The folks over at Responsible Statecraft published an interesting piece last week from a former U.S. analyst and adviser, George Beebe. He made a persuasive case for why it is becoming more and more of a priority for Joe Biden to change his course of eschewing diplomacy and favoring instead a quixotic military victory. Beebe points to three main factors to explain why it is more important than ever that…
Joe Biden has continued to humiliate himself and the US with his delusional approach to Benjamin Netanyahu and the far-right government of Israel. Still, several of Israel’s actions have embarrassed the US and everything it’s doing now, from trying to destroy its own judiciary to a big uptick in aggression in the West Bank have put strain on the US-Israel relationship. People calling it a “crisis” in US-Israel relations were…
There were strong reactions to last week’s surprise announcement that China had brokered an agreement between Iran and Saudi Arabia to normalize relations once again. Most viewed it as a very positive development, although how much impact it will have and whether it will even ultimately last remains to be seen. Reactions were so positive that the US even had to put on a brave face and pretend it was…
While fringe American Jewish elements like the Orthodox Union, the far-right Zionist Organization of America and Israel Bonds are welcoming the racist Israeli finance minister, Bezalel Smotrich, most of the American Jewish community is shunning him. Some of those publicly denouncing him are people who have heretofore hewn to the mantra of never criticizing Israel no matter how horrible its crimes. It is telling to see who is speaking out…
I sat down with Ian Masters of Background Briefing to discuss the current events in Palestine and Israel and a couple of my recent articles at Mondoweiss. You can hear the interview here.