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 i … [Read more...] about The Middle East Poker*
U.S. Foreign Policy
The Salafis Daddy Warbucks – Saudi Arabia
The first-ever global meeting of the Financial Action Task Force (FATF) network of some 200 jurisdictions over the weekend in Paris, “to discuss actions…to combat the financing of the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) …and to combat the fi … [Read more...] about The Salafis Daddy Warbucks – Saudi Arabia
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*
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 appea … [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 cam … [Read more...] about The New Old Sick Man of Europe*
Connecting the Terror in Paris with the Terror against Israel
Left: Kashmiri demonstrators hold up Palestinian flags and a flag of the Islamic State during a 2014 demonstration (AFP) Seemingly, the connection between the Islamic terror against the West and the Palestinian terror against Israel is confined to … [Read more...] about Connecting the Terror in Paris with the Terror against Israel
What Should Israel Worry About?
A former director of the Central Intelligence Agency recently stated that the intelligence community in the U.S. has a perfect record of identifying future threats: "We have never been right". The one thing we know nothing about is the future. … [Read more...] about What Should Israel Worry About?
A Response to Bernard-Henri Lévy*
On November 16, 2015, French public intellectual Bernard-Henri Lévy published a commentary in which he urges the West to acknowledge that it is at war and must call things by their right names. He subsequently argues that we must battle Islamic jihad … [Read more...] about A Response to Bernard-Henri Lévy*
Vive la France!
Left: Eiffel Tower goes dark, after Paris terrorist attacks, Nov. 13, 2015 There are perhaps three all engulfing observations to be made from the horrific events in France this past Friday evening as the Muslim day of prayer and rest ended: The … [Read more...] about Vive la France!
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