Briefs
Friday, April 2nd, 2021
Tuesday, December 22nd, 2020
This lengthy interview with Secretary-General Sayyid Nasrallah may be useful for insight into Hezbollah’s perspectives. There are some bizarre connections, such as the notion that Israel invaded Lebanon in 1982 because of deep concern regarding Iran’s “liberation of Khorramshahr” in the Iran-Iraq War.
Friday, September 18th, 2020
“Recognizing that the Arab and Jewish peoples are descendant of a common ancestor…” — Let us savor the text of the Treaty of Peace between Israel and the United Arab Emirates. Blessed are the peacemakers…
Tuesday, August 4th, 2020
This is gold. For Bar-Ilan University’s BESA Center, Kenneth S. Brower pens a blunt bracing comprehensive assessment “Israel Versus Anyone: A Military Net Assessment of the Middle East” with conclusions aplenty. Here’s one:
The Israeli political-military leadership has over-responded to the current tactical threat posed by Iran and its non-state forces and has all but ignored the looming potential strategic threat of renewed hostility with Sunni Arab nations.
Saturday, June 6th, 2020
“Who is an Arab Jew?” is an essay by Albert Memmi written in 1975.
Friday, April 3rd, 2020
Once Upon a Country: A Palestinian Life
Sari Nusseibeh
Nusseibeh’s central thesis (well, secondary thesis, the primary implicit one being that the Palestinian people should all along have appointed both his Dad and then him their oh-so-reluctant leaders) I too have felt almost in my bones: that Israelis and Palestinians are natural allies. Or, more accurately, that there’s a natural affinity which will enable us to be powerful allies if and when we ever get over our admittedly fundamental conflict.
Tuesday, October 15th, 2019
Meir Kraus, a fellow at the research center at the Shalom Hartman Institute, sets out challenges, lessons, options and insights for a balanced and feasible option on Jerusalem as part of a wider solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.
Friday, October 12th, 2018
An interview at the impressive Fathom Journal with Lyn Julius, author of Uprooted.
The Jews were intrinsic to the rhythm of life in the Middle East. It all ended in the space of a generation. Some 850,000 Jews fled 10 Arab countries; most found refuge in Israel, where over half the Jewish population has roots in Arab or Muslim lands.
Wednesday, August 22nd, 2018
Pinhas Inbari sheds new (to me) light on the roots of Palestinian nationalism, arguing that the similarities to Syria’s schisms are more than parallels but in fact the same issue: pan-Arabism (Fatah, Ba’athists) vs pan-Islamism (Hamas, ISIS).
Wednesday, April 4th, 2018
Saudi heir to throne: “I believe the Palestinians and the Israelis have the right to have their own land.”
Sunday, April 1st, 2018
Michael Rubin at aei.org: Yes, Turkey has definitely become a rogue regime.
From my brief travels I came across the standard blue/red divide, but it’s more virulent in Turkey due to the revolutionary power of the local religion.
Monday, December 11th, 2017
There has never been a West European post-Second World War policy in [the Middle East] except to await the American position and then stake out something more favourable to the Arabs.
Conrad Black, “The Palestinians should take what they can get while they can”
Thursday, December 7th, 2017
On the eve of US recognition of Israel’s capital, very much in-the-loop Ambassador Ron Dermer speaks (three paragraphs at a time!) to the Global Politico podcast.
Thursday, July 20th, 2017
Modi and Netanyahu, India and Israel’s prime ministers, are a match made in history. By Jonathan Spyer in The American Interest.
Saturday, April 22nd, 2017
This is fascinating: Turks residing in liberal Europe voted far more heavily for Erdogan’s authoritarian referendum — about 70/30 — than did Turks at home, about 50/50. Far less still did Turks in the USA and the UK vote for it — about 84% and 80% against respectively. A measure of ideological/cultural integration?
Tuesday, January 10th, 2017
Ian Buruma on Brussels. I found it a pretty exciting city so when I saw this article I jumped on it (plus I vaguely remember being impressed by something else this fellow wrote) and it’s pretty sweeping and fun.
Saturday, July 16th, 2016
“The Kemalist era in Turkish history lasted for almost 100 years, but finally came to an end in the last 18 hours.” A great balance between up-to-the-minute reports and historical background, Walter Russell Mead live-blogs the failed Turkish Coup.
Tuesday, May 10th, 2016
Saturday, April 30th, 2016
Good point: Islam has already had its reformation: Wahabism. So what to do? Nice article at patheos.com.
Monday, January 4th, 2016
Saudi Arabia cuts diplomatic ties with Iran for the first time since 1989–92. Sudan follows. Blimey.
Wednesday, November 25th, 2015
Valuable first-hand account of contemporary Saudi Arabia by their special man in the West, Thomas L. Friedman.
Monday, March 16th, 2015
It’s a rich place at the heart of the world but Turkey’s mind is precarious.
Saturday, August 2nd, 2014
In case it’s of interest/relevance, a translation of Hamas’s charter.
Monday, July 7th, 2014
By looking the other way and unconditionally supporting and arming Maliki, President Obama has only lengthened and expanded the conflict that President Bush unwisely initiated, argues — nay, explains — a US official who saw it all. A must-read.
Tuesday, June 24th, 2014
Michael J. Totten and Samuel Tadros discuss Egypt’s failed revolution. Tadros concludes that the US should withdraw aid in order to shock the
Egyptians into getting real.
Monday, June 23rd, 2014
In tandem with Robert Kagan’s recent piece on post-WW2 Pax Americana, Lee Smith suggests Obama is (mistakenly) pursuing a balance of power rather than hegemonic arrangement in the Middle East.
Monday, May 27th, 2013
Sorry, but more David P. Goldman, this time at Tablet with “Dumb and Dumber” (not his title) on recent US Middle East policy. He begins: “Errors by the party in power can get America into trouble; real catastrophes require consensus.” Like liberals, neocons got mugged by reality.
Sunday, May 26th, 2013
How neighboring Lebanon is being tugged into Syria’s civil war.
Sunday, April 7th, 2013
I like what the Middle East has become. The inevitabilities are being processed and Iran is more isolated than ever.
Thomas PM Barnett
Sunday, November 18th, 2012
Gershon Baskin, the man who negotiated Gilad Shalit’s release, writes in the New York Times that he believes it was a mistake for Israel to kill Ahmed Al-Jabari, as a long-term ceasefire was in the works.
Tuesday, October 30th, 2012
Andrew C. McCarthy in National Review: The challenge is Sharia.
Sunday, October 21st, 2012
It begins — Istanbul schoolchildren get a poisonous textbook: Darwin “had two problems: first he was a Jew; second, he hated his prominent forehead…”
Tuesday, October 2nd, 2012
Andrew C. McCarthy clarifies the Turkey situation vis-a-vis Islam and accession to the EU.
Wednesday, March 7th, 2012
CNN’s video and transcript of President Obama’s 2012 Super Tuesday press conference dealing with Israel, Iran, Syria.
Sunday, February 19th, 2012
Revenge of the Sunnis: What the Arab Spring is really about. By Edward Luttwak. In Foreign Policy.
Thursday, February 2nd, 2012
Saturday, January 21st, 2012
First Syrian town, Zabadani, falls. “We will defend ourselves from Assad … OK?”
Monday, December 5th, 2011
Rashid Khalidi speaks at length to Haaretz. Agree or not, it’s required reading.
Friday, October 21st, 2011
Dead. Qua-daffy. The NYT’s potted (and potty) history. “By the time he was done, Libya had no parliament, no unified military command, no political parties, no unions, no civil society and no nongovernmental organizations.”
Monday, September 5th, 2011
Arab Spring = Kurdish Summer, argues David Eshel in his new blog covering Middle East affairs.
Friday, July 22nd, 2011
Pew Research Center polls Muslims and Westerners on the same questions. Only 9% of Turks believe Arabs carried out 9/11.
Friday, June 17th, 2011
Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s begins his victory speech chillingly: “Believe me, Sarajevo won today as much as Istanbul, Beirut won as much as Izmir, Damascus won as much as Ankara, Ramallah, Nablus, Jenin, the West Bank, Jerusalem won as much as Diyarbakir.” What I believe is that many Turks are dissatisfied with being merely a nationstate. What a neighborhood.
Monday, April 11th, 2011
A primer by an Egyptian liberal on how to achieve at least something in the upcoming elections.
Monday, February 28th, 2011
Hitchens upbraids Obama on Libya.
Tuesday, February 22nd, 2011
Michael Totten reposts his masterly visit to Tripoli in light of Libya’s pending liberation.
Thursday, January 13th, 2011
Lebanese government collapses in run-up to Hariri assassination report.
Wednesday, January 12th, 2011
Thursday, September 9th, 2010
Tony Blair says to Charlie Rose the unsayable, that the fundamental problem is not terror, not al-Qaida, but a belief among Muslims that the West is hostile.
Thursday, August 26th, 2010
Michael J Totten and Jonathan Spyer talk Middle East.
Tuesday, August 24th, 2010
The Persians’ problem: Iran or Islam?
