Is a new civil war in the U.S. possible?

September 12, 2025
Raphael Machado

There may be few other options for Trump than to concentrate more power and implement exceptional measures to guarantee law and order.

Israeli Strike in Doha crosses a new Line from which Relations with Gulf may not Recover

September11, 2025
Kristian Coates Ulrichsen
(The Conversation) – The Israeli airstrike targeting senior Hamas political leaders in Qatar on Sept. 9, 2025, represents the crossing of a number of lines.

“Take the Cash in Hand:” Edward FitzGerald’s Rubáiyát of Omar Khayyám 1:12

September 11, 2025
Juan Cole

Quatrain no. 12 in the first edition of Edward FitzGerald’s Rubáiyát of Omar Khayyám concerns the imperative to live in the moment and take our pleasures where we can, disregarding visions of future power or the afterlife, which we may never achieve.
XII.

Islamic garden at the palace complex in Granada meant to evoke the Qur’an’s image of paradise. 2010. © Juan Cole.

‘We’ll get them next time’: Israel hints at more attacks on Hamas leaders in Qatar

September 10, 2025
US President Donald Trump said he assured Qatar that such an attack would not happen again, coinciding with reports that Washington knew about and even approved the strike

سیاست نو

بسیار جالب است که بدانیم که آنچه که هم اکنون در حیطهٔ سیاسی در آمریکا اتفاق می‌اُفتد از قبل پیش‌بینی‌ شده بود. کسانی‌ که به تئوری‌های اقتصادی و اقتصاد سیاسی علاقه‌مندند، با مطالعهٔ  آنچه که تاثیرگزارترین رئیس جمهور آمریکا در طی دوازده سال حکومتش، بین سالهای هزار و نهصد و سی‌ و سه، و هزار و نهصد و چهل و پنج، برای این کشور انجام داد، و مقایسهٔ آن با پیش‌بینی‌های اقتصاد سیاسی توسط دانشمندان در این رشته، می‌توانند به راحتی‌ این پدیده را درک کنند.ا

‘It’s terror’: Global Sumud Flotilla bound for Gaza bombed

September 9, 2025
Julia Conley

“Our peaceful mission to break the siege on Gaza and stand in solidarity with its people continues with determination and resolve,” said members of the flotilla’s steering committee.

Tunisian protesters shout anti-Israeli slogans and wave Palestinian flags at the Port of Sidi Bou Said near Tunis on September 9, 2025, after the organisers of a Gaza-bound flotilla carrying humanitarian aid and pro-Palestinian activists said late on September 8 that one of their boats was hit by a suspected UAV but Tunisian authorities said "no drones" had been detected. Photo by YASSINE MAHJOUB/AFP via Getty Images

Trump and Silicon Valley’s plan to rule the world with AI weapons

This summary is not available. Please click here to view the post.

Report from Gaza: Aid Coordinator Describes Disease, Famine as Israel Blows Up Residential Towers

September 8, 2025
“There’s no real safe zone in Gaza [City] and all of the Gaza Strip,” says Eyad Amawi, who joins us for an update from Deir al-Balah in the Gaza Strip as Israeli forces move deeper into Gaza City to forcibly evict 1 million residents. The local aid coordinator describes relentless bombardment, water shortages, infectious diseases and worsening famine. “All of these things must end now. As a human being, the most priority is the life of the civilians here.”

LIVE BLOG: Ansarallah’s Drones Hit Ramon Airport as Israel Expands Gaza City Operations – Day 702

September 7, 2025

DeepSeek and the digital battleground: China’s AI influence abroad

September6, 2025
Yasemin Yam

We could see a worldwide normalization of AI technology for surveillance and propaganda purposes

West Asia is Lurching Toward War

September 5, 2025

Indications are that Israel with the support of Washington is spoiling for a fight with Iran as the E3 moves for snapback sanctions against Tehran, writes M. K. Bhadrakumar.

Tehran in April 2018. (Ninara/ Wikimedia Commons/ CC BY-SA 3.0)

The new Israeli map proposing to annex 80% of the West Bank, explained

September 4, 2025
Qassam Muaddi

Israeli Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich released a map proposing to annex over 80% of the West Bank. He's not far off from the rest of the Israeli political establishment — even the "pragmatic" opposition.

sraeli intelligence data: Militants account for only 1 in 4 Gaza detainees

September 4, 2025
Yuval Abraham

A classified Israeli army database indicates that the vast majority of the 6,000 Palestinians who have been arrested in Gaza and held in appalling conditions in Israeli detention are civilians, a joint investigation finds.

Notes from the Editors

September1, 2025

September 2025 (Volume 77, Number 4)

فراز و افول امپراتوری‌ها

طاق کسری 

US Navy 'First Among Equals': The case for a new realist internationalism

September 2, 2025
Daniel Larison

Emma Ashford's new book challenges America’s global overreach and offers an alternative for a new multipolar world

American Citizens on the Frontlines of Gaza’s War Crimes

September 1, 2025
Jamal Kanj
Serving in the military is the ultimate test of loyalty. When young Americans raise their right hand, they pledge to defend their nation, their Constitution, their people. Yet for many young Americans, that oath is NOT made to the United States military. Instead, they pack their bags, fly across the Atlantic, and enlist in a foreign army—the Israeli War Machine, aka, Israeli Defense Forces (IDF).

60% of US Gen Z Back Hamas Over Israel in Gaza War – New Poll

8/31/2025

Killed	Wounded	Missing
63,459	160,256	9,000

A pro-Palestine protest in Seattle. (Photo: via @GuyOron W page)

A new Harris Poll shows 60% of US Gen Z support Hamas over Israel, highlighting a generational divide as Gaza’s death toll nears 63,400 amid the ongoing genocide.

FEMA Employees Speak Out After Attacks on Workers Warning of Looming Disaster

8/30/2025
Sasha Abramsky

“The danger posed to our collective communities … is very real,” said one employee who signed a public letter.

Where’s a Moral Panic When You Need One?

8/29/2025
Jeb Lund

Sold as The Answer to Everything, AI has become a factory of custom manias, faux-companionship and typo-free teenage suicide notes.

Israel’s war on Gaza kills over 63,000 Palestinians, starves 322

August 29, 2025
Usaid Siddiqui, Tim Hume, Jillian Kestler-D'Amours and Nils Adler

Displaced Palestinians fleeing the northern Gaza Strip move with their belongings on a street in Gaza City, Thursday, August 28, 2025

Clear Majority of US Voters, Including 3 in 4 Democrats, Want to End Weapons Support to Israel: Poll

August 28, 2025
Stephen Prager

"Democratic politicians who continue to support sending weapons to Israel are acting in direct defiance of their own constituents' wishes," said one progressive commentator.

Israeli Forces Kill 75 Palestinians in Gaza Over 24 Hours

August 26, 2025
Dave DeCamp

Gaza hospitals recorded another three starvation-related deaths due to the Israeli siege

* یهود و صهیونیزم

آنچه که نشریات در مورد اسرائیل و فلسطین تبلیغ می‌کنند ایجاد یک مغالطه بین این دو عنوان و گسترش این تصور است که یهودیّت و صهیونیزم در اصل یکی‌ می‌باشند، در حالیکه تفاوت بین آنها بسیار است. بخش بسیار کوتاهی‌ از تعریف ویکیپدیا از آنچه که آنرا یهودیت می‌نامد چنین است:ا

Australia Blames Iran for Synagogue Attack

August 26, 2025
Joe Lauria

Based on an Australian intelligence “assessment,” the Australian government on Tuesday expelled Iran’s ambassador and three other embassy officials for allegedly planning an attack on a Melbourne synagogue last December.

Israel kills Middle East Eye journalists in double-tap strike on Gaza's Nasser Hospital

August 25, 2025

Mohamed Salama and Ahmed Abu Aziz among 19 killed after Israeli forces bomb Khan Younis hospital providing life-saving care to hundreds of thousands of Palestinians

A man holds the equipment used by Palestinian cameraman Hussam al-Masri who was killed along with other journalists at the Nasser hospital, in Khan Younis, in the southern Gaza Strip on 25 August 2025

LIVE BLOG: Israel to Lay Siege on Gaza City as Scores Killed by Massacres, Famine – Day 688

August 24, 2025

Killed	Wounded	Missing
62,622	157,673	9,000

In a crumbling world, 30 million dream of a state to call their own. Will their dream come true or end in a nightmare?

August 23, 2025
Murad Sadygzade

The Kurds, caught up in the violent restructuring of the Middle East, face an uncertain future

FILE PHOTO: Kurdish refugees near the Turkish-Syrian border in Sanliurfa province

Israel’s Assassination of Memory

August 22, 2025

Israel’s razing of Gaza is not only about ethnic cleansing. It is about the erasure of a people, a culture and a history that expose the lies used to justify the Israeli state.

On the concept of military neutrality and its contradictions: relative neutrality

August 22, 2025
Lorenzo Maria Pacini

At a time when the world is in turmoil, oscillating between peace negotiations and threats of war, there is one issue that needs to be addressed with care: the concept of neutrality.

Iran reacts to nuclear deal threat

August 21, 2025
Tehran has been preparing "for years" to counter the possible reimposition of U.N. sanctions under the existing nuclear deal's "snapback" mechanism, Iran's foreign minister said on Wednesday as tensions over stalled nuclear talks threaten to renew conflict between Iran and the West.

Despite Efforts to Shift the Blame, Israeli Policies Are Starving Children

August 21, 2025
( Human Rights Watch ) – In July, major news organizations published the image of 18-month-old Muhammad Zakariya Ayyoub al-Matouq, a Palestinian child so emaciated that his bones protruded through his back, while his mom cradled him in her arms. Instead of a diaper, he wore a black plastic bag.

We Have No Shelter and No Escape as Israel Prepares to Invade Gaza City

August 20, 2025
Dalia Abu Ramadan

We have no real options: stay in the north and suffer, or flee south and suffer all the same.

Where can we escape, when every corner is pervaded by death?

Displaced Palestinians check the damage following an Israeli strike that hit a school-turned shelter in the Al-Rimal neighborhood of Gaza City on July 25, 2025. OMAR AL-QATTAA/AFP via Getty Images

Pentagon seeks billions in ‘emergency funds’ to restock arms used in defense of Israel

August 20, 2025

Israel has also recently begun accelerating development of missile defense systems, as concerns grow of a potential re-escalation with Iran

Colossal level of destruction’ as Israel ethnically cleanses Gaza City neighborhoods

August 19, 2025
Brett Wilkins

“The widespread destruction in Zeitoun,” said one group, “is part of a deliberate Israeli policy: completing a campaign of genocide and erasing Palestinian urban life.”

Palestinian residents set off for safe areas with their belongings they could carry following attacks by the Israeli army on the Zeitoun neighborhood in Gaza City, Gaza on August 12, 2025. Photo by Ahmed Jihad Ibrahim Al-arini/Anadolu via Getty Images

طبری

 به قول و روایت تاریخ‌شناسان و متخصصین در این امور، بهترین تاریخی‌ که در مورد اسلام نوشته شده، تاریخ طبری است. این تاریخ در شانزده جلد می‌باشد، که البته دو جلد نخست از آغاز وجود این جهان، که در حد علوم آن زمان است، تا آغاز تاریخچه اسلام سخن می‌گوید. در این تاریخ، پس از داستان سیب و خروج مخلوقات از بهشت، در باره فرزندان و نسل‌های بعد آدم و حوا توضیح داده می‌شود. این تاریخ تا زمان خود طبری ادامه میابد، که البته او در سالهای پایانیِ سه قرن نخست پس از هجرت می‌زیسته است. تاریخ طبری بارها ترجمه شده، و گویا بهترین برگردان آن به فارسی توسط ابوالقاسم پاینده باشد که در سال ۱۳۵۲ صورت گرفته است.ا

‘I painted so prison wouldn’t swallow us whole’: An interview with Iranian journalist Vida Rabbani

August19, 2025
Omid Memarian

‘When space and materials are scarce, your mind does the work of finding freedom’

 

Vida Rabbani, ‘Execution Walls,’ 2024. Acrylic on bedsheet fabric, 50 x 70 cm (19.6 x 27.5 in). Photo courtesy of the artist.

In Largest Israeli Protest to Date, 1 Million Israelis Demand Gaza Ceasefire to Free Hostages

August 18, 2025
Massive protests have erupted in Israel, with about 500,000 people marching in Tel Aviv Sunday to demand an end to the war in Gaza. Organizers say 1 million took part in demonstrations across the entire country. Most of the Israelis who were out on the streets “blame Netanyahu” for prioritizing his political survival over an end to the war, says Oren Ziv, reporter and photographer for +972 Magazine. Ziv notes that most Israelis are “not speaking directly on the suffering in Gaza, on the killings, on the children, on the starvation,” but instead focus on the survival of the hostages held in Gaza.

LIVE BLOG: Gaza City under Intense Israeli Attacks, Hospitals Targeted, Homes Demolished – Day 681

August 17, 2025

Killed	Wounded	Missing
61,897	155,660	9,000

Israel has continued to use starvation of civilians as a weapon of war against Palestinians in Gaza. (Photo: SOCIAL MEDIA, via QNN)

Marwan Barghouti, Itamar Ben-Gvir, and the Israeli need to humiliate

August 16, 2025
Abdaljawad Omar

Itamar Ben-Gvir’s staged attempt at humiliating Marwan Barghouti exposed the impotence of the Palestinian political order — but it also laid bare the insecurities and anxieties that fuel Israel’s need to publicly subjugate Palestinians.

Mural of jailed Palestinian leader Marwan Barghouti in Jabalia refugee camp, northern Gaza Strip, April 13, 2023. (Photo: Nidal Al-Wahidi/APA Images)

‘Legitimization Cell’: Israeli unit tasked with linking Gaza journalists to Hamas

August 14, 2025
Yuval Ibraham

Treating the media as a battlefield, a secretive army intelligence squad scoured Gaza for material to bolster Israeli hasbara — including questionable claims that would justify the killing of Palestinian reporters.

Peace and Freedom Party has stood in strong support of LGBTQ+ Rights from the very beginning!

August 15, 2025
Kathy Labriola
Editors note: In February 1970, at the second Peace and Freedom Party Convention and Celebration, over 400 activists met at Long Beach State University. They added a Gay Liberation plank to the PFP platform. It was the first Gay Liberation plank in any platform of any ballot qualified party. The Party has been continuous in its support for LGBTQ+ rights and platform language has often been updated. A new revision will be on this website soon.

Ukraine: Pax Optima Rerum

August 14, 2025

Alfred De Zayas
Peace is the highest good – every day that passes, more soldiers and civilians are killed in the Ukrainian war.  It is estimated that more than a million persons have lost their lives in this senseless war, which must be brought to an end as early as possible. This can be done with a modicum of common sense and professionalism. The war should never have started, and it could have been ended in March 2022, if Ukraine had not reneged on the compromise negotiated by Turkish President Erdogan in Istanbul.  There were many opportunities to sit down and discuss terms for a ceasefire, but the US, Europe and Ukraine insisted that “Putin must lose”.  Thus, the many blueprints for peace issued by the African countries, China and countless international organizations, including the International Peace Bureau, as well as private scholars, were fruitless.  This stubbornness and intransigence continue as Ursula von der Leyen, Friedrich Merz and other European leaders oppose the US peace initiative and conspire to continue the war no matter what.

Why Egypt can't criticize Israel for at least another two decades

August 14, 2025
Elfadil Ibrahim

A record gas deal exposes a strategic vulnerability as Cairo trades political autonomy for energy security

Israeli attacks on Gaza’s healthcare amount to ‘medicide’, UN experts say

August 13, 2025
Usaid Siddiqui and Farah Najjar

آیا حکومت ملاها رو به اتمام است؟

این پرسشی است که بسیاری پس از مرور اخبار ایران از خود می‌کنند، که آیا این رژیم در حال پاشیدگی است، و یا چه مدتی‌ به پایان این رژیم ارتجاعی باقی‌ مانده است. البته واضح است که اخباری که در ایران و تحت نظر هیات حاکمه پخش می‌شود، با آنچه که در خارج کشور منتشر می‌شود تفاوت‌های بسیاری دارد. دلیل اصلی‌ که برای بسیاری پوشیده نیست این است که آنچه که به عنوان خبر به مردم مقیم در ایران می‌رسد یا از طریق رژیم اسلامی منتشر می‌شود، و یا تحت نظارت و یا کنترل دولت می‌باشد. بنابراین، اکثر کسانی‌ که در ایران زندگی‌ می‌کنند اخباری را که در ایران پخش می‌شود درست ندانسته، آن گزارشات را جعلی و ساخته و پرداختهٔ رژیم قلمداد می‌کنند، که تا حدی نیز درست است. از سوی دیگر، خبر‌های سازمان‌های خبری خارج از ایران درست برعکس آن عمل می‌کنند، بطوری که در این چهار دهه و نیم، هرروز نوید پایان حکومت ملاها داده شده است. ولی‌ جالب است که بدانیم که موقعیت سیاسی رژیم حاکم بر ایران را فقط می‌توان با مطالعهٔ نشریات داخل ایران کشف کرد.ا

The Elders Demand 'Decisive Measures' to End Gaza 'Genocide and Famine'

August 12, 2025
Brad Reed

"We saw evidence of food and medical aid denied entry, and heard witness accounts of the killing of Palestinian civilians, including children," said former Irish Prime Minister Mary Robinson and former New Zealand Prime Minister Helen Clark.

Palestinians facing food shortages gather with pots and pans as a charity distributes meals in Gaza City, Gaza on August 08, 2025.

Trump Mobilizes D.C. National Guard and Declares ‘Crime Emergency’

August 12, 2025
Ariana Figueroa, Jacob Fischler

The president also took control of the city’s police force and pledged similar crackdowns in other Democratic cities.

National Guard troops arrive at the District of Columbia National Guard headquarters on Aug. 12, 2025. (AP Photo/Julia Demaree Nikhinson)

Israeli Strike on Tent in Gaza Kills Five Al Jazeera Journalists

August 10, 2025
Dave DeCamp

Among those killed was Anas al-Sharif, a well-known reporter who was the target of an Israeli smear campaign

Palestinians inspect the site of an Israeli strike where Al Jazeera says its journalists Anas Al Sharif, Mohammed Qreiqeh, and three photojournalists were killed, in Gaza City, August 11, 2025. REUTERS/Ebrahim Hajjaj