Middle East

(Washington DC) – Broad US-imposed economic sanctions are negatively affecting the Iranian government’s ability to adequately respond to the mounting health consequences of the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic. The US should take immediate action to ease US sanctions and expand licensing of sanctions-exempt items to ensure Iran’s access to essential humanitarian resources during the pandemic. According […]

Israel/ Palestine

Top 7 Lessons from Israeli-Occupied Palestine on Surviving Lockdown

Ramzy Baroud

By Ramzy Baroud | @RamzyBaroud | – ( Middle East Monitor ) – Call it a ‘quarantine’, a ‘shelter-in-place’, a ‘lockdown’ or a ‘curfew’, we Palestinians have experienced them all, though not at all voluntarily. Personally, the first 23 years of my life were lived in virtual ‘lockdown’. My father’s ‘quarantine’ was experienced much earlier, […]

Israel/ Palestine

Israel Blocks Coronavirus Respirators, Aid, to Gaza until Remains of 2 Israeli Invaders are Returned

Middle East Monitor

By Motasem A Dalloul | @abujomaaGaza | ( Middle East Monitor ) – In response to a humanitarian appeal launched by the Palestinian Ministry of Health in Gaza to obtain $23 million in urgent aid, in addition to medicine and medical equipment including 250 respirators in order to deal with the coronavirus in the besieged […]

Israel/ Palestine

Radical Futures: When Palestinians Imagine

Al-Shabaka

“We must tell stories that are different from the ones we’re being brainwashed to believe… Remember this: another world is not only possible, she is on her way.” – Arundhati Roy

Israel/ Palestine

Despite Covid-19 Dangers, Israel ignores Pleas to Safeguard the Health of Palestinian Prisoners (Many Uncharged) in its Jails

Ramona Wadi

( Middle East Monitor ) – Unsurprisingly, Israel has not heeded requests to safeguard the health of Palestinian prisoners in its jails. Besides recommending “precautionary measures”, which are likely to provide no protection in confined spaces, it seems that Israel will persist with its medical neglect strategies, which have resulted in Palestinian prisoners dying. Yet […]

Donald Trump

Threatening Iran: Mired in Incompetence on Covid-19 at Home, Trump Tests Wagging the Dog

Juan Cole

Ann Arbor (Informed Comment) – AFP quotes Trump as saying at a news conference and then on Twitter: “”We don’t want hostility, but if they are hostile to us, they’re going to regret it like they’ve never regretted anything before . . . If this happens, Iran will pay a very heavy price, indeed! . […]

Bashar al-Assad

2 reasons – and 1 disease – that make peace in Syria so difficult

The Conversation

By Ora Szekely | – Despite many attempts at negotiations, the Syrian war – a conflict with a complicated and constantly changing cast of characters that has killed as many as 585,000 people and displaced over half of Syria’s prewar population – has proved extremely difficult to resolve. As the war grinds on, conditions are […]

Donald Trump

Iran Covid-19 Deaths Rival US as Trump Blockade blocks Medical Supplies; and Europe Defies Washington

Juan Cole

Ann Arbor (Informed Comment) – The European Union has activated the Instex trading mechanism for the purpose of sending medicine and medical supplies to Iran to fight the coronavirus outbreak. Instex operates in Euros rather than dollars and avoids US banks, so that the US Treasury Department cannot claim jurisdiction over it. The Instex bank […]

Israel/ Palestine

The Israel Gov’t is taking advantage of Pandemic to Heighten Military Dictatorship over Palestinians

Asa Winstanley

The populations of many countries the world over are right now living under unprecedented quarantine measures and restrictions on movement. The threat of the rapidly spreading coronavirus pandemic has changed the world for the foreseeable future. It is true that most people who contract COVID-19 (the disease caused by this new coronavirus) will suffer only […]