Left: Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin in Moscow, Sept. 21, 2015 / EPA Israeli-Russian strategic cooperation already good was markedly improving in early October 2015. The primary impediment … [Read more...] about Key factor in sharply-improved Putin-Netanyahu strategic ties? The Obama White House
Obama
No Brexit please!*
There’s not much good news from Europe these days. It’s clear that German Chancellor Angela Merkel has bitten off more than she can chew with her big, big welcome mat for any and all migrants. The Hungarians and the Poles have different ideas, don’t … [Read more...] about No Brexit please!*
The Middle East Poker*
Left:U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry, Russia’s Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov, and foreign ministers from Iran, Saudi Arabia, Turkey and Europe in Vienna, November 14, 2015 in a bid to step up diplomatic efforts to end the four-year-old conflict … [Read more...] about The Middle East Poker*
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*
Benghazi: The smoking gun
Left: President Obama and Secretary Clinton honor the Benghazi attack victims at the Transfer of Remains Ceremony held at Andrews Air Force Base on September 14, 2012. Perhaps the most honored dictum in the code of the American warrior is that no … [Read more...] about Benghazi: The smoking gun
From the Head, But From the Heart?*
Credit: White House Pool / Reuters What was most striking about the President’s speech from the Oval Office – only his third in seven years – was that it “read” but did not “speak”. For despite his fame as an orator, the talk somehow lacked the … [Read more...] about From the Head, But From the Heart?*
The New Old Sick Man of Europe*
For a century European politics was dogged with “the sick man of Europe”: the collapsing Ottoman Empire and its implications for the major powers. That’s not the case now, of course. Multi-ethnic empires are a thing of the past, their death rattle … [Read more...] about The New Old Sick Man of Europe*
Which Side Are YOU On?
The world has been at war for sixty-eight of the past hundred years. World War I lasted four years, World War II six years, the Cold War 44 years and the war with radical is now fourteen years old and counting. Western civilization eventually won … [Read more...] about Which Side Are YOU On?
The Paris Attack: Arabic and Iranian Propaganda
Left: This caricature was published in the London based Qatari owned (!) al-Arabi-al-Jadeed. Here are a few more caricatures published in Arabic and Iranian newspapers after the jihadists attacks in Paris on Friday: Saudi … [Read more...] about The Paris Attack: Arabic and Iranian Propaganda
Obama’s illogic
Left: Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan and US President Barack Obama. (Photo: Cihan), Nov.13, 2015 The confusion in the President’s thinking and strategy about the current terrorist crisis is frightening in its implications. As the tragic … [Read more...] about Obama’s illogic