Arab World

By: Charlie Hoyle | (Ma’an News Agency) — BETHLEHEM (Ma’an) — The extra-judicial executions of at least 23 Palestinians in Gaza during Israel’s military offensive last summer could amount to war crimes, Amnesty International reported Wednesday, with abuses by Hamas security forces deliberately calculated to spread fear. “In the chaos of the conflict, the de […]

Featured

Shiite Militias announce “Here I am, O Husayn” Campaign for Sunni Ramadi

Juan Cole

By Juan Cole | (Informed Comment) | – Shiite militias in Iraq, joined by some Sunni tribal levies, on Tuesday reached a university campus just to the southwest of Ramadi in what is called a “shaping operation” intended to set the stage for an all-out assault. There were some scattered firefights with Daesh (ISIS, ISIL) […]

censorship

Egypt: Executing Muslim Brotherhood leader Morsi for “Terrorism” will Fuel… Terrorism

contributors

By Ebrahim Deen | (Informed Comment) | — ‘In contemporary Egypt, due process is often not granted, evidence is often not considered, and impartiality and independence are often not maintained.’ The sentencing of former Egyptian president Mohamed Mursi and a hundred and five others to death for a 2011 prison break and subsequent death […]

Featured

Is it the US that isn’t stepping up to fight Daesh/ ISIL?

Juan Cole

By Juan Cole | (Informed Comment) — Secretary of Defense Ashton Carter’s blunt remarks on Sunday about the Iraqi army not having the will to fight have ruffled feathers in Baghdad and Tehran, and Vice President Joe Biden was constrained to call Iraqi Prime Minister Haydar al-Abadi and reassure him that the US was standing […]

Food Security

Yemen conflict fans food insecurity

contributors

By Peter Salisbury and Louise Redvers | (IRIN) – AMMAN / DUBAI (IRIN) – The conflict in Yemen is worsening the country’s food insecurity, according to a new report, which predicts that the parts of Arab state may enter an emergency phase by the end of the year. The Famine Early Warning Systems Network (FEWS NET) […]

Apartheid

Israel Confiscates 202 Acres of Palestinian land for Squatter Settlement Garbage Dump

contributors

By Saed Bannoura | (IMEMC) – The Israeli Authorities have decided to confiscate around 820 Dunams (202 acres) of privately owned Palestinian lands to establish new dumping grounds for its illegal colonies, in the central West Bank, in the Ramallah district. Land with village in background (image by Palestine TV) More than 140 Palestinian families, […]

al-Qaeda

Did the US DIA see ISIL as a strategic Ally against al-Assad in 2012?

Juan Cole

By Juan Cole | (Informed Comment)- The answer, in a word, is “no.” Fabius Maximus is right that this is just a clickbait story or an unfounded conspiracy theory. The Defense Intelligence Agency’s correct assessment of where things were going in Syria, done in 2012, doesn’t say that the US created sectarian groups and it […]

Arab World

US Kneejerk support for Israeli Nukes Torpedoes UN Disarmament Talks

Juan Cole

By Juan Cole | (Informed Comment) – After four weeks of negotiations, a revised UN treaty on nuclear disarmament has been torpedoed by the United States, leaving the issue of global disarmament dead in the water for the next five years. Non-nuclear states are furious at Washington and also fearful that in the absence of […]

Iraq

Iraq Can’t Get Ramadi back without an Inclusive Policy toward Sunnis

contributors

By David Alpher | (The Conversation) – Last Friday, the city of Ramadi – provincial capital of Iraq’s Anbar Province, and symbolic seat of its Sunni population – fell to an ISIS assault. The loss is devastating, and not only because of the city’s size or symbolic value, or because it’s another reminder that ISIS […]