Genocide, Lambastes Berlin for Denying Israel’s atrocities against Palestinians

Juan Cole

Ann Arbor (Informed Comment) – Countries of the global South are most often denied a voice in Europe and North America. Our cable news brings on often corrupt former generals to explain countries such as Iraq and Yemen, but no Iraqi-American or Yemeni-American professors or journalists who actually know what they are talking about. This […]

Middle East

Ukraine as a Global Economic War, and the Role of the Middle East

Marc Martorell Junyent

Review of Maximilian Hess, “Economic War: Ukraine and the Global Conflict between Russia and the West” (London: Hurst & Co., 2023). Barcelona (Special to Informed Comment; Feature) – The war in Ukraine is being fought at two different levels. The first one is the military confrontation, where developments are measured in numbers of casualties, kill […]

Houthi

US-UK Airstrikes Risk strengthening the Houthi Rebels in Yemen and the Region

The Conversation

By Mahad Darar, Colorado State University | – The U.S.- and U.K.-led strikes on the rebel Houthi group in Yemen represent a dramatic new turn in the Middle East conflict – one that could have implications throughout the region. The attacks of Jan. 11, 2024, hit around 60 targets at 16 sites, according to the […]

Authoritarianism

In Blow to Democracy, British Parliament Votes to Outlaw University and Council Boycotts of Israel amid Gaza Genocide

Mohammed Samaana

Belfast (Special to Informed Comment; Feature) – On January 10, the UK parliament passed the third and final reading of the anti-boycott bill proposed by pro-Israel Conservative hawk Michael Gove, who serves as Secretary of State for Leveling Up, Housing and Communities and Minister for Governmental Relations. The House of Lords still needs to approve […]

Climate Crisis

Renewables now Generate more of Britain’s Electricity than Fossil Fuels

The Conversation

By Will de Freitas, The Conversation | – (The Conversation) – At the start of 2016, in an article noting some exciting changes in British energy, The Conversation published the following paragraph: Wind, solar and hydro – the weather-dependent renewables – together generated 14.6% of Great Britain’s electrical energy in 2015, the highest ever annual […]