News an Analysis (1/19/19)

A Texas Congressman who has no problem with de rigueur junkets to Israel pulls out the stops to prevent his colleagues from meeting the victims of the apartheid state …

• Tlaib Trip to Palestine Draws Fire from Texas Congressman (Michigan Radio)

Lest they lose sleep at night about giving billions of dollars to Israel after witnessing racist practices such as this:

• Hospital Forces Palestinians Off Bus Passing Through Its Grounds, Separating Them From Israelis (Haaretz)

The Justice Dept. says Hashimi has been arrested as material witness, but Iran claims she has been “treated disrespectfully by American authorities, who reportedly removed her headwear and fed her pork” …

• Government Confirms It Has Detained as a Witness a Journalist Who Works in Iran (Washington Post)

… and PEN America has asked “whether she is being targeted either for her documentary work about Black Lives Matter or as a retaliatory action in response to the Iranian government’s detention of American citizens”:

• FBI’s Arrest of US Citizen and Iranian State Television Newscaster Requires Immediate Explanation (PEN America)

If the report’s release was delayed for two years out of fear we might actually learn from history …

• Army’s Long-awaited Iraq War Study Finds Iran Was the Only Winner in a Conflict that Holds Many Lessons for Future Wars (Army Times)

… such a fear was unjustified in the case of John Bolton:

• Zarif Mocks Bolton with ’10-year Challenge’ on Iran Strike Threat (Times of Israel)

Each hadith in this collection reminds us “that for nearly every accepted fact of Islam, there exists another element within the expansive Islamic tradition that competes with, complicates or questions it”:

• Michael Muhammad Knight Wants to Introduce You to Islam’s Prophet — 40 Times (RNS)

“‘[W]icked men’ invaded his West African village, murdering many and absconding with others” to South Carolina, where they sold him to a “weak and wicked man…, a complete infidel who had no fear of God at all”:

• Autobiography from 1831 Provides Rare, Firsthand Account of a Muslim Slave in America (CNN)

Perhaps the U.S. hopes the conference can leverage European unease with Iran’s ballistic missal program, “given that threats and pressure haven’t persuaded Iran” to negotiate bilaterally:

• At Anti-Iran Conference, Trump Will Try to Form an ‘Arab NATO’ – and Likely Fail (Haaretz)