Middle East

Ma’an News Agency | – – BETHLEHEM (Ma’an) — Palestinian Prime Minister Rami Hamallah and European Union representative Ralph Tarraf on Sunday laid the pave-stone of the first wastewater treatment plant in the northern occupied West Bank district of Tubas. An EU statement said the “large-scale project” would serve around 34,000 people living in Tubas […]

Arab World

Mideast Arms Purchases Continue Despite Falling Oil Prices, Austerity

contributors

By Thalif Deen | (Inter Press Service) | – – UNITED NATIONS, Feb 22 2016 (IPS) – The continued decline in oil prices is threatening to have a direct and indirect impact on several fronts, including development aid, migrant workers and remittances, voluntary contributions to UN agencies, humanitarian assistance to refugees and infrastructure-building in the […]

Kurds

Arab Youth join socialist Syrian Kurdish militia to fight ISIL

contributors

TeleSur | – – The news comes amid rising tensions between the U.S.-backed Kurdish militia and Arabs in Syria. The “first group of Arab fighters” joined the Syrian Kurdish militia known as the YPG, according to Kurdish media. The YPG has been known to include non-Kurdish forces, including Western, Turkish and Assyrian fighters, and it […]

Islam

Gianna Toboni’s Cycle of Terror Debrief (VICE on HBO)

Nicholas Kolenda

A brief report on western views towards Muslims and Islam following the Paris attacks

Featured

As Syrian Army advances East of Aleppo, ISIL strikes back with Bombings that kill 140

Juan Cole

By Juan Cole | (Informed Comment) | – – Daesh (ISIS, ISIL) said Sunday that it was behind the horrific bombings that struck Shiites in Damascus and Homs. Twelver Shiites congregate in the Sayyida Zainab district of Damascus, the Syrian capital, around the tomb of the Prophet Muhammad’s granddaughter. Car bombs and suicide bombers wearing […]

Israel/ Palestine

Israeli forces demolish sole school in Bedouin community

contributors

Ma’an News Agency | – – JERUSALEM (Ma’an) — Israeli forces on Sunday demolished a Bedouin school for children in the Abu al-Nuwaar community near the town of al Eizariya in the occupied West Bank, a spokesperson for the Al-Jahalin Bedouin community said. Atallah al-Jahalin told Ma’an that Israeli forces, accompanied by 30 vehicles and […]

Afghanistan

As ISIL goes Global, Will the ‘War on Terror’ extend for Decades?

contributors

By Paul Rogers | ( OpenDemocracy.net) | – – The war against ISIL has seen 18 months of of airstrikes by United States-led coalition forces in both Iraq and Syria. An even more concentrated period is now under way, with signs of greater use of special forces by western militaries and pledges of ground troops […]

Israel/ Palestine

Gaza: Palestinian Women’s unemployment reaches “astronomical” levels as Israeli siege Continues

contributors

Ma’an News Agency | – – GAZA (Ma’an) — The unemployment among women in the Gaza Strip has reached more than 60 percent, a women’s organization said on Saturday. Fida Abu Darbi, the executive officer for the Association Of Women’s Work Committees, said the unemployment of women in Gaza had reached “astronomical” levels at 63.3 […]

Featured

Will Syrian Kurds defeat ISIL , helping Democrats win White House in 2016?

Juan Cole

By Juan Cole | (Informed Comment) | – – Bad news came out of Syria for Daesh (ISIS, ISIL) on two fronts Friday: Aleppo and, in Syria’s far east, Hasakah. This has been a war with a lot of seesawing, so it is premature to make any decisive pronouncements. But this is an election year, […]