Middle East

Since dockworkers operate at a crucial “choke point” in the military supply chain to Israel, their boycotts are a powerful form of solidarity with Gaza. Peter Cole ( Waging Nonviolence ) – In the weeks leading up to the latest ceasefire, protests against Israel’s genocide in Gaza widened and deepened across the world. In early […]

Featured

With China’s Help, Saudi Arabia is Deploying Solar Power Faster than any Country in History

Juan Cole

Ann Arbor (Informed Comment) – Jeffrey Beyer and Stephen Gitonga of the UN Development Program present an overview of Saudi Arabia’s full court press to get 50% of its electricity from renewables by 2030. The kingdom is aware that fossil fuels, the source of its fabulous wealth, are on their way out. Its leaders want […]

journalism

How Women Journalists and Activists have been Changing the Middle East

The Conversation

By Farinaz Basmechi, L’Université d’Ottawa/University of Ottawa (The Conversation) – Last month marked the third anniversary of the Woman, Life, Freedom movement in Iran, an uprising that has been described as the country’s most significant movement since the establishment of the Islamic Republic. Though authoritarian powers and patriarchal systems continue to oppress, women journalists in […]

Iran

“Ah, make the most of what we yet may spend:” FitzGerald’s The Rubáiyát of Omar Khayyám 1:23

Juan Cole

In Quatrain no. 23 in the first edition of Edward FitzGerald’s translation of The Rubáiyát of Omar Khayyám, we find an explicit denial of the afterlife. This denial is repeated throughout the poetry, and it surely was one of the more challenging themes in this poetry for Victorian Britain and the United States. Of course, […]

Israel/ Palestine

The Int’l Court of Justice Demands Israel let UN Aid Flow into Gaza, but to what Avail?

The Conversation

By Ben L Murphy, University of Liverpool (The Conversation) – The UN’s top court, the International Court of Justice (ICJ), demanded that Israel allow aid into Gaza in an advisory opinion on October 22. It held that Israel is in breach of its obligations as a UN member state by having failed to do so […]

Israel/ Palestine

UN: “Extreme Concern” as Netanyahu Orders “Powerful” Israeli Strikes on Gaza, killing 21

International Middle East Media Center

( IMEMC ) – Israeli warplanes launched a series of airstrikes across the Gaza Strip on Tuesday evening, killing at least 21 Palestinians, including eight children, and injuring several others. The attacks mark a renewed breach of the ceasefire agreement and have intensified fears of a broader military escalation. The Middle East Monitor reported that […]

Donald Trump

Vance of Arabia: The Trump Administration’s Reality-TV “Peace” in Gaza

H. Scott Prosterman

Oakland, Ca. (Special to Informed Comment; Feature) – Vice President J. D. Vance went out to the Middle East last week to show the MAGA flag. While convicted felon Donald Trump, Vance’s boss, prosecutes his undeclared wars on Venezuela and the American people, he has declared “Peace” between Israel and Gaza, where there is none. […]

Israel/ Palestine

The World confronts the Genocide Washington is trying to Bury

Medea Benjamin and Nicholas J.S. Davies

( Code Pink ) – On October 4th, 2025, in an interview with Axios, President Trump stressed that one of the main goals behind his Gaza plan was to restore Israel’s international standing. “Bibi took it very far and Israel lost a lot of support in the world,” Trump said. “Now I am gonna get […]

Iran

“And we, that now make merry in the Room:” FitzGerald’s The Rubáiyát of Omar Khayyám 1:22

Juan Cole

Quatrain no. 22 in the first edition of Edward FitzGerald’s translation of The Rubáiyát of Omar Khayyám again invokes the image of the way the living are walking atop those who lived and died before them, leaving them alone in the “room” of the world. The departed dead are dressed in blooms, i.e. flowers grow […]