Juan Cole

@jricole.bsky.social

6.6K followers 1.4K following 4.7K posts

Historian, essayist: Middle East, South Asia, Islam, Social History, Foreign Policy, Environment, Culture, Progressive Politics;
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John Ricardo Irfan "Juan" Cole is an American academic and commentator on the modern Middle East and South Asia. He is Richard P. Mitchell Collegiate Professor of History at the University of Michigan. Since 2002, he has written a weblog, Informed Comment (juancole.com). .. more

Political science 68%

Sociology 17%

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Juan Cole @jricole.bsky.social · Oct 26

Gaza Yet Stands: Juan Cole’s New E-Book

Ann Arbor (Informed Comment) – Many observers have complained that our understanding of the current Mideast War too often begins with the horrendous Hamas attacks on Israelis on October 7, 2023. Historian, here, hand up. I’ve not only studied the history…

dlvr.it

Juan Cole @jricole.bsky.social · 4h

it is like visa-banning anyone who had been a postal worker in their home country

The Volatile Mermaid @ohnoshetwitnt.bsky.social · 17h

If one Afghan nationalist shooter means all Afghan nationalists are evil, wait until I tell you about white male shooters.

Juan Cole @jricole.bsky.social · 4h

effin' A

Helen Gittos @helengittos.bsky.social · 5h

'we write the best history when the specificity, the novelty, the awe-fulness, of what our sources render up bowls us over with its complexity & its significance. Our research is better when we move only cautiously to understanding...' CWB 'Wonder' AHR 1997. Thanks to @hagenilda.bsky.social

Reposted by Juan Cole

Middle East Eye (Unofficial) @middleeasteye-rss.bsky.social · 5h

Cornell student union pledges solidarity with Palestine and commits to BDS movement - https://www.middleeasteye.net/live-blog/live-blog-update/cornell-student-union-pledges-solidarity-palestine-and-commits-bds

Cornell student union pledges solidarity with Palestine and commits to BDS movement

<article data-history-node-id="432037" about="https://www.middleeasteye.net/live-blog/live-blog-update/cornell-student-union-pledges-solidarity-palestine-and-commits-bds" class="live-blog-update default clearfix"> <h2> <a href="https://www.middleeasteye.net/live-blog/live-blog-update/cornell-student-union-pledges-solidarity-palestine-and-commits-bds" rel="bookmark"> <span class="field field-title">Cornell student union pledges solidarity with Palestine and commits to BDS movement</span> </a> </h2> <div class="content"> <div class="field field-field-text"><p><meta charset="UTF-8"></p> <p>Members of a graduate student union at Cornell University voted overwhelmingly to pass a referendum in support of "the <a href="https://www.middleeasteye.net/countries/palestine" target="_blank">Palestinian</a> liberation struggle”.</p> <p>Results were announced on Wednesday following a three-day voting period for members of the Cornell Graduate Students United (<a href="https://cgsu.org/" target="_blank">CGSU-UE Local 300</a>). The voting period ended on Tuesday. </p> <p>The union said Cornell University supported human rights abuses against Palestinians through research and ties to the weapons industry, and the decision allows it to "join a larger movement to end the genocide in Palestine".</p> <p>“Cornell is implicated in the Israeli genocide of Palestinians through research, recruitment, and financial ties with the weapons industry, and endowment investments,” a statement from the <a href="https://drive.google.com/file/d/1Km7wnD4o7EQthrR22D_aEtVh64AnIsjG/view?pli=1" target="_blank">union</a> reads.</p> <h3>Read more: <a href="https://www.middleeasteye.net/news/cornell-university-union-members-vote-referendum-pledging-solidarity-palestine-bds">Cornell student union pledges solidarity with Palestine and commits to BDS movement</a></h3> </div> </div> </article>

www.middleeasteye.net

Reposted by Juan Cole

Helen Gittos @helengittos.bsky.social · 5h

Reposted by Juan Cole

Emissary Of Night | ليلى @diplomatofnight.com · 5h

For the third time, Israeli Jews crossed further into occupied Syria, past the Israeli-occupied Golan into the rest of Israeli occupied Syria, and attempted to establish a settlement.

Settler activists cross into Syria, are returned by IDF after brief pursuit | The Times of Israel

www.timesofisrael.com

Reposted by Juan Cole

Jessica Green @greenprofgreen.bsky.social · 8h

9/ This is reckless climate and economic policy. And magical thinking. Net zero doesn’t happen without reducing fossil fuel supply. At least the US has the cojones to say it doesn’t give a shit about climate. @mark-carney.bsky.social is still pretending that Canada does. FIN

Juan Cole @jricole.bsky.social · 9h

ironically, some things may have been better when the rich were afraid of Soviet Communism

Victor Ray @victorerikray.bsky.social · 14h

Nearly every mechanism that made my career possible—Ford, NSF, Harvard BiGS—is gone or on the way to the chopping block.

Beth Popp Berman @epopppp.bsky.social · 15h

This means NSF dissertation improvement grants in the social sciences are simply...not happening.

Juan Cole @jricole.bsky.social · 10h

I'm doing a commentary on the originals & FitzGerald's renderings www.juancole.com/fitzgeralds-...

FitzGerald's Rubáiyát of Omar Khayyám: Commentary by Juan Cole with Original Persian

I am reprinting here my blog entries from Informed Comment that serve as an extended commentary on Edward FitzGerald's Rubáiyát of Omar Khayyám. The original entry is hyperlinked in the title. For eac...

www.juancole.com

Reposted by Juan Cole, Andrew Jacobs

PsyPost @psypost.bsky.social · 10h

Playing pickleball at least three times a week linked to better mental health

Researchers have identified a positive link between the amount of time spent playing pickleball and mental wellbeing, suggesting that the sport may serve as a low-barrier strategy to support psychological health in aging populations.

www.psypost.org

Juan Cole @jricole.bsky.social · 11h

Alexander questions the philosopher, physician and the goblet, ca. 1610, India; Alexander sits in a plane tree as though in a throne, wearing a Greek helmet engraved with the image of a horse. A falcon as an emblem of his kingly status perches on his gloved right hand. Seated… http://dlvr.it/TPVZfD

Juan Cole @jricole.bsky.social · 11h

I retranslated it www.bloomsbury.com/us/rub%C3%A1...

https://www.bloomsbury.com/us/rubáiyát-of-omar-khayyam-9780755600519/

Juan Cole @jricole.bsky.social · 11h

why do you say inauthentic? The translation is loose but gets the gist of the original; the verse is not by the astronomer but is genuine medieval folk poetry

Reposted by Juan Cole

Richard E Frankel @refrankel.bsky.social · 12h

My latest book challenges two common ideas about modern antisemitism in the late 19th and early 20th century: that it was uniquely mild in America and uniquely murderous in Germany. Through a comparative approach I show how both positions need to be retired.

Antisemitism Before the Holocaust: Re-Evaluating Antisemitic Exceptionalism in Germany and the United States, 1880-1945

This book examines the history of antisemitism in the United States and Germany in a novel way by placing the two countries side by side for a sustained comparison of the anti-Jewish environments in b...

www.routledge.com

Juan Cole @jricole.bsky.social · 12h

people in democratic socialist societies are happiest

Tick Segerblom @tsegerblom.bsky.social · 12h

www.washingtonpost.com/world/intera...

Here’s what happiness looks like around the world

People find happiness in material security, sharing meals and helping strangers. Here’s what that looks like in Finland, Senegal, Indonesia and Jamaica.

www.washingtonpost.com

Reposted by Juan Cole

Mike the Mad Biologist and Tsar of All the Antifas @mikethemadbiol.bsky.social · 12h

Guy from Washington state drives across the country, kills two West Virginians who should've been at home, and not deployed in D.C., and so Trump sends 500 more guardsmen to D.C.

Juan Cole @jricole.bsky.social · 12h

Sylvia Thrupp analyzed engraved metal registers from London in the 1300s and found significant numbers of foreign craftsmen

Kevin Elliott @kjephd.bsky.social · 14h

Once again; you can't moderate your way to neutralizing an issue like immigration.

It's fundamentally just racist reaction. Nothing is ever enough because what's demanded—ethnonationalist homogeneity—is completely unavailable in modern conditions. There will *always* be a basis for more demagoguery

Robert Hutton @roberthutton.co.uk · 15h

YOU WANTED NET IMMIGRATION TO COME DOWN! THIS IS WHAT THAT LOOKS LIKE!

Reposted by Richard S.J. Tol, Juan Cole

Sanho Tree @sanho.bsky.social · 12h

There’s a reason Caesar was forbidden to cross the Rubicon and return to Rome with his army. It’s what separates a relatively free society from a fascist one.

Aaron Rupar @atrupar.com · 13h

Pirro: "These Guardsmen and all who are here to protect the District are the line that separates a civilized society from a barbaric one."

Reposted by Juan Cole

Mondoweiss @mondoweiss.net · 12h

In recent days, Israel has dramatically escalated its violations of the ceasefire in both Gaza and Lebanon, which have been met with utter silence from the United States. Could this mean a return to the full-scale atrocities of the past two years?

mondoweiss.net/2025/11/isra...

#Palestine #Israel

Israel is violating ceasefires in Gaza and Lebanon, and Trump is allowing it

mondoweiss.net

Reposted by Juan Cole

Tick Segerblom @tsegerblom.bsky.social · 12h

www.washingtonpost.com/world/intera...

Here’s what happiness looks like around the world

People find happiness in material security, sharing meals and helping strangers. Here’s what that looks like in Finland, Senegal, Indonesia and Jamaica.

www.washingtonpost.com

Reposted by Juan Cole

Middle East Eye (Unofficial) @middleeasteye-rss.bsky.social · 12h

Fuel shortages halt half of Gaza’s emergency services - https://www.middleeasteye.net/live-blog/live-blog-update/fuel-shortages-halt-half-gazas-emergency-services

Fuel shortages halt half of Gaza’s emergency services

<article data-history-node-id="432026" about="https://www.middleeasteye.net/live-blog/live-blog-update/fuel-shortages-halt-half-gazas-emergency-services" class="live-blog-update default clearfix"> <h2> <a href="https://www.middleeasteye.net/live-blog/live-blog-update/fuel-shortages-halt-half-gazas-emergency-services" rel="bookmark"> <span class="field field-title">Fuel shortages halt half of Gaza’s emergency services</span> </a> </h2> <div class="content"> <div class="field field-field-text"><p>Roughly half of Gaza’s emergency services have shut down as severe fuel shortages paralyze rescue, firefighting and evacuation work, Al Jazeera reported.</p> <p>The Civil Defence agency accused the UN Office for Project Services of imposing what it described as restrictive and obstructive measures that prevented it from receiving the fuel needed to operate fire trucks, ambulances, and generators.</p> <p>Teams are unable to reach thousands of damaged and unstable buildings, and officials warn that search and recovery operations could come to a complete stop. Firefighting and emergency response capacity has also dropped sharply. </p> </div> </div> </article>

www.middleeasteye.net

Reposted by Juan Cole

Middle East Eye (Unofficial) @middleeasteye-rss.bsky.social · 13h

Israeli army imposes siege on northern West Bank for second day - https://www.middleeasteye.net/live-blog/live-blog-update/israeli-army-imposes-siege-northern-west-bank-second-day

Israeli army imposes siege on northern West Bank for second day

<article data-history-node-id="432021" about="https://www.middleeasteye.net/live-blog/live-blog-update/israeli-army-imposes-siege-northern-west-bank-second-day" class="live-blog-update default clearfix"> <h2> <a href="https://www.middleeasteye.net/live-blog/live-blog-update/israeli-army-imposes-siege-northern-west-bank-second-day" rel="bookmark"> <span class="field field-title">Israeli army imposes siege on northern West Bank for second day</span> </a> </h2> <div class="content"> <div class="field field-field-text"><p>Israeli force have kept Tubas under siege for a second straight day as large scale military operations continue across the northern occupied West Bank.</p> <p>One Palestinian was killed, dozens were arrested and at least 25 were wounded during the raids, according to the Palestinian news agency Wafa.</p> <p>Schools remain closed and most businesses have shut their doors as movement restrictions tighten across the governate.</p> </div> </div> </article>

www.middleeasteye.net

Reposted by Juan Cole

Middle East Eye (Unofficial) @middleeasteye-rss.bsky.social · 13h

Israeli forces uproot over 100 olive trees in West Bank villages - https://www.middleeasteye.net/live-blog/live-blog-update/israeli-military-uproot-more-one-hundred-olive-trees-west-bank-villages

Israeli forces uproot over 100 olive trees in West Bank villages

<article data-history-node-id="432020" about="https://www.middleeasteye.net/live-blog/live-blog-update/israeli-military-uproot-more-one-hundred-olive-trees-west-bank-villages" class="live-blog-update default clearfix"> <h2> <a href="https://www.middleeasteye.net/live-blog/live-blog-update/israeli-military-uproot-more-one-hundred-olive-trees-west-bank-villages" rel="bookmark"> <span class="field field-title">Israeli forces uproot over 100 olive trees in West Bank villages</span> </a> </h2> <div class="content"> <div class="field field-field-text"><p>Israeli forces uprooted more than one hundred olive trees on Thursday in several Ramallah area villages in the occupied West Bank, according to the Palestine News and Info Agency WAFA.</p> <p>Nazih Maadi, a landowner in Kafr Malik, told WAFA this was the sixth time his land had been raided in the past two months. He said the incursions have removed olive and grape trees, torn down gates and fencing, and demolished a tent he had set up on his property.</p> </div> </div> </article>

www.middleeasteye.net

Reposted by Rosemary A. Joyce, Juan Cole

Aaron Rupar @atrupar.com · 13h

Pirro: "These Guardsmen and all who are here to protect the District are the line that separates a civilized society from a barbaric one."

Reposted by Juan Cole

Mia Farrow @miafarrow.bsky.social · 13h

Trump has canceled the GDP Report for the first time in history. He has also cancelled the Jobs Report. He is trying to conceal the weak economic performance his policies have caused .
www.newsweek.com/trump-cancel...

Trump canceling GDP report comes under scrutiny

The canceled release of the third-quarter GDP advance estimate has fueled speculation about the state of the economy.

www.newsweek.com

Reposted by Juan Cole

Middle East Eye (Unofficial) @middleeasteye-rss.bsky.social · 13h

British soldiers trained in Israel during Gaza genocide - https://www.middleeasteye.net/news/british-soldiers-trained-israel-during-gaza-genocide

British soldiers trained in Israel during Gaza genocide

Veterans minister Al Carns confirmed 'fewer than five' personnel attended courses in Israel despite war crimes allegations against it

www.middleeasteye.net

Reposted by Juan Cole

Thomas Zimmer @thomaszimmer.bsky.social · 13h

In 2024, people with high racial resentment scores strongly tended to vote for Donald Trump, regardless of their educational attainment; by contrast, people with low racial resentment scores strongly tended to support Kamala Harris, whether they had a college degree or not.

Reposted by Juan Cole

Audrey Truschke @audreytruschke.bsky.social · 14h

That time, ~400 years ago, when Jesuits dragged a new world turkey nearly 2,000 kilometers from Goa to northern India.

Fun, but also reflective of premodern India's integration in global networks of trade and travel.

#Thanksgiving #Thanksgiving2025

Reposted by Juan Cole

Howard French @hofrench.bsky.social · 14h

www.nytimes.com/2025/11/27/u...

The D.C. shooting suspect had worked with C.I.A.-backed units in Afghanistan.

www.nytimes.com

Reposted by Juan Cole

New Lines Magazine @newlinesmag.bsky.social · 14h

NEW: From Dearborn to the greater Washington area, Arab-style cafes are redefining what young Americans want from a night out, writes Malak Salem for @newlinesmag.bsky.social

newlinesmag.com/spotlight/in...