Featured

( Roy Eidelson: Psychology for Human Rights) – Labeling criticism of Israel and expressions of support for Palestinian rights as “antisemitism” has apparently become the primary weapon of Israel advocacy organizations in the United States. These groups — among others, the Anti-Defamation League, Stand With Us, Canary Mission, Betar US and, in my own profession, […]

Colonialism

Russia in Iran: The Times and Life of Diplomat Ivan Jakolevich Korostovetz

Fariba Amini

“Russia’s role in Iranian history since the nineteenth century is well known, to be sure. But especially for the period until World War I, it tends to be narrated in a patterned and somewhat reductionist manner, typically through the lens of the ‘Great Game,’ with Iran a mere buffer state between Russia and Great Britain, […]

Donald Trump

Avatar of Chaos, Cruelty and Death: Elon Musk’s Reign of Terror isn’t Over

Dan Dinello

Chicago (Special to Informed Comment) – Serving as gangster President Trump’s hatchet man, Musk promised a lean efficient government but gave us chainsaw-massacre firings that devastated government functionality. While gloating about solving the fabricated grift and criminality of US foreign aid, Musk terminated life-saving medications for dying babies and ended food supplies for starving children. […]

Featured

Will Israelis Repent for Gaza Genocide? Re-Humanization Takes Courage

Yakov M. Rabkin

Montréal (Special to Informed Comment; Feature) – The genocide in Gaza continues unabated as I write these lines. Belatedly, a few Israelis have begun decrying the starvation and mass murder that their army—a people’s army—has perpetrated since October 2023. These acts, supported by the majority of the country’s Jews, exceed in cruelty and brutality the […]

Featured

Greta Thunberg and 11 other Volunteers set out on Mercy Mission to Gaza

Juan Cole

Ann Arbor (Informed Comment) – The Anadolu Agency reports that the humanitarian aid ship, the “Madeleine,” set out for Gaza on Sunday from Catania in Sicily, in a bid to break the food and aid blockade imposed on the Strip by Israel. A crowd of supporters gathered at the port with Palestinian flags to encourage […]

Archaeology

Genetic Study shows “Phoenicians,” like all “Nations” were a Multi-Ethnic Franchise

Juan Cole

Ann Arbor (Informed Comment) – Harald Ringbauer et al. writing in Nature report on a genetic study of the ancient Phoenicians that is really going to anger Lebanese Christian nationalists. In fact, it contains a profound lesson for nationalists and nationalism in general, which is that the whole thing is a scam thought up in […]

Climate Crisis

The 136 Largest Coastal Cities, including Egypt’s Alexandria, face $1 Trillion Losses per Year from Sea Level Rise by 2050

Juan Cole

Ann Arbor (Informed Comment) – In a new paper, Chris R. Stokes et al. write in Communications Earth and Environment that even if we manage only to heat up the earth 1.5º C. (2.7º F.) above pre-industrial norms, that might be enough to provoke massive melting of the world’s principal ice sheets — those in […]

Donald Trump

Is Trump’s Axis of the Plutocrats Marginalizing Israel?

Juan Cole

( Tomdispatch.com ) – Colorful career criminal Willie Sutton once may (or may not) have been asked why he robbed banks. “Because that is where the money is,” he supposedly replied. A similar principle may explain the first foreign trip of President Donald J. Trump’s second term, which was not to a traditional U.S. ally […]

Featured

Turkiye gets 11% of its Electricity from Wind, plans $1.5 Bn. Investment this year

Juan Cole

Ann Arbor (Informed Comment) – Turkiye’s wind power sector continues to grow, albeit at a somewhat slower pace than at the beginning of this decade. The country gets 11% of its electricity from wind. Turkiye is third in Europe for onshore wind power growth, It installed 1.5 gigawatts of new wind in 2024, more than […]