US Foreign Policy

US State Department declines to Condemn Israel for Shooting American Activist in the Head, Killing Her

Ann Arbor (Informed Comment) – Basil Maghrebi at the Israeli newspaper Arab 48 reports that on Friday, Israeli troops killed an American observer in the West Bank with a gunshot to her head, as she participated in a procession at Beita south of Nablus in the Palestinian West Bank. Aysenur Eygi, 26, a US citizen, […]

Israel/ Palestine

Is Gaza America’s Heart of Darkness?

William J. Astore

( Tomdispatch.com ) – During World War II, American leaders proudly proclaimed this country the “arsenal of democracy,” supplying weapons and related materiel to allies like Great Britain and the Soviet Union. To cite just one example, I recall reading about Soviet armored units equipped with U.S. Sherman tanks, though the Soviets had an even better […]

Iran

Is Iran’s anti-Israel and -American Rhetoric all Bark and no Bite?

Shahram Akbarzadeh

(The Conversation) – On August 27, Ali Khamenei, the supreme leader of the Islamic Republic of Iran, told the newly elected president, Masoud Pezeshkian, and his cabinet that talking to the enemy may be useful. In a thinly veiled reference to Iran’s engagement with the international community – and specifically the United States – Khamenei […]

Featured

Time to end the “No Daylight” Approach to America’s Israel Policy

Glenn E. Robinson

Monterey, Ca. (Special to Informed Comment; Feature) – Last month’s sad passing of Martin Indyk provides an opportunity to reflect on the US Middle East project over the past three decades, and to assess the potential need for new directions. This is particularly true given the events in Gaza over the past ten months and […]

Iran

Qatar, Upset with failed Israeli-Palestinian Talks and Haniyeh Assassination, may Turn to Mediating between Iran and West

The Conversation

By Kristian Coates Ulrichsen, Rice University | – (The Conversation) – When the longtime political chief of Hamas was assassinated in late July 2024, it didn’t just leave the entire Middle East on edge. It also created a political headache in Qatar. That’s because the death of Ismail Haniyeh, the result of an apparent Israeli […]

Featured

Did Netanyahu Rub Out Hamas’ Haniyeh to counter the Rise of Kamala Harris and Demands he negotiate with… Haniyeh?

Juan Cole

Ann Arbor (Informed Comment) – Israel’s assassination of Hamas civilian Politburo head Ismail Haniyeh in Tehran was a crime, and we all know from police procedurals that the investigator has to look for “means, motive and opportunity.” The government of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu certainly had the means and the opportunity. It has assassinated […]

US Foreign Policy

The Double Crisis of U.S. Foreign Policy

John Feffer

By John Feffer | Originally published in Rosa Luxemburg Stiftung. ( Foreign Policy in Focus ) – Approaching the consequential elections of 2024, the United States faces a stark debate over the role of the country in international affairs. The media has generally presented the two positions as the internationalism of Joe Biden and Kamala […]

Israel/ Palestine

The U.S. Must Stop Arming Israel

OtherWords

By Farrah Hassen | ( Otherwords.org ) – In a shameful moment for U.S. history, an accused war criminal addressed Congress on July 24. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu came to plead for more arms for his war on Gaza, where the International Court of Justice has found it “plausible” that Israel is committing genocide. […]

Democratic Party

Kamala Harris denounces “Catastrophic levels of Food Insecurity” in Gaza, Calls for Permanent Ceasefire, in Pivot From Biden

Juan Cole

Ann Arbor (Informed Comment) – Vice President Kamala Harris met with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Thursday, having had a convenient campaign event out of town that allowed her to be absent from his disgraceful address to Congress, which more than half of congressional Democrats also boycotted. In 1955, sociologist Will Herberg published Protestant, […]