Israel

Ann Arbor (Informed Comment) – The Israeli newspaper Arab 48 reports that Prime Minister Naftali Bennett will dissolve parliament and go to new elections. His government has lacked a majority in parliament for some time and recently lost an embarrassing vote on applying Israeli law to squatter-settlers in the Palestinian West Bank. Theirs will be […]

Bashar al-Assad

Russia Lambastes “Vicious” Israel for Striking Damascus Airport, Causing Setback to Counter-Terrorism

Juan Cole

Ann Arbor (Informed Comment) – According to Tass, Maria Zakharova, the spokewsoman for the Russian Foreign Ministry said of Israel’s bombardment on Friday before dawn of runways at Damascus International Airport, closing it, “We demand that the Israeli side stop this vicious and dangerous practice.” Zakharova made clear the reason for the unusually fierce condemnation […]

Climate Crisis

German Economy & Climate Minister’s visit to Israel & Palestine focused on Renewable Tech not just Replacing Russian Natural Gas

Clean Energy Wire

By Kerstine Appunn | – Germany’s economy and climate minister has arrived in Israel for talks about bilateral energy cooperation, with a focus on developing renewable energies rather than short-term deliveries of liquefied natural gas (LNG) to replace shipments from Russia, German public broadcasters ZDF and ARD reported. Israel has large natural gas reserves but […]

Featured

Israel’s Crisis in Parliament is a Crisis for its Apartheid in the Palestinian West Bank

Juan Cole

Ann Arbor (Informed Comment) – On Monday evening, the government of Naftali Bennett in Israel failed to pass a crucial law in parliament, according to the Israeli newspaper Arab 48. The failure, which strikes at the foundations of Bennett’s far right vision of an expanding Greater Israel that forever forestalls any Palestinian state, exposed the […]

Iran

‘New Phase Of Assassinations’: Mysterious Death Of Iranian Aerospace Engineer Fuels Speculation

Golnaz Esfandiari

( RFE/RL ) – When Iranian aerospace engineer Ayoob Entezari died on May 31, authorities handed his family a letter of appreciation in which they referred to him as a “martyr,” suggesting that he had been killed. Soon after, authorities in the central city of Yazd backtracked, saying the wording in the letter was a […]

Authoritarianism

Biden Reverses himself on Saudi “Pariah,” needing Riyadh’s Oil to Punish Putin for Ukraine

Juan Cole

Ann Arbor (Informed Comment) – President Joe Biden ran on making Saudi Arabia a “pariah,” given that the CIA accused Crown Prince Mohammed Bin Salman of authorizing the murder in 2018 of Washington Post columnist Jamal Khashoggi in the Istanbul Saudi consulate. Biden and a bipartisan majority in the US Congress were also upset about […]

Featured

In Final Slap to Bush-Era Neoconservatives, Iraq Criminalizes Contacts with Israel

Juan Cole

Ann Arbor (Informed Comment) – The Neoconservatives who pushed for the Bush-Cheney war on Iraq in 2003 hoped that by toppling the Arab nationalist dictator Saddam Hussein they could recreate Iraq as a country friendly to US interests and regional allies like Israel. I was told by one military officer that he was in the […]

Iran

Iran: The Killing Of Revolutionary Guards Colonel Could Complicate Rapprochement With the West

Radio Free Europe Radio Liberty

By Hannah Kaviani | – ( RFE/RL ) – I’m Hannah Kaviani, a senior broadcaster and editor at RFE/RL’s Radio Farda, filling in this week for senior correspondent Golnaz Esfandiari. Here’s what I’ve been following and what I’m watching out for in the days ahead. The Big Issue Colonel Hassan Sayad Khodaei, a shadowy figure […]

Haredim

Constantly on the verge of Collapse: How Palestinians became the Linchpin of Israeli Politics

Ramzy Baroud

( Middle East Monitor) – Israel’s coalition government of right-wing Prime Minister, Naftali Bennett, is on the verge of collapse, which is unsurprising. Israeli politics, after all, is among the most fractious in the world, and this particular coalition was born out of the obsessive desire to dethrone Israel’s former leader, Benjamin Netanyahu. While Netanyahu […]