Middle East

By Asa Winstanley | @AsaWinstanley | – Last week Israel … raided the offices of Addameer, a prisoners rights association, stealing some of its computers and hard drives.* This is all part of Israel’s long-running war against the Palestinian civilian population. It is a war to remove Palestinians from Palestine; to liquidate their existence as […]

Featured

Yemen’s Houthis Say they Invaded Saudi Arabia, Captured Thousands of Troops in Najran

Juan Cole

Ann Arbor (Informed Comment) – Update 9/30: The Houthi military operation appears to have been against Saudi-backed nationalist bases in the far north of Yemen, and the POWs taken seem to be mostly Yemeni nationalists, along with some Saudi officers and troops. There may have been Houthi infiltration of Najran and Jizan as well, but […]

censorship

With outbreak of New Demonstrations, Egyptian Authorities warn Foreign Journalists not to do their Jobs

Brian Whitaker

(Al-Bab.com) – The Egyptian authorities have issued a notice to accredited foreign journalists based in Cairo. Basically it seeks to restrict their reporting of demonstrations by demanding compliance with some rather bizarre “professional standards” — presumably with the threat of expulsion if they disobey. Here is the text: The State Information Service calls upon Correspondents […]

Egypt

Egypt’s Sisi Regime again Engages in Mass Arrests of Protesters as West looks the other Way

Jonathan Fenton-Harvey

(Informed Comment) – The sheer brutality of Egypt’s Abdel Fatah al-Sisi’s military regime once again came to light, following another crackdown and mass arrests on protesters. Meanwhile, many Western leaders at the latest United Nations General Assembly (UNGA) in New York again show no sign of addressing such abuses from their ally. Small but widespread […]

Israel/ Palestine

Netanyahu on Steroids: What a Gantz-led Israeli Government Means for Palestinians

Ramzy Baroud

(Middle East Monitor) – Experience has taught Palestinians not to pay heed to Israeli elections. But to every rule there is an exception. Although it is still true that no Israeli Zionist leader has ever been kind to the Palestinian people, the dynamics of the latest Israeli elections on September 17 are likely to affect […]

Houthi

No, Yemen’s Houthis are not Simply a Proxy of Iran

The Conversation

By Vincent Durac | – The attacks on oil production facilities at Abqaiq and Khurais in Saudi Arabia have drawn renewed focus on Yemen’s Houthi movement, which claimed responsibility for the strikes. Whether these claims are true or or not – the US and Saudi Arabia allege that Iran was more directly involved in the […]

Israel

Netanyahu no Longer King in Israel: A Byzantine Electoral Gothic

H. Scott Prosterman

(Informed Comment) – The outcome of the Israeli election is still difficult to predict, since in parliamentary systems the horse trading comes after the election. This much is certain, though: Benjamin Netanyahu’s day is done as the man who would be king. That’s how he perceived himself, and that’s what he ran on. This included […]

Afghanistan

From Baghdad to Kabul: One Officer’s Journey from True Believer in our Forever Wars to Dissident Veteran

Danny Sjursen

( Tomdispatch.com) – Recently, on a beautiful Kansas Saturday, I fell asleep early, exhausted by the excitement and ultimate disappointment of the Army football team’s double overtime loss to highly favored Michigan. Having turned against America’s forever wars and the U.S. military as an institution while I was still in it, West Point football, I’m […]