Middle East

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• 2/6/2022
  

  Attacking Iran would be a Catastrophic Mistake for Israel

  by Alon Ben-Meir

  Regardless of a success or failure to reach a new agreement with Iran, Israel must not attack Iran’s nuclear facilities and must work closely with the US to develop a joint strategy to curb Iran’s ambition to acquire nuclear weapons and potentially end the conflict with Iran on a more permanent basis.

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• 1/16/2022
  

  Can Libya's Elections Lead to a Second Chance at Stability and Engagement with the World?

  by Luiza Carter

  The recent postponement of elections is another hurdle on Libya's path from post-dictatorship chaos toward potential democratic stability. 

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• SOURCE: The New Yorker
  11/29/2021
  

  Isaac Chotiner Interviews Martin Indyk about Henry Kissinger

  Does Martin Indyk's new book on Henry Kissinger, who is a personal friend, have enough critical distance between subject and author, asks interviewer Isaac Chotiner.

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• SOURCE: TomDispatch
  9/30/2021
  

  "A Horrible Mistake": Time to Ditch CENTCOM

  by Andrew Bacevich

  Created by military reorganization undertaken by the Reagan administration, CENTCOM assumes control of potential military operations in 20 nations, where a half-billion people live. In the decades of its existence, it has overseen the decline and imminent collapse of American empire. 

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• SOURCE: TomDispatch
  3/11/2021
  

  On Shedding an Obsolete Past

  by Andrew Bacevich

  "Sadly, Joe Biden and his associates appear demonstrably incapable of exchanging the history that they know for a history on which our future may well depend. As a result, they will cling to an increasingly irrelevant past."

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• SOURCE: Made By History at the Washington Post
  3/11/2021
  

  Joe Biden is Making Clear that Saudi Human Rights Violations Won’t be Ignored

  by Nicholas DeAntonis

  President Biden's recent affirmation of an American commitment to human rights in discussions with King Salman bin Abdulaziz al-Saud fell short of many demands for action against the Saudi regime. But it is a step in reforming a relationship in which human rights have not been an afterthought, but a non-thought. 

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• SOURCE: The Baffler
  1/18/2021
  

  Operation Desert Shirt

  Writer Matt Stieb examines the cultural reaction to the first Gulf War by studying the topical t-shirts of the day. Blithely invoked violence and casual bigotry silkscreened on cheap fabric should be a reminder of the cruelty inherent in war. 

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• 12/20/2020
  

  Peace is Good. But are More Peace Deals Necessarily Better?

  by Catherine Baylin Duryea

  The recent normalization of relations between Israel and Morocco extends longstanding covert cooperation between the two nations, but troublingly reflects Mideast politics that are increasingly aimed at isolating Iran. It also includes concessions that  contribute to the marginalization of the people of Western Sahara.

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• 11/8/2020
  

  Eisenhower’s Election Day Crisis Reminds Us What Presidents Must Do

  by William Lambers

  The Suez crisis reminds us that we need presidents who seek to avoid war, even above their political ambitions. 

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• 11/1/2020
  

  Trump Claims Credit for Defeating ISIS. Pentagon Documents Show Otherwise

  by Brian Glyn Williams

  A historian and scholar of the War on Terror says that Trump's claims of credit in the fight against ISIS are hot air. 

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• SOURCE: New York Times
  8/24/2020
  

  1,100-Year-Old Treasure Is Unearthed by Teenagers in Israel

  The discovery offers clues to the relations between different empires that controlled the region centuries ago.

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• SOURCE: New York Times
  8/12/2020
  

  Regrets? Even Brent Scowcroft Had a Few

  In an oral history released after his death, the former national security adviser revealed a few key moments in which his ideas failed in the war against Saddam Hussein.    

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• SOURCE: Salon
  8/17/2020
  

  Trump's Dodgy Israel-UAE "Peace Deal" Smells like the Work of Henry Kissinger

  by Jim Sleeper

  Is the Israel-UAE agreement to open diplomatic relations an effort to marginalize the Palestinian Authority? Jim Sleeper argues it's the sort of thing Henry Kissinger would do. 

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• 8/2/2020
  

  30 Years Later: Saddam Hussein's Fateful Decision to Invade Kuwait

  by Guy Laron

  It was clear from the outset that this was a desperate gamble that put Iraq on a collision course with Washington. But Saddam believed he had no other choice but to stop Kuwait from dumping oil into a slack market.

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• SOURCE: France 24
  6/21/2020
  

  Israeli Historian Zeev Sternhell, Advocate for Palestinian Rights, Dies at 85

  Hebrew University president Asher Cohen hailed Sternhell, a professor emeritus there who was awarded the prestigious Israel Prize for political science in 2008, as "among the most important researchers" to emerge from the institution.

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• 6/14/2020
  

  Israel and the Palestinians: Architects of Their Own Destruction

  by Alon Ben-Meir

  The political positions of Israeli and Palestinian leadership set the region on a path toward more bloodshed. 

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• SOURCE: New York Times
  5/7/2020
  

  Daniel Pipes Argues Annexing the West Bank Would Hurt Israel

  Daniel Pipes, prominent conservative American commentator on Middle Eastern affairs, gives six reasons to believe that taking over Palestinian territory would harm both U.S.-Israel relations and Israel’s status as the Jewish state.

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• 4/17/2020
  

  The Saudis, the Jews, and FDR's Dog: The Opening of the US-Saudi Relationship

  by Rafael Medoff

  Recent commemorations of FDR's diplomatic meeting with King Abdul Aziz in 1945 obscure unsavory aspects of the origins of the US-Saudi relationship. 

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• SOURCE: The New York Times
  4/6/2020
  

  Will the Virus Trigger a Second Arab Spring?

  The coronavirus outbreak is likely to bring into focus the legitimacy and governance deficit of troubled Middle Eastern regimes.

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• 2/16/20
  

  A Gallon of Talk and a Teaspoon of Action, Then Label the Problem "Insolvable" and Plan Another Conference

  by Robert Scott Kellner

  What shall it avail, the latest speech-laden conference on this topic, when seventy-five years of intensive Holocaust education had no effect on Holocaust deniers and could not stop the resurgence of the virulent anti-Semitism that had infected Germany one hundred years ago?