Middle East

By Iliya Jazaeri and Kian Sharifi ( RFE/ RL ) – One year after Assad’s fall, Iran grapples with the collapse of its key regional ally. Tehran lost up to 50 billion dollars invested over a decade, its Mediterranean access, and supply routes to Hezbollah. Iran seeks to rebuild influence, but is there a way back?” […]

European Union

The Transatlantic Rift over Gaza’s Future

Foreign Policy in Focus

Europe wants to reduce the suffering in Gaza. The U.S. is focused on security. By Imran Khalid | ( Foreign Policy in Focus ) – The fragile ceasefire in Gaza, now in its seventh week, has done little to calm the political tempests surrounding it. What was meant to be a pause in hostilities has […]

Donald Trump

Israel is Sinking into the Abyss of Netanyahu’s Dictatorship

H. Scott Prosterman

Oakland, Ca. (Special to Informed Comment; Feature) – It appears unlikely that the Israeli Justice Ministry will approve a pardon for Israeli PM Benjamin “Bibi” Netanyahu, related to his criminal charges for blackmail, corruption and breach of public trust. But Israeli President Isaac Herzog is under pressure to use his standing to override that likely […]

Entertainment

“With them the seed of Wisdom:” FitzGerald’s The Rubáiyát of Omar Khayyám 1:28

Juan Cole

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 […]