Why is there Opposition to a Qatar Investigation?
I appreciate how complicated and nuanced Qatar’s relationship with radicalism is, as is Saudi Arabia’s.
Planning to Win
Some things are just too unpleasant to contemplate, too far in the future, or too complicated to demand attention. Or too scary. Or conflict with other things we know – or think we know.
Iraqi Kurdistan Four Months After the Referendum
Four months on from the referendum which they had hoped would be a foundation stone for the building of statehood, Iraq’s Kurds are demoralized and facing an increasingly uncertain future.
Netanyahu Thanks Pence in Israel for saying, ‘Israel’s capital, Jerusalem’
“This is the first time that I’m standing when both leaders can say ‘Israel’s capital, Jerusalem,” Netanyahu said while greeting Pence.
Turkey, the Arab World is Just Not That into You
He runs around in a fake fire extinguisher’s outfit, holding a silly hose in his hands and knocking on neighbors’ doors to put out the fire in their homes. “Go away,” his neighbors keep telling him.
Wanted: A Counter-Iran Strategy
A common but mistaken reading of the current strategic situation in the Middle East presents the region as approaching the end of a period of instability. The “return of the Arab state” is one of the more arresting refrains that this perspective has produced.
Iran: An Interim Assessment
The protests in Iran appear, for now at least, to be subsiding. The key moment was the decision to task the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps with security in the three provinces that formed the center of the unrest – Hamadan, Isfahan and Lorestan.
Curing Trump’s Quarterly Iran Headache
Trump is right that he’s damned if he maintains Obama’s nuclear deal with Iran and damned if he kills the deal.
Netanyahu: Israel Stopped Airplane Terror Attacks in Europe
On Tuesday, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu told a group of ambassadors from several of NATO countries that Israeli intelligence had prevented “several dozen major terrorist attacks” on European cities, including some 9-11 type plots that “involved civil aviation”.
Trump Kicks America’s Palestinian Habit
The US is UNRWA’s largest funder. In 2016, it transferred more than $368m. to UNRWA.