No Joke: the U.N. just condemned Israel as the world's only violator of women's rights, backed by votes of council members Iran, Saudi Arabia, Pakistan & Yemen.https://t.co/s94KsS50gH — Hillel Neuer (@HillelNeuer) July 24, 2019 This speaks for itself. The UN … Continue reading →
I guess Turkey’s Erdogan and his party didn’t do enough to fix the elections in Turkey this time, and must have underestimated the strength of his opponents, because the election didn’t go as he’d hoped. The NY Times calls it … Continue reading →
The intent had already been announced, but now it’s official: President Trump on Monday signed a proclamation officially granting U.S. recognition of Israel’s claim over the Golan Heights, reversing decades of American policy regarding the disputed territory between Israel and … Continue reading →
I have my doubts about this article. The author may be dreaming, or making much too much of some events that have much less significance than he thinks. But it’s certainly interesting, and so I bring it up for discussion. … Continue reading →
Last Thursday I wrote a post on that subject, and today I see this from Lindsay Graham, which makes me think that the speculation in that previous post is probably true: “We’re fighting a war against ISIS. They’re still not … Continue reading →
Daniel Pipes observes: MbS [Saudi Arabia’s Crown Prince Mohammad bin Salman] versus Jeremy Corbyn symbolizes these two tectonic shifts, as does Israel now enjoying better relations with Egypt than with Sweden. The president of Chad turns up in Israel but … Continue reading →
I suspect that this may be correct; Despite threats that they planned to release ISIS prisoners and abandon their front-line positions against the remaining pockets of ISIS fighters, Kurdish fighters of the YPG and the Syrian Democratic Forces have not … Continue reading →
After the announcement of the Syria and Afghanistan pullout, some Trump-defenders have emerged. One is Rand Paul, who says: I think the burden is really on Mattis and others who want perpetual war to explain why if there is no … Continue reading →
Pros and cons. There are quite a few of each, so I suggest you read the whole thing. It ends this way: Time will tell whether Trump’s decision to remove U.S. forces from Syria was a prelude to disaster for … Continue reading →
I think this is bad news: Trump tweeting that we are leaving Syria has rocked the world…there has been pushback to Trump regarding this decision. Syria, as we all know, has been a cluster from the get go. But now … Continue reading →
See UPDATE at end of post. [NOTE: I use the past tense for Khashoggi because the consensus is that he is dead. This is certainly more likely than not. But I am not convinced of it, because it has not … Continue reading →
Stephen Green writes: It seems possible that Khashoggi was murdered in order to embarrass Crown Prince bin Salman rather than to protect him. If he was murdered at all, that is—and on the whole I think it’s likely that he … Continue reading →