‘Complete surrender’: How gaza defeated Israel and what it means—analysis

January 17, 2025

Ramzy Baroud

Israel’s National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir accused the Israeli government of Benjamin Netanyahu of “a complete surrender to Hamas,” calling the Gaza ceasefire agreement a “surrender deal.”

 

 Hamada Shaqoura, a Palestinian man who used to be a food blogger, distributes food to children after cooking a meal for displaced people, in Khan Younis in the southern Gaza Strip on January 16, 2025. BASHAR TALEB / AFP via Getty Images

Dozens of Columbia University law faculty demand inquiry into professor's 'termination'

January 17, 2025

Over 45 Columbia Law School professors have signed a letter calling for a Columbia University Senate inquiry into the controversial departure of their colleague Katherine Franke, marking an escalation in the dispute over academic freedom and protest rights on campuses.

 

 'Persecution': Outpouring of anger after 'termination' of pro-Palestine Columbia professor

Want to defend immigrant workers in your contract? Here are some suggestions.

January 17, 2025

Natascha Elena Uhlmann and Sarah Lazare

The following language was compiled from a series of unions and labor activists. It is intended as a resource for workers looking to include pro-immigrant provisions in their collective bargaining agreements.

 

 Unionized teachers with ASPIRA charter school network rally outside an ASPIRA high school to convince the company's management to come to terms on a contract on March 9, 2017 in Chicago, Illinois. Photo by Scott Olson/Getty Images

The Fatal Despair of Exile: An Iran they could neither Live in nor Leave Behind

January 17, 2025

Fariba Amini

Nothing takes me from the butterflies of my dreams

to my reality: not dust and not fire. What

will I do without roses from Samarkand? What

will I do in a theater that burnishes the singers with its lunar

stones? Our weight has become light like our houses

in the faraway winds. We have become two friends of the strange

creatures in the clouds … and we are now loosened

from the gravity of identity’s land. What will we do … what

will we do without exile, and a long night

that stares at the water?   — Mahmoud Darwish

 

Israeli Attacks Kill 70+ as Netanyahu Delays Cabinet Vote on Cease-Fire Deal

January 16, 2025

Jake Johnson

Israeli attacks have reportedly killed more than 70 people in the Gaza Strip in the hours since a multiphase cease-fire agreement was announced Wednesday, a deal that sparked cautious hope for an end to a 15-month U.S.-backed assault that has decimated the Palestinian enclave and created one of the worst humanitarian emergencies in modern history.

 

 Relatives of a journalist killed by an Israeli drone attack carry his shrouded body in Khan Younis, Gaza on January 16, 2025. (Photo: Abed Rahim Khatib/Anadolu via Getty Images)

The Fatal Effort to Dismantle the UN’s Relief and Works Agency for Palestinian Refugees

January 16, 2025

Dan Steinbock

New York (Special to Informed Comment; Feature) – Early in the year, State Department officials briefed Joel Rayburn from the Trump transition team there could be a humanitarian “catastrophe” in Gaza when a new Israeli law barring contact with the UN refugee agency for Palestinians takes effect at the end of the month.

The Gaza ceasefire will not cure the wounds of genocide

January 15, 2025

Roaa Shamallakh

Now that a ceasefire has been agreed to in Gaza, the bombs will stop falling, and the world will breathe a sigh of relief. There will be celebrations of peace, even if temporary, nations will pat themselves on the back, and the media will move on to the next trending crisis. Yet, for those of us who survived, the war hasn’t ended—it has merely transformed. 

 

Genocide

Do we call it genocide, land-grab, racism, or political maneuver? Whatever of these or similar terms we use, such action was the essence of the inception of a country called the United States of America. What the US government is doing in Palestine, aiding the Zionist government in destroying Palestinian communities, is nothing but repeating what culminated the inception of this country. The United States of America was established by European settlers on the graves of indigenous people. It is important to read the history of the United States, especially from the time when white European settles invaded this land.

What do we know about a Israel-Hamas ceasefire deal in Gaza?

January 15, 2025

The Palestinian group Hamas has agreed to a ceasefire deal with Israel after more than 460 days of a war that has devastated Gaza.

 

 Israel has decimated Gaza during its war on the Palestinian enclave [Omar Al-Qattaa/AFP]

Fiscal Redemption Requires a Republic, Not an Empire

January 15, 2025

David Stockman

There is not a snowball’s chance in the hot place of containing America’s public debt disaster unless the Empire is brought home and the national security budget is slashed by $500 billion per year. The merits aside, all the other big slices of the budget led by Social Security and Medicare are surrounded by nearly impenetrable political moats.

 

Palestinian filmmakers are doing the impossible to capture their stories

January 14, 2025

Matt Minton

A young girl listens to music in her headphones while the sound of missiles and bombs destroys the only home she’s ever known. A girl and her uncle stand on top of a bombed house, looking for her father trapped below. They keep calling his phone to see if he is still alive. A group of children help create stop-motion films about their mothers’ writing names on their arms in case they are bombed and disfigured.

BRICS grows, adding Indonesia as member: World’s 4th most populous country, 7th biggest economy

January 11, 2025

Ben Norton

The Global South-led organization BRICS has expanded again.

 

عَرَق‌خوری

هوشنگ فاضلی

جمعه شب از نیمه‌شب گذشته بود و من و آغلام و آقای عینکچی، همچنان در مغازهٔ عینکچی به میگساری مشغول بودیم. تا اینکه همهٔ بطری‌ها خالی‌ شدند. شهر همدان دیگر خلوت و هوا هم نسبتا سرد شده بود. ما که در عطش مشروب دیگری می‌سوختیم بدنبال پیاله فروشی می‌گشتیم، ولی‌ همه جا تعطیل بود. یادم آمد که در تهران اول لاله‌زارنو کافهٔ شب و روز بود؛ کافه‌ای که خاموشی نداشت. به دوستانم، آقا غلام و آقای عینکچی گفتم بهتر است به کافهٔ شب و روز برویم. فولکسی داشتم که آنرا به راه انداختیم و با سه سرنشین بسوی تهران حرکت کردیم.ا

Palestinian detainee dies of medical negligence in Israeli prison

January 13, 2025

Mera Aladam

Palestinian rights groups have accused Israeli authorities of committing a "medical crime" following the death of a Palestinian prisoner who was denied treatment. 

 

 MLA Members for Justice in Palestine lead a die-in during the Modern Language Association Delegate Assembly in New Orleans on January 11, 2025. (Photo: MLA Members for Justice in Palestine)

In Syria’s war-scarred Yarmouk Camp, Palestinians begin long path to recovery

January 10, 2025

Santiago Montag

In 2017, as Syrian regime forces besieged the Palestinian refugee camp of Yarmouk in the southern outskirts of Damascus and food grew scarce, six Palestinian sisters devised a unique strategy for surviving the civil war: a small garden. Filled with flowers and vegetables, the garden provided sustenance, as well as camouflage for the house within the camp’s narrow alleyways. But just as importantly, it provided a much-needed affirmation of life, and a symbol of their connection to the land.

 

Trump, Iran and the Obama strategic blueprint

January 13, 2025

Alastair Crooke

Like a smashed antique clock – with its elaborate cogs, ratchet wheels and innards splayed out from the casing – so the mechanics of the Middle East lie similarly exposed and broken. All the region is in play – Syria, Lebanon, Qatar, Jordan, Egypt and Iran.

Gaza ceasefire talks near final stage as Hamas awaits Israeli approval: Reports

January 12, 2025

Hamas said on 11 January that it had completed a draft framework for a Gaza ceasefire deal and is awaiting a response from Israel. The news coincides with recent reports of cautious progress in reaching an agreement to end 15 months of genocidal war on the strip.

The Historic Landmarks Razed By Los Angeles’ Deadly Fires

January 9, 2025

Sonja Anderson

The raging wildfires in the Los Angeles area have so far killed five people, spreading over almost 30 square miles. The fires are the city’s most destructive to date: More than 2,000 structures have burnt down, including homes, businesses and historic buildings.

 

Will Rogers' Western Ranch House was on the National Register of Historic Places. California State Parks

Israel destroyed Gaza for Generations to come, and the World stayed Silent

January 11, 2025

Ramzy Baroud

( Middle East Monitor ) – The first official reference to Gaza becoming increasingly uninhabitable was made by the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD) in 2012, when the population of the Gaza Strip was estimated at 1.8 million inhabitants.

 

Will Iran build a nuclear bomb while Trump is in power in the US?

January 11, 2025

Maziar Motamedi

Tehran, Iran – Donald Trump’s second term as president of the United States promises Iran a rocky road that could lead to different outcomes when it comes to its relations with the West, analysts say.

 

Iran’s nuclear site in Isfahan, Iran, on April 4, 2024 [Planet Labs PBC via AP]