Original news, features, opinions from Chicago to Jerusalem
By James M. Dorsey Israel and Palestine are playing political soccer with Palestinian football as the ball. It is a match which Israel is unlikely to win and that could prove to produce a bruising loss. The stakes for Israel are far higher than for Palestine. Israel is effectively on probation as it seeks to…
Torture by Solitary confinement is a form of imprisonment in which an inmate is isolated from any human contact except for members of the prison staff for at least 22 hours a day. By Eileen Fleming Last week, New York Times reporter Erica Goode wrote: I’ve been covering solitary confinement on and off for…
Read More “Solitary Confinement ‘Sanctified’ State Torture” »
Troubled Waters Under the Tigris and Euphrates Bridges By Abdennour Toumi Ankara, Turkey — Last summer I was in the southeastern province of Mardin, when social-demand riots erupted in the majority of Kurdish villages and towns. Burning tires and barricades blocked the roads as farmers protested the cut-off of electricity and especially of water needed to irrigate…
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Pro-Israel groups are engaged in a disinformation campaign to discredit organizations that support Palestinian civil rights. The prestigious independent organization Public Interest Investigations has identified a new campaign by extremist pro-Israel groups with U.S. Funding to discredit the important UN Economic and Social Council and the Palestine Return Centre (Center) By Ray Hanania Pro-Israel groups…
Read More “Israeli campaign to spread lies exposed by prestigious British group” »
A history of abuses by the US Justice Department and the FBI targeting innocent Americans of Arab heritage and the Muslim religion raise serious questions about the role of these agencies and their true agendas. But the incidents suggest that the FBI is the largest real domestic terrorist operation in America By Dezeray Lyn The…
Read More “Unmasked: How the FBI became the biggest domestic terrorist threat in America” »
Although the Middle East and the question “who supports Israel more” dominate national politics and presidential elections, the first major debate of the top 10 Republican contenders had another agenda, defeating Donald Trump. Middle East issues took a back seat, but they definitely will surface as the election campaign energizes Make sure to take the Presidential…
Read More “First Republican debate steers clear of Middle East” »
Khalil Gibran is one of America’s best known American Arabs. The acclaimed poet’s book, The Prophet, first published in 1923, has sold more than 100 million copies and has been an inspiration to American Arab writers for generations. On Friday, August 7, 2015, the animated film will open at limited engagements throughout the country with…
Read More “Khalil Gibran movie opens with not enough publicity” »
Rightwing haters hone in on anyone who has a Middle East name, with the exception of “Jesus,” of course, one of the most famous Middle Eastern names. But in many cases, not everyone with a Middle Eastern name is Middle Eastern although they don’t seem immune to the hate industry that targets Arabs, Muslims and…
Read More “Arab name controversy reflects growing hate in America” »
Gaza’s children came out into the streets this past week to show support for the victims of Israeli extremist brutality, including the arson murder by an Israeli settler of an 18 month old child, Ali Dawabsheh. Dawabsheh died when his home was set fire by Jewish terrorists from nearby illegal Israeli settlements By Mohammed Asad Children in…
Read More “Gaza youth protest Israel’s killing of children” »
It was a fundamental truth that most Americans were too overcome with anger to anticipate. The unnecessary American war against Iraq in March 2003 only accomplished one unintended goal, making Iran a much more powerful nation than it was. The Iraq war failed to free the Iraqi people and it had nothing to do with…
Read More “Obama argues the Iraq war only helped strengthen Iran” »
The Israeli company SodaStream, which is based in Airport City adjacent to Ben Gurion Airport in Tel Aviv, reported a significant loss in revenue for the first half of 2015. The Israeli owned company became a legitimate of non-violence protestors and activists when it launched a factory in the Occupied West Bank in the industrial zone…
By James M. Dorsey Israel is struggling with how to deal with groups some of which are underground that are linked to a banned nationalist political party that has emerged at the core of recent racist, anti-Palestinian incidents and include a militant soccer fan group that was responsible for last month’s violent clashes during a…
Matt VanDyke, a timid 26-year-old with obsessive-compulsive disorder, left home in Baltimore in 2006 for what he called a “crash course in manhood.” He bought a motorcycle, a video camera and set-off to film himself on a multi-year, 35,000-mile odyssey through North Africa and the Middle East. When revolution broke out in Libya, he joined…
Read More “American man joins Libyan revolution in ‘Point and Shoot’” »
By James M Dorsey Saudi Arabia’s four-month old bombing campaign against Houthi rebel forces in Yemen has had mixed results beyond devastation in the region’s poorest country. The insertion of Saudi-trained Yemeni ground forces that support exiled president Abd Rabbah Mansour Hadi led last month to the capture of the port city of Aden from…
Read More “Yemen and Arab Uprising: Fissures and Repercussions” »
Arabs immigrated to many locations in America beginning sometime in the middle of the 19th Century. Why they chose different city locations depends on the industry and job opportunities at the time. Some of those stories have been documented, but most have been lost to time and the absence of a strong community-focused news media…
Read More “Documentary captures vanishing life in Ohio’s Little Syria” »
By Ali Younes The announcement last week that the Taliban leader Mullah Omar is dead should mark an important junction not only for Afghanistan and the Taliban, but also for the Jihadist movement worldwide. As a leader of Afghanistan from 1996 to 2001, Mullah Omar was known as a reclusive leader who provided shelter for…
Read More “Mullah Omar ,Opposed the September, 11 Attacks, betrayed by Bin Laden” »
International sporting associations struggle to balance adherence to human rights with hosting events in autocratic countries
Israeli settler terrorists were blamed for the burning death murder Friday (July 31, 2015) of an 18 month old Palestinian child. Israeli settlers continue to terrorize Christian and Muslim civilians without response from Netanyahu’s government. Netanyahu’s settler policies have encouraged attacks against Christian and Muslim civilians, as his rhetoric was blamed for the assassination of his predecessor…
Read More “Jewish settler terrorists murder 18 month old Palestinian child” »