Middle East

By Joanna Paraszczuk | ( RFE/RL “Do you think you’re safe from the fires of hell? Give yourself a chance — help mujahedin on the path of God!” Thus reads a new fund-raising advertisement published on the VKontakte social network this week by the Russian-speaking battalion of Al-Qaeda’s Syrian affiliate, the Al-Nusra Front. “Do you […]

Bush

Bush Sr. Blames Neocons for Ruining W.’s Presidency: Is he Warning Jeb?

Juan Cole

By Juan Cole | (Informed Comment) | – – In interviews given for a new biography, George H. W. Bush, 91 lets loose against Dick Cheney and Donald Rumsfeld, whom he clearly blames for many of the failures of the presidency his son, George W. Bush. But if you attend carefully to what he said, […]

Iraq War

Al-Qaeda, ISIS, and the wider fallout from the Iraq invasion

contributors

By David Morrison | (OpenDemocracy) | – – Tony Blair was warned by his intelligence chiefs that invading Iraq would increase the terror threat facing Britain. If MPs had known this, would they have voted for war? Baroness Eliza Manningham-Buller was the director general of MI5, the UK’s domestic intelligence agency, from October 2002 until […]

Democracy

Will Turkey’s winning Justice & Development Party seek Imperial Presidency?

contributors

By ERDAĞ GÖKNAR | (ISLAMiCommentary) | – – Erdağ Göknar The Nov. 1 parliamentary elections in Turkey resulted in an outcome that few commentators or polls had predicted: Another outright parliamentary majority for President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan’s ruling AK Party (AKP). In the almost five months since the AKP lost its parliamentary majority on June […]

Israel/ Palestine

Has Slain Israeli Peacemaker Yitzhak Rabin been denied his Legacy?

contributors

By Brent E Sasley | (The Conversation) | – – On November 4 1995, Yitzhak Rabin, the prime minister of Israel, was murdered by Yigal Amir, an extremist religious Jew opposed to his peace deals with the Palestinians. The Oslo process, which culminated with the awkward handshake between Rabin and Yasser Arafat on the White […]

Israel/ Palestine

Palestinians in own city of Hebron live in Fear of Israel Squatters, Soldiers

contributors

By: Charlie Hoyle | Ma’an News Agency | – – BETHLEHEM (Ma’an) — Israel’s response to an upsurge in violence since the beginning of October has seen unprecedented closures of Hebron’s Old City, with residents living in a constant state of fear amid killings by the Israeli army and attacks from Jewish settlers. Hebron, the […]

Featured

In Rare Victory, Syrian Army breaks ISIL siege of West Aleppo

Juan Cole

By Juan Cole | (Informed Comment) | – – The extensive Russian bombing campaign in support of the Syrian Arab Army of the Bashar al-Assad regime has yielded fewer victories than Moscow had hoped, and some of them have been reversed by al-Qaeda, ISIL or other fighters. But on Wednesday it was reported that the […]

Featured

With Ahmad Chalabi’s Death, Passing of an Age of Lies

Juan Cole

By Juan Cole | (Informed Comment) | – – Ahmad Chalabi (1944-2015) died of a heart attack in Iraq on Tuesday. Clarence Darrow, the great trial lawyer and orator, said, “I’ve never killed anyone, but I frequently get satisfaction reading the obituary notices.” I don’t get any satisfaction from this obituary. In the first Star […]

Israel/ Palestine

Defending Gaza Using Social Media’s Double-Edged Sword

contributors

By Omar Ghraieb | (Global Voices Online) | – – To say that both technology and communication have been experiencing a steady advancement until the past few years is something of an understatement. The world went from slowly becoming one village, thanks to the World Wide Web, to becoming one home, thanks to social media. […]