Featured

58% Depressed: The Racism of Israel’s Apartheid Regime toward Palestinians Shows in their Mental Health

Ann Arbor (Informed Comment) – While the Democrats in Washington, D.C. conduct a bizarre debate about whether Israel is a racist state, The World Bank has released some findings from its The Palestinian Psychological Conditions Survey (PPCS). They are summarized by Alia Aghajanian, Arden Finn, Gianluca Mele, and Nadir Mohammed. In a survey of 5,876 […]

Far Right

Israel Moves toward “Dictatorship” and Polarization, as one Likud Activist lauds the Targeting of Ashkenazi Jews in the Holocaust

Juan Cole

Ann Arbor (Informed Comment) – On the eve of Israeli President Isaac Herzog’s controversial visit to the United States, which several members of Congress say they will boycott, Israeli society is coming apart at the seams. The presidency in Israel is a purely symbolic post. Power resides with the prime minister, Binyamin Netanyahu and his […]

Democratic Party

Progressive Dem Caucus Chair Condemns Israel as a Racist State, says Palestinian Statehood increasingly “not Possible”

Juan Cole

Ann Arbor (Informed Comment) – Update: See Rep. Jayapal’s clarification below. Remarks Saturday by Rep. Pramila Jayapal may signal the end of the “liberal except on Palestine” ploy of most Congressional Democrats, who decry police brutality against US minorities but are perfectly all right with Israeli government repression of the Palestinians being kept stateless and […]

Ancient Greek Religion

The “Cerberus” Heat Wave and the Closing of the Parthenon: Why the Climate Crisis Evokes Cosmic Mythology

Juan Cole

Ann Arbor (Informed Comment) – High daytime temperatures in the Mediterranean basin are disrupting life in many ways, in Spain, Morocco, Greece, Turkey and elsewhere. Tourists in Greece suffered frustrations on Friday when government authorities abruptly closed the Parthenon from midday until evening. There were fears that the tourists up there would have a heat […]

Featured

Should Congress be inviting Illiberal Government Leaders Like those of India and Israel to address it? Is it all Right to Boycott Human Rights Offenders?

Juan Cole

Ann Arbor (Informed Comment) – Let us imagine a country somewhere in the world, let us call it Qorlu. It has two major ethnic groups, the Laval and the Zorbi. The Laval are the majority in Qorlu, and the Zorbi are a minority. But Qorlu had a war several decades ago in which it conquered […]

Featured

Is Turkey abandoning Russia to turn back toward the West?

Juan Cole

Ann Arbor (Informed Comment) – Given the decisions announced by Turkey’s President Tayyip Erdogan at the NATO summit in Vilnius, Lithuania, some have speculated that Turkey is “turning back toward the West” after a long period of estrangement and flirtation with Russia. Erdogan finally dropped his opposition to Sweden joining NATO. He backed NATO membership […]

Displaced and Refugees

The French “Nahel” Protests spring from Systemic Racism, not Immigration or Islam

Mohamed Jegham

Sousse, Tunisia (Special to Informed Comment; Feature) – Since June 27, every news channel has been covering the recent protests in Paris. On the surface, these disturbances are the result of a police shooting of an unarmed 17-year-old Nahel Merzouk who was attempting to flee the police at a traffic stop. However, many news outlets […]

China

Will China Leapfrog America in the Middle East Using its Green Technology and EVs?

Neil Thompson

Over the past decade, since Xi Jinping became the General-Secretary of the ruling Chinese Communist Party (CCP) in 2012, he has accelerated China’s return to political prominence. In turn, China’s ambitious global programme of economic, diplomatic and political expansion has pushed the world back towards a state of multipolarity. As well as developing China’s domestic […]

Bush

Iraq’s Climate Crisis: America’s War for Oil and the Great Mesopotamian Dustbowl

Juan Cole

( Tomdispatch.com ) – It was one of the fabled rivers of history and the Marines needed to cross it. In early April 2003, as American forces sought to wrap up their conquest of the Iraqi capital, Baghdad, and take strongholds to its north, the Marine Corps formed “Task Force Tripoli.” It was commanded by […]