Ann Arbor (Informed Comment) – Human-caused global heating is hitting the Middle East hard, and rates of cancer in Middle Eastern women are increasing. Is there a correlation? This is the question asked by Wafa Abu El Kheir-Mataria and Sungsoo Chun at Frontiers . These scholars are at the American University in Cairo, my alma […]
Archives for June 2025
Israel: Will Ultra-Orthodox Jews’ Opposition to Conscription Bring down Netanyahu’s Gov’t
( Middle East Monitor ) – It may not have occurred to David Ben-Gurion 77 years ago, when he approved a limited exemption from military service for a few hundred yeshiva students, that he was sowing the seeds of a crisis that would threaten Israel’s existence. The goal at the time was purely political, as […]
Sanctioning extremist Israeli Ministers is a Start, but More must be Done
By Jessica Whyte, UNSW Sydney and Sara Dehm, University of Technology Sydney (The Conversation) – The Australian government is imposing financial and travel sanctions on two far-right Israeli ministers: Itamar Ben-Gvir (the national security minister) and Bezalel Smotrich (finance minister). This is a significant development. While Australia has previously sanctioned seven individual Israeli settlers, Ben-Gvir […]
How Israeli and International Businesses and Financial Institutions Sustain Illegal Occupation
As the West Bank is being annexed to Israel through blood and violence, many Israeli and international businesses and financials are tacitly supporting the ethnic cleansing with their business operations in the Israeli-occupied Palestinian territories. Recently, the Norwegian parliament rejected efforts to tighten rules on its huge sovereign wealth fund investing in companies operating in […]
Ocean currents can generate electricity – and our Study shows Africa’s Seas have some of the Strongest
By James H. VanZwieten Jr., Florida Atlantic University; Gabriel Alsenas, Florida Atlantic University; Mahsan Sadoughipour, Florida Atlantic University, and Yufei Tang, Florida Atlantic University (The Conversation) – The world’s oceans cover more than 70% of Earth’s surface. They’re filled with currents, some much stronger than the fastest flowing large rivers. These currents can be harnessed […]
Freedom of Movement and Global Apartheid: The United States and Israel
( Tomdispatch.com ) – In an aphorism sometimes attributed to Leo Tolstoy, sometimes to John Gardner, all literature relies on one of two plots: a person goes on a journey or a stranger comes to town. Let me offer my own version. We might summarize the entire history of the human race in two words: […]
The Earth and Human Beings must Be Saved Together
Greenfield, Mass. (Special to Informed Comment; Feature) – A postcard I use as a bookmarker contains a set of principles for gardening in urban soils for minimizing risks to human health from exposure to lead and other contaminants. Developed many years ago for Boston Natural Areas Network by Dr. Wendy Heiger-Bernays, a toxicologist, and myself, […]
Climate Breakdown makes Atmosphere Thirstier, Worsens Droughts
By Solomon Gebrechorkos, University of Oxford (The Conversation) – Droughts are becoming more severe and widespread across the globe. But it’s not just changing rainfall patterns that are to blame. The atmosphere is also getting thirstier. In a new study published in Nature, my colleagues and I show that this rising “atmospheric thirst” – also […]
Illegal and Immoral: Israel’s Kidnapping of Greta Thunberg and the Madleen Aid Ship on the High Seas
By Adnan Hmidan ( Middle East Monitor ) – Once again, the so-called “most moral army in the world” flexes its muscle, not against a military threat or armed combatants, but against a small humanitarian vessel brimming with conscience and compassion. The Madleen carried no missiles, no drones, only sacks of rice, baby formula, and […]