International Politics and Economy

( Globalvoices.org ) – Turkey’s local elections which took place on March 31, will go down in history as one of its most surprising. Turkey’s demoralized opposition, namely the [secular] Republican People’s Party (CHP), dominated in what many pundits described as the ruling [center-right] Justice and Development Party’s worst defeat of its 22-year existence. For […]

Far Right

Israel’s ‘Iron Wall:’ A Brief History of the Ideology Guiding Benjamin Netanyahu

The Conversation

By Eran Kaplan, San Francisco State University | – (The Conversation) – Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has signaled that Israel’s military will soon launch an invasion of Rafah, the city in the southern Gaza Strip. More than 1 million Palestinians, now on the verge of famine, have sought refuge there from their bombed-out cities farther […]

Donald Trump

Donald Trump and the German Far Right: Is it Democratic to Prosecute Fascism?

Marc Martorell Junyent

Chemnitz, Germany (Special to Informed Comment; Feature) – Germany and the United States have very different political cultures, but also some similarities. They are both federal states and have seen in recent times how their political future could be partly decided in courts of law. In the US, former President Donald Trump is currently facing […]

Featured

Purim at the Time of Genocide

Yakov M. Rabkin

Montréal (Special to Informed Comment; Feature) – The Jewish holiday of Purim, related in the Book of Esther, celebrates deliverance from a genocide. How to celebrate it when death and starvation kill thousands in Gaza, and the holiday’s rhetoric, namely the memory of the archenemy Amalek, is being used by Israeli politicians responsible for it? […]

Democracy

The Man who Disproved Trump’s Election Fraud Claims Looks at the Problems with New York’s Voter Data

Ken Block

Barrington, RI (Special to Informed Comment) – If the oldest human alive is 116, how did 368 118-year-olds vote in New York in 2020? Election districts that do a terrible job identifying their voters expose their state to problems far beyond a few votes by individuals with impossible ages. Consider that in 2020 New York […]

Israel/ Palestine

Nonviolence in the Holy Land: Fear, Love and Palestine with Sami Awad

Waging Nonviolence

Nonviolence Radio Nonviolence Radio Team Former Holy Land Trust Executive Director Sami Awad. (Facebook/Sami Awad) Subscribe to “Nonviolence Radio” on Apple Podcasts, Android, Spotify or via RSS. ( Waging Nonviolence) – As a Palestinian, Sami and his family have suffered directly under the long Israeli occupation and more acutely now, from the […]

Books

Dune Part Two: The Islamic Dimension

Juan Cole

Ann Arbor (Informed Comment) – Journalist and science fiction writer Frank Herbert’s Dune epic has many themes. One is, clearly, environmentalism and the need for humans to adapt to their environment. Another is the struggle between regimented bureaucratic civilization and individualism. Yet another is the temptation to use religion for liberatory purposes. The Denis Villeneuve […]

Elections

Growing ‘Despondency’ And Hard-Liners’ Dominance: Key Takeaways From Iran’s Elections

Radio Free Europe Radio Liberty

By By Kian Sharifi ( RFE/ RL ) – Iran’s parliamentary elections on March 1 witnessed a historically low turnout, in a blow to the legitimacy of the clerical establishment. The official turnout of 41 percent was the lowest for legislative elections since the 1979 Islamic Revolution. Critics claim the real turnout was likely even […]

Democracy

Israeli Peace Activists agree War must end with some form of Democracy for All

The Conversation

By Atalia Omer, University of Notre Dame | – (The Conversation) – The months since Hamas’ attacks on Oct. 7, 2023, have been excruciating ones for Israeli peace activists. As the country rallies behind the war effort, critics have been arrested and condemned by opponents who say the attacks proved how misguided the peace movement […]