Middle East

(By Juan Cole) In his news conference with French President Francois Hollande, President Obama outlined four areas of diplomatic progress. The first is foreign policy, including Iran, Syria and the Israeli-Palestinian struggle. Re: negotiations with Iran, Obama said, “Our unity with our P5-plus-1 partners, backed with strong sanctions, has succeeded in halting and rolling back […]

Arab Spring

The Arts of the Arab Uprisings at the Arab-American Museum

Juan Cole

VOA interviews my colleague Christiane Gruber of the Art History Department at the University of Michigan on the exhibit she helped curate at the Arab-American Museum in Dearborn, Michigan, which came out of our symposium in November at which Arab bloggers and graffiti artists and other practitioners of the arts of protest presented alongside academics […]

Human Rights

Iraq illegally Jailed thousands of Women, Torture & Abuse Alleged

Juan Cole

(Human Rights Watch) (Baghdad) – Iraqi authorities are detaining thousands of Iraqi women illegally and subjecting many to torture and ill-treatment, including the threat of sexual abuse. Iraq’s weak judiciary, plagued by corruption, frequently bases convictions on coerced confessions, and trial proceedings fall far short of international standards. Many women were detained for months or […]

Economy

Brokers of Deceit: Massive US Aid to Israel has Enabled a Colonial Project

contributors

(By Chase Madar via Tomdispatch) We Americans have funny notions about foreign aid. Recent polls show that, on average, we believe 28% of the federal budget is eaten up by it, and that, in a time of austerity, this gigantic bite of the budget should be cut back to 10%. In actual fact, barely 1% […]

Human Rights

In midst of Alleged Peace Talks, Israel Announces Hundreds of new Squatter Homes in Palestinian East Jerusalem

Juan Cole

(via AFP) Israel approves 550 Jerusalem settler homes (via AFP) Israel expedited Wednesday plans for more than 550 new settler homes in east Jerusalem, in a move exacerbating tensions between Israel and the Palestinians as they hold US-backed peace talks. The city council said it had granted private contractors… —– Related video: Israel plans […]

Iran

A $9 Trillion War? Top 10 Reasons Americans will Regret it if GOP Derails Iran Negotiations

Juan Cole

(By Juan Cole) 40 Republican senators are making a last-minute push to bring further Iran sanctions up for a vote despite the opposition of senate majority leader Harry Reid. Some 59 senators signed on to a plan to increase sanctions during President Obama’s negotiations with Iran, which Iranian leaders have argued could derail the talks. […]

Featured

“The Iranians are Coming!” Derangement Syndrome over 1 Destroyer in Atlantic

Juan Cole

(By Juan Cole) Today’s headlines in the US were marked by Iran derangement syndrome. It turns out that Iran has sent “a fleet” of “warships” into the Atlantic Ocean via the Cape of Good Hope. These ships are in international waters, and vessels from all nations ply those waters every day without comment. It is […]

Featured

Another non-terrorist non-Muslim Plane Hijacker: The Sochi Plot

Juan Cole

(By Juan Cole) The Associated Press article on the Ukrainian hijacker who tried to divert a plane to Sochi on Friday is interesting for the words it does not use. (I’m not picking on AP– all the other articles on this subject are like this one in this regard.) This Ukrainian man had political discontents […]

al-Qaeda

Daily Show: How much of an A*hole do you have to be that Al-Zawahiri won’t Work with You?

Juan Cole

Jon Stewart of the Daily Show at Comedy Central covers the fruitless Syria negotiations and break between al-Qaeda and the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant Imagine my surprise when a a clip from an interview I did at Aljazeera America on the issue was included in this piece! Thanks, Daily Show! The Daily […]