US Foreign Policy

( Foreign Policy in Focus ) – Critics of Israel once occupied the fringes of the debate in the United States. Then, in 2007, J Street was founded as a loyal opposition to the kind of Israeli politics that received uncritical support from the U.S. mainstream. By organizing “pro-Israel, pro-peace, pro-democracy Americans” in favor of […]

Central Intelligence Agency

The Origins of the West’s Iran Crisis: Oil, Autocracy and Coup

Marc Martorell Junyent

Review of David S. Painter and Gregory Brew, The Struggle for Iran: Oil, Autocracy, and the Cold War, 1951–1954. Chapel Hill: The University of North Carolina Press, 2023. Munich (Special to Informed Comment; Feature) – The figure of Mohammad Mosaddeq, Prime Minister of Iran from 1951 to 1953, is an uncomfortable one for both sides […]

Displaced and Refugees

Not Enough: Biden decries Netanyahu Strategy as a “Mistake,” Mourns WCK dead, Calls for 6-8 Week Pause

Juan Cole

Ann Arbor (Informed Comment) – President Biden granted the Spanish-language cable television channel Univision an interview that aired on Tuesday evening. Biden ranged widely, condemning his rival Donald J. Trump as a would-be dictator and praising Mexican President Andrés Manuel López Obrador as a straight shooter. The mention of AMLO led interviewer Enrique Acevedo to […]

Featured

Nicaragua Sues Germany at Int’l Court of Justice to Halt Weapons to a “Genocidal” Israel

Juan Cole

Ann Arbor (Informed Comment) – Nicaragua’s opposition online newspaper, La Prensa , reported Monday that proceedings began at the International Court of Justice in Managua’s complaint against Germany for abetting Israeli genocide against the Palestinians of Gaza with its weapons shipments. Nearly half of arms shipments to Israel during the past six months have come […]

Featured

The U.S. used to Stand up to Israeli Expansionism: Time for Biden to Show Eisenhower’s Spine

Mohamed Jegham

Istanbul (Special to Informed Comment; Feature) – President John. F Kennedy coined the term “special relationship” to describe the American-Israeli relationship. This “special relationship” has only continued to grow stronger, sometimes by fits and starts, since the inception of the Jewish state in 1948. Despite its support for Israel, when it came to the issue […]

Iran

With Its Deterrence Strategy Weakened, Iran Faces Pressure To Hit Israel

Radio Free Europe Radio Liberty

By Kian Sharifi | – ( Radio Free Europe/ Radio Liberty ) – Iran’s strategy of deterrence against Israel has suffered greatly since the outbreak of the Gaza war — particularly after the brazen attack on its consulate in the Syrian capital on April 1. Eighteen members of the Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC), including […]

Houthi

Iran-US secret Backchannel Talks Suggest that for Both Sides Pragmatism beats Ideology

The Conversation

By Shabnam Holliday, University of Plymouth | – (The Conversation) – Recent revelations that the Islamic Republic of Iran and the US have held secret talks as a way of resolving months of attacks by Tehran-backed Houthi rebels on shipping in the Red Sea have raised eyebrows. Surely the two countries have been implacable foes […]

Featured

Israel’s Lavender Murderbot is Programmed to Kill up to a Third of all Palestinian Civilians in Gaza

Juan Cole

Ann Arbor (Informed Comment) – The incredibly brave and resourceful Israeli journalist Yuval Abraham revealed Wednesday in a hard-hitting piece of investigative journalism that the Israeli military has used two artificial intelligence programs, “Lavender” and “Where’s Daddy,” to target some 37,000 alleged members of the military wings of Hamas and Islamic Jihad. The programs used […]

Featured

Was Israel’s Strike on Iranian Embassy in Damascus an attempt to draw the US into the War?

Juan Cole

Ann Arbor (Informed Comment) – Israel’s airstrikes Monday on the Iranian embassy in Damascus, which killed a senior general of the Iranian Revolutionary Guards Corps and six other Iranian military advisers, as well as Syrians, is a violation of the Vienna Convention on Diplomatic Relations. Israel itself has squawked when its embassies and embassy personnel […]