Advertisements Israel did not sign “peace deals” with the United Arab Emirates and Bahrain today. You can’t make peace between countries who have never been at war. And the notion that they are only now establishing a relationship is laughable. Clandestine relationships between Israel and the Gulf states have existedContinue Reading
Advertisements The list of foreign policy blunders and failures in just three and a half years of the Donald Trump administration is remarkably long. But one of his first–the green light to the Saudis to try to isolate Qatar, physically and politically–is still festering. It’s an object lesson in howContinue Reading
Will the Saudi offensive work? If it does, it will re-entrench the Arab dictatorship model that thrived for so long in the region. That may or not be the model that someone like Mahmoud Abbas prefers, but it is now the only wagon to which he can hitch his hopes. Trump has created the opportunity to see if that tactic will work. If it does, hopes for democracy will have suffered a serious defeat. If it fails, the recent revival of Iranian regime change in US policy circles shows we are not learning from defeats and mistakes.Continue Reading
Take a particularly provocative and grandstanding Israeli government and shift its focus from Hamas and Gaza to Jerusalem and you have a 8148113621_de93dc64a3_kmost explosive recipe. That potion is being stirred now, and the results could shake up the status quo in a way that we have only seen a few times in Israel’s history.Continue Reading
What’s happening in Gaza will keep happening until an outside force intervenes, something Israel has no reason to permit. Continue Reading
