Back in 1887 the famous poet and storyteller Oscar Wilde quipped: ‘We [English] have really everything in common with America nowadays except, of course, language’. We got another example of this malediction in the blah-blah-blah which has attended Br … [Read more...] about Special Relationship II*
Mideast
The Syrian Threat to Israel*
Left: Map of Syrian Civil war/ Global conflict in Syria - liveuamap, February 22, 2016 There are more than two dozen state and non-state actors battling over the prostrate body of what used to be Syria, one of the artificial entities carved out in … [Read more...] about The Syrian Threat to Israel*
Obama and Israel: The Final Year*
President Barack Obama will vacate the White House on January 20, 2017, but he is unlikely to do so in the traditional manner. In their eighth and final year of service, American presidents generally behave like “lame ducks.” They don’t initiate new p … [Read more...] about Obama and Israel: The Final Year*
Dangerous Mideast Reality*
The volatility of Middle East events notwithstanding, a new picture is emerging of alliances very different from those preceding the outbreak of the Arab Spring and the now five-year-old Syrian civil war. That new reality is obscured by the Obama … [Read more...] about Dangerous Mideast Reality*
What the Downing of the Russian Plane May Portend
Left: The remains of a Russian airliner are inspected by military investigators at the crash site at the al-Hasanah area in El Arish city, north Egypt. (Reuters). It is now generally accepted that the Russian commercial airliner that crashed in the … [Read more...] about What the Downing of the Russian Plane May Portend
Obama is No Reagan*
The Obama Administration’s utter strategic confusion, particularly in foreign affairs, was nowhere more exhibited than in Sec. of Defense Ashton B. Carter’s recent statements at the Reagan Defense Forum. Irony was added to insult when Carter equated t … [Read more...] about Obama is No Reagan*
Do the Palestinians Want Two States?*
Is the Palestinian “popular uprising” in its current manifestations the preferred form of struggle for the Fatah leadership – as opposed to small-scale demonstrations at focal points of friction? When an interviewer on a prominent TV show on the offic … [Read more...] about Do the Palestinians Want Two States?*
MANPADS Threats To Civilian Aviation
Left: Two insurgents in Iraq with SA-7b and SA-14 MANPADS. Courtesy of U.S. Department of Homeland Security What crashed the Russian Airbus A321 in the Sinai Peninsula is yet to be determined. The British Telegraph reported an ISIS "bomb plot was un … [Read more...] about MANPADS Threats To Civilian Aviation
The incremental Road To Hell*
If there were one lesson from America’s tragic Vietnam encounter – and as some dead white man has said, all historical analogies are odious — it is that incremental approaches to war inevitably result in disaster. News reports suggest that Pres. Barak … [Read more...] about The incremental Road To Hell*
Weekly Review, September 7-11, 2015
Europe’s refugee crisis a warning to Israel - Norman A. Bailey - There are certain situations that do not lend themselves to any reasonable solution which will fulfill all the objectives of the actors in the drama. The tidal wave of political and e … [Read more...] about Weekly Review, September 7-11, 2015