Middle East

By Juan Cole | (Informed Comment) | – – By Friday evening outside observers like Rami Abdelrahman of the Syria Observatory in the UK were saying that even more of the East Aleppo pocket had fallen to the Syrian Arab Army, Hizbullah and Iraqi militias and that the government forces had consolidated their control over […]

Israel/ Palestine

Israeli Occupation economically suffocates Palestinian East Jerusalem

contributors

By: Al-Shabaka | (Ma’an News Agency) | – – In an unusual move, and after years of neglect, American and European delegations and development agencies have recently been visiting East Jerusalem and showing an increased interest in “doing something” about its deteriorating socioeconomic conditions. Moreover, the Palestinian Authority (PA) is, after a prolonged silence, working […]

Egypt

Egypt’s Special Courts in time of Crisis are Nothing New

contributors

by Yoram Meital | (Informed Comment) | – – The toppling of a regime, whether by civil insurrection or military coup, invariably gives rise to a fierce struggle over the lineaments of the new order. This transition phase is the moment of truth in every revolution. It is informed by a collapse of the justice […]

Featured

Now that SecDef thinks Israeli Occupation is Apartheid, will the Lobby Blackballing Fail?

Juan Cole

By Juan Cole | (Informed Comment) | – – The interview of Gen. James Mattis by Wolf Blitzer at Aspen in 2013, in which the recently-retired former CENTCOM commander spoke freely on Middle East policy, has come back to haunt him now that Donald Trump has put him forward as the next Secretary of Defense. […]

Israel/ Palestine

Israel Plots Largest Settlement Expansion in Occupied Syrian Golan since 1980

contributors

IMEMC | – – Arab human rights organization resists Israeli plans to construct 1,600 settlement units, and expropriate 25,000 acres of Syrian land in the occupied Golan. Al-Marsad: Arab Human Rights Center in the Golan announced, in a press release, that it has written to the European Union, European governments and the Permanent Members of […]

Bashar al-Assad

Why Russia and Regime want all of Aleppo before Trump is sworn in

Juan Cole

By Juan Cole | (Informed Comment) | – – In the past two days, the Syrian Arab Army and its Shiite militia allies (Hizbullah from Lebanon and others from Iraq) has taken a third to forty percent of the Eastern Aleppo pocket. The northeast zone of the pocket has collapsed, with rebel fights apparently declining […]

Israel/ Palestine

Right-wing Israeli master plan injures rights in Palestinian E Jerusalem

contributors

Ma’an News Agnecy | JERUSALEM (Ma’an) — A recent master plan presented by right-wing Jewish activists envisions a “greater Jerusalem” extending far beyond the current municipal boundaries, and a future for the city which sees Palestinians as virtually nonexistent, according to a Monday report by Israeli newspaper Haaretz. The plan, dubbed “Jerusalem 5800,” was privately […]

Featured

Is Jimmy Carter right that Obama should Recognize Palestine?

Juan Cole

By Juan Cole | (Informed Comment) | – – Jimmy Carter wrote and NYT op-ed yesterday in which he called on Barack Obama to arrange for the UN Security Council to recognize Palestine and pass resolutions reaffirming the illegality of Israeli squatting on Palestinian land in the West Bank. Carter points out that there are […]

Donald Trump

Will Trump cancel Iran deal or practice the Art of the Deal?

contributors

by Mohammed Nuruzzaman | (Informed Comment) | – – US President-elect Donald Trump’s bluster about the Iran nuclear deal has created a lot of confusions and uncertainties about the fate of the deal. The anti-deal statements he made during and after the race to the White House election campaign ranged from direct threats to “tear […]