December 15th, 20170BAGHDAD — The mainly Shi'a Hashd al-Shaabi paramilitaries have lost more than 7,000 and sustained more than 21,000 injuries during the war against the ISIS terror group since 2014, an Iraqi militia leader has revealed.
Qais al-Khazali, the head of the Asa'ib Ahl al-Haq, which is funded and supported by Iran, said that with the...
December 15th, 20170JERUSALEM — Nazareth, the Arab city occupied by Israelis, where Jesus is thought to have been raised, has canceled some Christmas celebrations in protest of President Trump's recognition of Jerusalem as Israel's capital, an official said.
Trump announced the move to recognize Jerusalem as the capital of Israel last week, reversing...
December 15th, 20170By Ramzy Baroud
Now that President Trump has fully adopted the Israeli right wing political discourse on Palestine, the Palestinian Authority is in a very tough spot.
"I have determined that it is time to officially recognize Jerusalem as the capital of Israel," Trump said in Washington last Wednesday. The embattled president has...
December 15th, 20170By Dr. James J. Zogby
President Trump's decision to formally recognize Jerusalem as Israel's capital was irresponsible and dangerous for more reasons than I can count. Let me outline just a few of the principal concerns:
While we have all grown weary of hearing the over-used mantra "this is the end of the peace process", Trump's...
CAIRO — ISIS threatened attacks on U.S. soil in retaliation for the Trump administration's decision to recognize Jerusalem as the capital of Israel, one of the group's social media accounts reported on Thursday without giving any details.
In a message on one of its accounts on the Telegram instant messaging service titled "Wait for...
December 15th, 20170By Khelil Bouarrouj
President Trump's decision to recognize Jerusalem as the Israeli capital has simply exposed the grim reality of American peace mediation between the Israelis and Palestinians. Under Trump's predecessors, America's "special relationship" with Israel was headed to the same denouement of embracing Israeli occupation...
December 12th, 20170JERUSALEM — Less than an hour after President Trump recognized Jerusalem as Israel’s capital, Palestinians protested by turning off the lights on the Christmas tree outside Bethlehem’s Church of the Nativity, the traditional birthplace of Jesus.
It was a timely reminder that while headlines focused on Islamist calls for...
December 8th, 20170On Wednesday, Arabs and Muslims across the Middle East condemned the U.S. recognition of Jerusalem as Israel's capital as an incendiary move in a volatile region and Palestinians said Washington was abandoning its leading role as a peace mediator.
The European Union and United Nations also voiced alarm at President Trump's decision to...
December 8th, 20170By Shibley Telhami
It is almost impossible to see the logic of the Trump administration's recognition of Jerusalem as Israel's capital, and possibly moving the U.S. embassy to Israel there—before it even unveils what's certain to be a controversial plan for Middle East peace, which will be tough enough to sell.
The White House is...
December 8th, 20170President Trump's decision this week to recognize Jerusalem as Israel's capital was reckless, misguided and dangerous.
He has legitimized the illegal occupation of East Jerusalem. Let us not forget that the occupation of the West Bank and Gaza, along with the occupation and annexation of East Jerusalem, have been condemned by numerous...
December 8th, 20170DEARORN/NEW YORK — President Trump sent shock waves around the world and stirred anger among Arabs and Muslims when he recognized Jerusalem as Israel's capital on Wednesday.
For Palestinians living there, the declaration was a wake-up call that the fight for freedom is far from over. For refugees, it's a wrench thrown in an already...
December 6th, 20170CAIRO/AMMAN/BEIRUT — Arabs denounced President Trump’s plan to move the U.S. embassy in Israel to Jerusalem as a slap in the face but few thought their governments would do much in response.
A Palestinian man steps on a representation of an Israeli flag as other demonstrators hold crossed out posters of Trump phoned allies in...
December 5th, 20170WASHINGTON/JERUSALEM - President Donald Trump told Israeli and Arab leaders on Tuesday that he intends to move the U.S. embassy in Israel to Jerusalem, a decision that breaks with decades of U.S. policy and risks fueling violence in the Middle East.
Senior U.S. officials said Trump on Wednesday, Dec. 6, is expected to recognize...
December 3rd, 20170WASHINGTON – President Trump has not yet made a decision on whether to formally recognize Jerusalem as Israel’s capital, his adviser and son-in-law Jared Kushner said on Sunday, a move that would break with decades of U.S. policy and could fuel violence in the Middle East.
“He’s still looking at a lot of different facts, and...
December 2nd, 20170WASHINGTON — President Trump is likely to announce next week that the United States recognizes Jerusalem as Israel’s capital, a senior administration official said on Friday, a move that would upend decades of American policy and possibly inflame tensions in the Middle East.
Trump could make the controversial declaration in a speech...
August 4th, 20170Neither Fatah nor Hamas have been of much relevance to the mass protests staged around the al-Aqsa Mosque compound in Jerusalem. Neither have American pressure, half-hearted European "concern about the situation" or cliché Arab declarations made one iota of difference. United Nations officials warned of the grim scenarios of escalation,...
July 28th, 20170Israel, which has played a precarious role in the Syrian war since 2011, is furious to learn that the future of the conflict is not to its liking.
The six-year-old Syria war is moving to a new stage, perhaps its final. The Syrian regime is consolidating its control over most of the populated centers, while ISIS is losing ground fast...
July 27th, 20170DEARBORN — The outcries of thousands of Arab and Muslim American men, women and children from outside Dearborn’s City Hall could once be heard throughout the nation.
While demonstrating in a mosaic of green, red and white, Dearborn’s Arab Americans were branding a newfangled Arab unity, amid divisions in their...
July 27th, 20170Early October 2016, Misbah Abu Sbeih left his wife and five children at home and then drove to an Israeli police station in occupied Palestinian East Jerusalem.
The 39-year-old Jerusalemite was scheduled to hand himself over to serve a term of four months in jail for, allegedly, trumped up charges of "trying to hit an Israeli...
July 25th, 20170JERUSALEM - Palestinians have vowed to continue protests and confrontations with Israeli forces in occupied East Jerusalem and the West Bank, in rejection of new surveillance cameras installed at the gates to al-Aqsa Mosque compound.
After a security cabinet meeting late on Monday, a statement from Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin...
July 24th, 20170NEW YORK - United Nations Middle East envoy Nickolay Mladenov warned on Monday that a solution was needed by Friday to the Jerusalem mosque crisis, which he said threatens to have "potential catastrophic costs well beyond the walls of the Old City."
Israel installed metal detectors at entry points to Al-Aqsa mosque compound in...
July 21st, 20170JERUSALEM — For the first time in decades, Israel closed the al-Aqsa mosque compound in Jerusalem's Old City to worshipers on Friday, July 14.
The closure followed an attack near an entrance to the compound that houses the al-Aqsa mosque, one of the holiest sites for Muslims, following a deadly shootout that killed two Israelis and...
July 18th, 20170JERUSALEM - A Palestinian driver rammed his vehicle into a group of Israeli soldiers in the occupied West Bank on Tuesday and was shot dead by the troops, the Israeli military said.
There was no immediate comment from Palestinian officials. According to Israel's Magen David Adom, two of their soldiers were slightly wounded.
"In...
June 12th, 20170JERUSALEM — Israel has advanced plans for a further 1,500 homes in Jewish settlements in the occupied West Bank, Peace Now, an Israeli non-profit organization advocating for a two-state solution, said on Thursday, the second such announcement in a week.
More than 3,000 units have been advanced this week, a spokeswoman for the group...
June 1st, 20170WASHINGTON — President Trump signed an order on Thursday to keep the U.S. Embassy in Israel in Tel Aviv temporarily instead of relocating it to Jerusalem, despite his campaign pledge to go ahead with the controversial move.
After months of fierce debate within his administration, Trump chose to continue his predecessors' policy of...
May 5th, 20170Gaza is the world's largest open air prison. The West Bank is a prison, too, segmented into various wards, known as areas A, B and C. In fact, all Palestinians are subjected to varied degrees of military restrictions. At some level, they are all prisoners.
East Jerusalem is cut off from the West Bank, and those in the West Bank are...
