Middle East

Quatrain no. 28 in the first edition of Edward FitzGerald’s The Rubáiyát of Omar Khayyám continues riffing on stanza 121 in the Bodleian manuscript. XXVIII. With them the Seed of Wisdom did I sow, And with my own hand labour’d it to grow : And this was all the Harvest that I reap’d- “I came […]

Hayat Tahrir

Review of ‘Transformed by the People: Hayat Tahrir al-Sham’s Road to Power in Syria’

Middle East Monitor

By Usman Butt X: TheUsmanButt ( Middle East Monitor ) – Ahmed Al-Sharaa has been in power in Syria for nearly 1-year. The lightening rebel offensive that brought down five decades of the dictatorial rule of the Assad family, was a shock to many. In Al-Sharaa, Syrian’s were greeted with a new kind of […]

Israel/ Palestine

“If I must die”: Poetry from Gaza creates an alternative Archive of Testimony

The Conversation

By Clodagh Philippa Guerin, University of Limerick (The Conversation) – In times of war and crisis, poetry can become more than just art: it can become testimony. For the people of Palestine living under siege, poetry is not a mere reflection of their suffering, but rather an act of resistance which campaigns for survival and […]

Featured

War, Peace, and Erasure: Lessons from Wakara for Gaza and Beyond

Max Perry Mueller

Lincoln, NE (Special to Informed Comment; Feature) – Long before Israeli leaders invoked biblical rhetoric to justify the “erasure” of a Palestinian homeland, another colonizing people sought to remake a land in the image of their God. In July 1847, Brigham Young declared the American Great Basin “the place” God had set apart to “make” […]

censorship

Syria: One Year since Assad’s Fall

Human Rights Watch

Human Rights Watch – (Beirut) – Syrian transitional authorities have taken positive steps on justice, transparency, and rights but failed to prevent continued violence and atrocities, Human Rights Watch said today on the anniversary of the former government’s fall. As Syrian authorities move the country forward, they should, with international support, credibly address outstanding concerns around […]

Israel/ Palestine

One way Zohran Mamdani could arrest Indicted War Criminal Benjamin Netanyahu

Middle East Monitor

by Dr Mohammad Yousef ( Middle East Monitor ) – New York Mayor Zohran Mamdani has repeatedly stated that he would instruct the NYPD to arrest Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu if he set foot in New York, citing the International Criminal Court (ICC) arrest warrant against him. Netanyahu is wanted by the ICC […]

Climate Crisis

Rate of Global Heating in the Arab World is Twice the Global Average

Juan Cole

Ann Arbor (Informed Comment) – The World Meteorological Organization has issued its annual report on the 22 countries of the Arab world, covering last year, and presents alarming conclusions about human-driven climate change in that region. 2024 was the hottest year on record in the Middle East, around 1º Celsius (1.8º F.) hotter than the […]

Corruption

At Trump’s Prompting, Israel’s Netanyahu seeks a Pardon, But Israeli Law may not Work that Way

The Conversation

By John Strawson, University of East London (The Conversation) – The interesting thing about Benjamin Netanyahu’s call on Israel’s president, Isaac Herzog, to pardon him for charges of bribery, fraud and breach of trust, is that he has not been found guilty on any of them. The trial is made up of three separate but […]