Israel debated: Why Palestine is rewriting the rules of domestic U.S. politics
July 9th, 20260 A major showdown on the House floor seemed imminent. An amendment, advanced by the Rules Committee, was poised to force a rare and telling record vote on stripping Israel of $3.3 billion in annual U.S. military aid. Brought forward by Republican Representative Thomas Massie and drawing support from key progressive Democrats like...
John James’ comparison of Dearborn’s Muslims to “Iraqi extremists” is a political disgrace
July 3rd, 20260 U.S. Rep. John James' recent remarks on the conservative television network Newsmax were not merely an unfortunate slip of the tongue that can be brushed aside with a routine apology. They amount to a full-fledged political disgrace and reveal a profound disconnect from the social and demographic reality of Michigan, the very state he...
Israel Is out of control: Will Trump rein them in?
July 3rd, 20260 In today’s Middle East, it’s important to recognize that Israel is completely out of control, and no one has the will to rein them in. This should have been understood back in July 2024, in the waning days of the Biden administration, when Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu came to Washington to address a joint session of...
Treason in the age of kleptocracy
July 3rd, 20260 A single social media post, amplified by the world's richest man, can in a matter of hours transform a dedicated public servant into a traitor in the court of public opinion, without a single shred of evidence to support the accusation. The recent comments by Elon Musk regarding Dearborn Police Chief Issa Shahin serve as a potent case...
The illusions of Western virtue: Ursula von der Leyen and Europe’s moral bankruptcy
July 2nd, 20260 European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen has every right to condition European relations with any other country or bloc on respect for human rights. That, of course, would hold true if she genuinely cared about such values herself. In response to the June 19 signing of the memorandum of understanding between the United...
A garden of resilience
July 2nd, 20260 Death, destruction, loss and grief in Lebanon The neighborhood bully is at it again. He tore up our garden— recently replanted, tender and bursting with color Why would he rip the deep roots of my sturdy Poppy? It brightened our community spring, the crimson foundation of this ancient land held by our family for...
Monsters playing victims: Danny Danon’s twisted war on the truth
July 2nd, 20260 Whether Israelis will ever comprehend the irreparable damage inflicted upon their country’s reputation by their U.N. ambassador, Danny Danon, is a moot point. The damage Israel has done to itself through its barbaric practices in occupied Palestine is simply impossible to overcome. Danon, however, utilizes a peculiar approach to...
The Hezbollah excuse: Why Lebanon really collapsed
June 27th, 20260 Every time I listen to some Lebanese news programs, political commentators or popular podcasts, I keep hearing the same explanation repeated like a broken record: that Hezbollah's arms are what keeps Lebanon backward, paralyzed and economically bankrupt. According to this narrative, if Hezbollah simply disarmed, Lebanon would suddenly...
Arab Americans have invested in America. Why is citizenship becoming more expensive?
June 27th, 20260 Few communities better illustrate the immigrant story than Arab Americans. Across the United States — and especially in Metro Detroit, home to the nation's largest Arab American community — immigrants from Lebanon, Iraq, Yemen, Syria, Palestine, Jordan, Egypt and elsewhere across the Middle East and North Africa have built...
Trump told Netanyahu everybody, including “all the Jews”, is sick of him
June 26th, 20260 Regime Change is a devastating new book from two New York Times reporters; an extraordinary account of American chaos and decline at the hands of a madman and his enablers. Read it and weep. By Martin Pengelly There are shocking headlines to be drawn from Regime Change, the new blockbuster by New York...
When the Iran war is over: Why the West Bank may be Netanyahu’s next front
June 19th, 20260 Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is facing perhaps the most precarious moment of his political career. He knows it. His allies know it. And his rivals — both within his coalition and across Israel's political spectrum — are preparing to capitalize on his growing weakness. Former Israeli Justice Minister Haim Ramon, who also...
The Mladenov distraction: Behind the screen, Netanyahu is annexing Gaza “step-by-step”
June 12th, 20260 Gaza requires urgent international attention. What is happening in the besieged and devastated Strip at the moment by far exceeds an unfolding humanitarian disaster; it is a calculated geopolitical reshaping. Israel is actively executing a plan to permanently occupy the vast majority of Gaza, with consequences that require little...
An autopsy of the Democrats’ autopsy fiasco
June 12th, 20260 A number of sub-plots undergird the drama that erupted over the Democratic National Committee Chair Ken Martin’s release of an incomplete “autopsy” of the 2024 election. First, I’ll note that I don’t envy the dilemma in which Martin found himself. Martin had promised to deliver an in-depth examination of what went wrong in...
The Palestine industry: The rats of Gaza and the opportunists among us
June 4th, 20260 It all started with a call to my family in a displacement camp in northern Gaza. Since Internet lines rarely stay connected, I managed to send a message to the widow of my cousin — who was killed along with all of his sons during the ongoing Gaza genocide. I asked her a simple question: what do Gazans want? My purpose was to...
No war, no peace: The Middle East’s age of survival
June 4th, 20260 The Middle East is no longer drifting toward instability — it is now fully inside it. What once appeared to be a collection of separate conflicts has merged into a broader regional crisis. Across the Middle East — from Gaza to the Strait of Hormuz — the coming decade is no longer a quest for peace, but a struggle for......
Heading toward disaster in the Middle East
May 29th, 20260 U.S. policy in the Middle East has been so problematic because policymakers refuse to consider its impact on the Arab people. With Israel, it’s a different story. Over-attentiveness to Israeli concerns and a lack of sensitivity to Arab reaction to our actions has caused deep fractures between Arabs and the U.S. and within the Arab...
Self-engineered decay: Why Israel’s political collapse cannot be separated from its war crimes
May 29th, 20260 For those unfamiliar with the intricate machinery of Israeli politics, the unanimous 110-0 vote to dissolve the Knesset on May 20 appears to be an earth-shattering event. On the surface, it looks as if the days of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his coalition of far-right extremists are numbered. The reality, however, is far more......
Sovereignty, Palestine and power vacuum: The urgent need for a united Arab initiative
May 22nd, 20260 President Trump's state visit to China will go down in history as the day the United States finally acknowledged Beijing’s ascendancy as a global superpower. That acknowledgment does not need to be articulated in a formal statement; it can be clearly read in the subtext of diplomatic behavior, global perception and shifting media...
GLP-1s can help people shed the pounds, but tennis can keep them fit for life
May 22nd, 20260 Nearly 1 in 8 Americans have turned to GLP-1s to shed pounds. For many, these drugs offer a powerful starting point to trimming their waistlines — but not a complete path to long-term health. Lasting health isn't defined by the scale. Sustainable improvements come from building healthier lifestyles over time — especially regular...
Speaking the truth about Israel’s treatment of Palestinians shouldn’t hurt
May 21st, 20260 Is it anti-Semitic to say that Israel is committing genocide in Gaza? Is it “hurtful and insensitive” for someone to acknowledge the suffering that Israel has inflicted on the Palestinian people? In recent weeks, actions by two institutions of higher learning brought these questions to the forefront. On April 15, faculty and...
Poll signals sharp decline in U.S. support for Israel
May 15th, 20260 Recent polls of U.S. voters demonstrate a steep decline in overall support for Israel. For example, in February, when Gallup asked with whom they most sympathized, 41 percent of respondents said Palestinians, while only 36 percent named Israel. This markedly contrasts with results to Gallup’s same question in 2023 when 54 percent of......
The assault on a French nun and the forgotten story of Palestinian Christians
May 15th, 20260 The video is horrifying, though it is the kind of horror now synonymous with the behavior of Israel, its military, its armed settlers and society that has been conditioned to see the "other" as subhuman. Yet, this was not the typical viral video that emerges almost daily from occupied Palestine. The victim, this time, was not a...
No talks under fire: Why Lebanon must refuse coercive diplomacy
May 8th, 20260 Any serious negotiation requires a minimum level of stability, credibility and mutual restraint. Right now, none of those conditions exist between Lebanon and Israel. To push for talks in the middle of ongoing bombardment and occupation in southern Lebanon and the continued killing of civilians is not diplomacy — it risks becoming......
Subjects of empire: Breaking the cycle of Arab dependence on U.S. elections
May 7th, 20260 Much of the current discourse on the Middle East remains fixated on the U.S. midterm congressional elections in November. This vote, in particular, is being framed as a pivotal turning point for everything from the survival of Gaza and Lebanon to the future of Iran and beyond. To a large extent, one can understand why U.S. corporate...
Five laws and standards that require the U.S. cut off weapons to Israel
May 1st, 20260 By Prem Thakker A new memo circulating on Capitol Hill details why the U.S. is obligated to cut weapons to Israel – even if Israel wants to buy them with its own money. A memo is circulating in Congress detailing five laws and international standards that obligate the United States to stop sending or selling weapons to......
