Middle East

(Foreign Policy in Focus) – For all their overwhelming firepower, the U.S. and its allies can cause a lot of misery in the Middle East, but still can’t govern the course of events. In many ways it doesn’t really matter who — Houthis in Yemen? Iranians? Shiites in Iraq? — launched those missiles and drones […]

Featured

Iraqi Gov’t Teeters as Protest Death toll Rises to 100, with 4,000 Wounded

Juan Cole

Ann Arbor (Informed Comment) – Protests broke out again in Baghdad on Saturday, leaving 15 dead. The government had shut down the internet a few days ago in a bid to quell the widespread rallies, but returned partial service yesterday, which allowed activists to call for further protests. The Neoconservatives and the Bush administration pledged […]

Saudi Arabia

Saudi looks ‘positively’ at Yemeni truce proposal

Middle East Monitor

Saudi Prince Khalid Bin Salman believes that his country looks “positively” at the truce proposal announced by Houthis in Yemen, Arabi21.com reported on Friday. In a series of tweets, the prince wrote “we look positively at the truce announced by Yemen because this is what we have been seeking. We hope it is really implemented.” […]

Donald Trump

Is Turkey planning an attack on Syrian Kurds?

Reese Erlich

ISTANBUL —The Turkish government plans to use Syrian refugees to displace the local Kurdish population in northern Syria. But so far, the scheme isn’t working so well. Last week, Turkish President Recep Tayep Erdoğan announced his intention to settle up to two million refugees now living in Turkey into northern Syria. “We aim to accelerate […]

Authoritarianism

Duke U. Faculty reply to Trump Dept of Ed. demand for Negative Teaching on Islam and Palestinians

contributors

Letter: 62 Duke faculty respond to Department of Education directive letter to the editor By Concerned Faculty October 3, 2019 | ( The Duke Chronicle) – We appreciate the recent statement on academic freedom from President Price and Provost Kornbluth following the US Department of Education’s investigation of the Duke-UNC Consortium for Middle East studies. […]

Featured

US Press Horrified by Trump’s “Shoot Migrants in the Legs” but ignores what Israeli Snipers do to Palestinian Protesters

Juan Cole

Ann Arbor (Informed Comment) – Americans were horrified to hear that Trump wanted to have US forces at the US-Mexico border to charge migrants with bayonets or shoot them in the legs. Michael D. Shear and Julie Hirschfeld Davis at the New York Times reported that Trump wanted US forces to fire on migrants as […]

Israel

As Israel struggles to form a Government, why do its poorest immigrants vote for the right and far right?

The Conversation

By Amandine Desille | – The Israeli election was held on September 17, but it remains unclear who – Benyamin Netanyahu (Likud) or his main opponent Benny Gantz (Blue White) – will be able to bring together a government. One thing is for sure: in elections in April and September 2019, Israel’s populist, religious and […]

Israel/ Palestine

Anti-Palestinianism is the modern day McCarthyism

Middle East Monitor

By Asa Winstanley | @AsaWinstanley | – As regular readers of this column will know, the McCarthyite atmosphere in Britain against supporters of Palestinian rights is getting worse. That is down in part to the Labour Party leadership’s acquiescence to the smear campaign to portray the party as anti-Semitic. The Labour National Executive Committee’s acceptance […]

censorship

On Khashoggi Murder Anniversary: Trump’s other Dangerous Conversations besides Ukraine, with Saudi Bin Salman

Juan Cole

Ann Arbor (Informed Comment) – CNN reports that, in addition to Trump’s Ukraine conversation last July, the transcripts of his telephone calls with Saudi crown prince Mohammed Bin Salman and Russian president Vladimir Putin were also stored in a super highly classified server. The implication is that his staff heard him commit crimes in the […]