Middle East

BETHLEHEM (Ma’an) — Palestinians have suffered in many ways as a result of the Israeli separation wall, and in the case of one family in al-Walajah west of Bethlehem, the wall separates them from the graves of their relatives. Ahmad Barghouth, 66, told Ma’an he buried his parents and grandparents years ago in his field […]

Featured

Angry Jordanian Crowds Rally over ISIL Murder of Pilot, but some blame US, King

Juan Cole

By Juan Cole | (Informed Comment) – Jordanian protesters came out in the thousands on Tuesday to protest the gruesome murder by Daesh (ISIL, ISIL) of a captured Jordanian pilot, Muath al-Kasasbeh. He was from the central Jordanian town of Karak (pop. 70,000), 87 miles south of the capital of Amman, and crowds came out […]

Iraq

The Other Sinjar Massacre: As Iraq’s ISIL driven Back, Reprisals against Sunni Collaborators

contributors

Khales Joumah | Mosul | (Niqash.org) – As extremists from the Islamic State group are slowly driven out of northern Iraq, members of one of the groups that suffered at their hands – the Yazidis – began to take revenge on locals they say collaborated with them. This week several villages were looted and burned […]

Israel

Israel destroys water lines feeding Palestinian areas in Jordan Valley

contributors

TUBAS (Ma’an) – Israeli forces on Thursday destroyed a water network which feeds Palestinian villages and Bedouin dwellings in the northern Jordan Valley, the head of the village council of al-Maleh and its surrounding Bedouin dwellings said. Arif Daraghmah told Ma’an that Israeli troops escorted excavators which destroyed a 2,000-meter-long water pipeline near the village […]

Hizbullah

Israel and Lebanon: Is a 3rd War in the Offing?

contributors

By Rola El-Husseini | (Special to Informed Comment) – On January 18, 2015 an Israeli military operation lead to the death of Jihad Mughniyah in Quneitra, in the Syrian part of the Golan Heights. According to a retired Israeli general, the timing of the operation that led to the death of Jihad Mugniyah, several other […]

censorship

Journalist Greste Freed by Egyptian Junta, but Press Freedom still Hostage

Juan Cole

By Juan Cole | (Informed Comment) – Peter Greste, an Australian journalist working for Aljazeera English, has been released from an Egyptian prison after a 400-day ordeal in which he was jailed merely for reporting the news. Greste was preemptively released by a presidential pardon from Abdel Fattah al-Sisi, the military dictator. Nothing is more […]

Iran

Iran and the West on Revolution Anniversary: 36 Years of Futile Estrangement

contributors

By Farhang Jahanpour | (Informed Comment) – Anniversary of Iranian Revolution February 2nd marks the 36th anniversary of the return of Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini to Iran after 14 years of exile. After ruling Iran for 37 years as a staunch U.S. ally, Mohammad Reza Shah left Iran on January 16, 1979, never to return. Demonstrations […]

Dissent

Being An Antiwar Activist In Israel Is Dangerous

contributors

AJ+ | – “Being an antiwar activist in Israel is dangerous. Israelis who protested against the 2014 Gaza offensive were threatened, harassed and attacked. Some even lost their jobs. Yoav Eliassi, also known as “The Shadow,” is a right-wing rapper and driving force behind a movement to stamp out dissent in Israeli society.” AJ+ “Being […]

Featured

Ironies of Empire: US now Allied with Shiites Trained by Assassinated HIzbullah Leader

Juan Cole

By Juan Cole | (Informed Comment) – The revelation by the Washington Post’s Adam Goldman and Ellen Nakashima that the car-bomb assassination of Hizbullah commando Imad Mughniyah in Damascus in 2008 was a joint CIA/ Israeli Mossad operation comes at an awkward time for Washington. The administration of George W. Bush did not target Mughniyah […]