Uncategorized

By Juan Cole | (Informed Comment) | – – On Monday, the Taliban swept into the provincial capital of Kunduz, taking it in half a day from a large and well-equipped Afghan National Army force. Tuesday’s riposte had only mixed success, with the ANA saying it had taken back the (no-empty) prison. An attempt to […]

Israel/ Palestine

UK: Israel has Attacked Gaza 696 Times Since Most Recent Ceasefire

contributors

By IMEMC News. | – – The Gaza Strip was attacked at least 696 times on different occasions since the August 2014 ceasefire, said Tobias Ellwood, the UK Parliamentary Under Secretary of State for the Foreign and Commonwealth Office, according to the Middle East Monitor. During a parliamentary session, Labour MP Alex Cunningham asked “how […]

Featured

With Iran deal, & Russia in Syria, is Israel being Boxed In?

Juan Cole

By Juan Cole | (Informed Comment) | – – With the success of the Iran deal virtually assured and with Russia moving into Syria, Israel’s hawks are facing an unprecedented setback. These developments could be demoting Israel from regional hegemon to marginal player, and severely limiting Tel Aviv’s freedom of movement. Israeli Prime Minister Binyamin […]

Featured

Trump Pledges to “Look into” Paranoid Charges of Muslim-American Terror camps

Juan Cole

By Juan Cole | (Informed Comment) | – – Donald Trump has probably benefited so far from giving long stemwinders of a speech on the hustings, saying enough outrageous things in each one to inflict on journalists information overload. He got away with a lot of awful statements because journalists only had room to focus […]

Syria

America can — and should — Do More for Syrian Refugees

contributors

By Chris Toensing | (Otherwords.org) | – – Imagine that 58 million Americans were streaming into Canada and Mexico, many with only a small satchel and the clothes on their backs. Picture another 102 million residents of the Eastern seaboard seeking refuge with relatives in the Midwest and West. That terrifying mental exercise gives a […]

Featured

Pope Francis Endorses Iran Deal: Another Dilemma for GOP Catholic Candidates

Juan Cole

By Juan Cole | (Informed Comment) | – – The Republican presidential candidates are virtually unanimous that human-caused climate change is a hoax and burning fossil fuels is good for us; that Obamacare is evil and must be repealed; and that the UN Security Council’s deal with Iran restricting its nuclear enrichment program must be […]

Acidification of Oceans

“We’re talking Survival”: Pacific Islanders call out Australia on Coal

contributors

The Tree | – – Pacific Island nations have stepped up pressure on their reckless neighbours, warning Australia and New Zealand that their inadequate action on climate change will doom island states – especially if they continue to ignore the call for a moratorium on new coal and the call to keep warming below 1.5DegC. […]

Haredim

‘Bibi in Bible Land’: The Likud Party Miscalculates and loses on Iran Deal

contributors

By Shalom L. Goldman | (Informed Comment) | – – Now that the Democratic senators have blocked a challenge to the Iran deal, pundits are looking at what the most persuasive arguments in the presentations to Democratic members of Congress were. What persuaded most Democrats to back the Iran deal, despite the well-funded campaigns against […]

African-Americans

What if Kim Davis Refused to License Marriages of Inter-Racial Couples?

Juan Cole

By Juan Cole | (Informed Comment) | – – Kentucky court clerk Kim Davis was released from prison on Tuesday after having been jailed for 5 days for contempt of court because she will not issue marriage licenses to her gay constituents. Her release was turned into a circus by Mike Huckabee, seeking a way […]