Geography Archives: Iraq

Results of a New Nationwide Public Opinion Survey of Iran before the June 12, 2009 Presidential Elections Executive Summary: In a new public opinion poll across Iran before the critical upcoming June 12, 2009 Presidential elections, a plurality of Iranians said they would vote for incumbent President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad. Iranians also continue overwhelmingly to favor […]

On the US-Iran relationship, President Obama seems to be talking from both sides of his mouth.  From one side we hear promising messages of dialogue and a “new beginning” with Iran; from the other side provocative words that seems to be coming right out of the mouth of his predecessor, George W. Bush. For example, […]

  Every so often someone comes along who is so brave and so inspiring that you just can’t sit by and remain silent when you learn they need your help. We’re writing to you today about one of these rare people. His name is Ezra Nawi. You’ve probably never heard of him, but because you […]

A community in northern Israel has changed its bylaws to demand that new residents pledge support for “Zionism, Jewish heritage and settlement of the land” in a thinly veiled attempt to block Arab applicants from gaining admission. Critics are calling the bylaw, adopted by Manof, home to 170 Jewish families in Galilee, a local “loyalty […]

  Dietrich Eichholtz.  Krieg um Öl: Ein Erdölimperium als deutsches Kriegsziel 1938-1943.  Leipzig: Leipziger Universitätsverlag, 2006.  141 pp.  ISBN 978-3-86583-119-4; EUR 19.90 (paper), ISBN 978-3-86583-119-4. Dietrich Eichholtz does not mince words.  From the first page of this powerfully argued book, his underlying argument is clear: “The imperialist interest in oil played a role in the […]

Juan Cole.  Napoleon’s Egypt: Invading the Middle East.  New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2007.  Illustrations, maps.  xi + 279 pp.  $16.95 (paper), ISBN 978-0-230-60603-6. Juan Cole’s Napoleon’s Egypt tells the story of revolutionary France’s attempt to conquer Egypt and the cultural interchanges that resulted.  Although various aims drove the effort, the main motive was a prerevolutionary […]

  نصير شمة يعزف غارسيا لوركا Naseer Shamma was born in 1963, in Al Kut, Iraq.  He is one of the greatest oud players.

Talks between Barack Obama and the Israeli and Palestinian leaderships over the past fortnight have unleashed a flood of media interest in the settlements Israel has been constructing on Palestinian territory for more than four decades. The US president’s message is unambiguous: the continuing growth of the settlements makes impossible the establishment of a Palestinian […]

  Peter Sluglett.  Britain in Iraq: Contriving King and Country.   New York: Columbia University Press, 2007.  318 pp.  $24.50 (paper), ISBN 978-0-231-14201-4. The current war in Iraq has had many ironic consequences, the least sordid being perhaps the belated interest in Iraq’s history.  As Peter Sluglett confesses in the opening pages of the reissue […]

  Humanism and Human Rights Who or what is the ‘human’ of human rights and the ‘humanity’ of humanitarianism?  The question sounds naïve, silly even.  Yet, important philosophical and ontological questions are involved.  If rights are given to beings on account of their humanity, ‘human’ nature with its needs, characteristics and desires is the normative […]

On Memorial Day this year, many veterans marched in local parades and remembered what it was like to be in the military.  A number of Veterans For Peace members saw this picture in the May 24 edition of the Juneau Empire and made the comments that follow it. Alaska Army National Guard Staff Sergeant Michael […]

Would Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu say the magic words “two states” after his meeting with President Obama?  All Israel held its breath.  (He didn’t).  The gap between the two is wider than those words could ever have bridged, however.  Obama, I believe, sincerely — perhaps urgently — seeks a resolution of the Israel-Palestinian conflict, a […]

The United Nation’s watchdog on torture has criticized Israel for refusing to allow inspections at a secret prison, dubbed by critics as “Israel’s Guantanamo Bay” and demanded to know if more such clandestine detention camps are operating. In a report published on Friday, the Committee Against Torture requested that Israel identify the location of the […]

A colleague of mine who now works as an editor at a large German daily newspaper told me about an experience he had while enroling in Jewish Studies.  Since the main currents of Judaism and Islam both flow through the same cultural space with a strong Arab influence, he thought it would be wise to […]

Essayist, thinker and professor in the Department of Rhetoric at the University of California, Berkeley, Butler is best known for her studies of gender and sexuality, in which she examines the question of what it means to remake, to resignify, the restrictive normative concepts of sexual life and gender. Is it possible to establish any […]

The Citizenship and Entry in Israel Law (Temporary Order), enacted in 2003, is a racist law that bans family unification between Palestinian citizens of Israel and Palestinians from the West Bank and Gaza Strip, as well as any citizen from the following states defined by Israel as “enemy” states: Lebanon, Syria, Iraq, and Iran. Adalah […]

Pope Benedict XVI upset the schedule on his first day in Israel by leaving an interfaith meeting in Jerusalem early on Monday night after a leading Muslim cleric called on him to condemn the “slaughter” of women and children in the recent assault on Gaza. The pontiff walked out, a spokesman noted, because Sheikh Tayseer […]

  Tariq Ali says in an interview with Der Standard: To continue its war in Afghanistan, the US accepts the risk of destabilizing Pakistan.  But only a regional diplomatic approach can help. STANDARD: How would you evaluate the danger often invoked today that Pakistan is collapsing and its nuclear weapons may fall into the hands […]

One may have more or less sympathy for the new US president, more or less believe in his words, more or less value the change in the US government’s tone when handling its differences with other governments.  But there is a limit when it comes to judging the character of a president and a government.  […]

DUBAI, 10 May 2009 (IRIN) — The Iranian government is seeking greater assistance from international NGOs to meet the needs of hundreds of thousands of refugees, according to the UN Refugee Agency (UNHCR).  Some international NGOs already work with refugees in Iran, but several left the country earlier this decade because of difficult working conditions. […]