Middle East

Ann Arbor (Informed Comment) – Rubaie Sawaid, writing for the Israeli newspaper Arab 48, reports that on Saturday enormous crowds demonstrated in Israel against the government’s plan to take over all of Gaza, demanding that the release of the remaining over two dozen Israeli hostages in the Strip be prioritized. He writes that the families […]

Espionage

Israel Secretly Recruited Iranian Dissidents to Attack Their Country From Within

ProPublica

By Yossi Melman and Dan Raviv for ProPublica | – ( ProPublica ) – In the early morning hours of June 13, a commando team led by a young Iranian, S.T., settled into position on the outskirts of Tehran. The target was an anti-aircraft battery, part of the umbrella of radars and missiles set up […]

Israel/ Palestine

How Israel’s Self-Image changed from Self-Reliance to Aggressive Militarism

The Conversation

By Yaron Peleg, University of Cambridge (The Conversation) – When the Zionist movement began to gather pace a century ago, many Jewish supporters wanted not just to create a political state for themselves, but to initiate a cultural revolution that would forge a new kind of Jewishness. Proud, self-reliant and resilient, the “new Jew” was […]

Featured

Why is Israel Playing Spoiler in the New Syria?

Mohammed Samaana

Belfast (Special to Informed Comment; Feature) – Last week, Israel launched the latest of some 300 raids into Syria in the past few months. Some such incursions, as with a major set of airstrikes on Syria in July shows its determination to be a destabilizing factor in the region. Israel claimed that it carried out […]

Israel/ Palestine

As Netanyahu moves toward full Takeover of Gaza, Israel faces a Crisis of international Credibility

The Conversation

By Amin Saikal, The University of Western Australia For all its claims of being a democracy that adheres to international law and the rules of war, Israel’s global reputation is in tatters. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s latest plan for a full military takeover of Gaza, along with the expanding starvation crisis in the strip and […]

censorship

On Occidental College’s Disciplining of Students Protesting Gaza

Committee on Academic Freedom

Committee on Academic Freedom | Middle East Studies Association of North Africa | – Letter to the administration of Occidental College about disciplinary proceedings against students accused of participating in protest activity Tom Stritikus President, Occidental College president@oxy.edu . . . Dear President Stritikus, Deans Leonard and Santiago, Ms. Kahn and Trustees: We write on […]

Israel/ Palestine

Gaza: Israeli School Strikes Magnify Civilian Peril (HRW)

Human Rights Watch

Israeli forces’ deadly attacks on schools sheltering Palestinian civilians highlight the absence of safe places for displaced people, the vast majority of Gaza’s population. Hundreds of Israeli attacks since October 2023 have struck over 500 school buildings, many used as shelters, killing hundreds of civilians and causing significant damage to nearly all of Gaza’s schools. […]

Israel/ Palestine

The Verdict of History: How political Calculations betrayed Gaza

Ramzy Baroud

( Middle East Monitor ) – The Israeli human rights organization B’Tselem released a comprehensive report on 27 July describing the Israeli war on Gaza as genocide. However, the delay in publishing such an indictment is troubling and adds to an existing problem of politically motivated decision-making processes that have, in their own right, prolonged […]

censorship

Protesting Harvard’s Cancellation of a Journal issue on Education in Palestine

Committee on Academic Freedom

Committee on Academic Freedom | Middle Eastern Studies Association of North America | – Letter to Harvard University concerning the cancellation of a special issue of Harvard Educational Review on education and Palestine Alan Garber President, Harvard University president@harvard.edu . . . Dear President Garber and colleagues: We write on behalf of the Middle East […]