Middle East

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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?

• 
• 2/13/20
  

  The Travesty of the Century

  by Alon Ben-Meir

  Whereas the US has over the years played a central role in the effort to solve the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, no American administration has provided such a detailed proposal, certainly not one that grants Israel all of its wish list.

• 
• SOURCE: Al Jazeera
  2/11/20
  

  America held hostage

  by David Marks

  Forty years after the Iran hostage crisis, its impact endures.

• 
• SOURCE: Washington Post
  2/5/20
  

  The United States and Saudi Arabia aren’t allies. They never have been.

  by Ellen R. Wald

  One of our key ideas about the Middle East is wrong.

• 
• SOURCE: The Conversation
  2/5/20
  

  How the US repeatedly failed to support reform movements in Iran

  by Pardis Mahdavi

  For 40 years, the relationship between the U.S. and Iran has been marked by disagreement – but also by a series of missed opportunities.

• 
• 2/2/20
  

  Israel as Palestine: One State is Not the Solution, It’s Reality

  by Ian S. Lustick

  The struggle for peace between Israel and the Palestinians has been replaced by struggles, likely to take generations, for the equalityof Jews and Arabs within the state now known as Israel.

• 
• SOURCE: BBC History Extra
  1/21/20
  

  Tension in the Middle East and populist presidents: what the world was like 100 years ago

  by David Charlwood

  Violent uprisings in the Middle East and a populist US president vowing to put “America First”. Historian David Charlwood looks back 100 years to the global situation of 1920 and finds remarkable parallels with the present.

• 
• SOURCE: Washington Post
  1/8/20
  

  War with Iran is not inevitable — but the U.S. must change course

  by Kelly J. Shannon

  The relationship between the countries, once friends and allies, has soured — because of U.S. aggression.

• 
• SOURCE: HistoryExtra
  Accessed 1/9/20
  

  Understand the news with this brief history of Iran

  by Ali M Ansari

  From the US assassination of Iranian commander Qasem Soleimani to the ongoing case of the jailed mother Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe, Iran has scarcely been out of the headlines in recent months. But how far back does the history of Iran stretch?

• 
• 12/19/19
  

  2020 Will Be More Turbulent Than 2019, Unless…

  by Alon Ben-Meir

  The year 2020 will most likely be as turbulent if not more so than 2019 due mainly to the lack of American leadership and the rush of other powers, especially Russia, China, and to a lesser extent Turkey and Iran, to fill the vacuum the US is leaving behind.

• 
• SOURCE: The Conversation
  12/12/19
  

  Children in the ancient Middle East were valued and vulnerable — not unlike children today

  by Shawn Flynn and Kristine Garroway

  The choices that societies make concerning the treatment of children can bring about the greatest of debates and prompt significant political action. 

• 
• 12/15/19
  

  A Real Red Wedding Massacre Puts Lie to Trump's Claim That he "Obliterated" ISIS

  by Brian Glyn Williams and Javed Rezayee

  The human cost of the war in Afghanistan. 

• 
• 11/26/19
  

  The History Behind the Rocket Used in the Latest Attack Against Israel

  by Gideon Remez

  Israel wielded a similar "mega-rocket" against Egypt 50 years ago. How Soviet advisers dealt with it.

• 
• 11/24/19
  

  The Mysterious Assassination That Unleashed Jihadism

  by Thomas Hegghammer

  The story of Abdallah Azzam suggests that a root cause of modern jihadism was the collapse in respect for religious authority among young Islamists in the late 1980s.

• 
• 11/21/19
  

  Coexistence and Sectarianism in the Modern Arab World

  by Ussama Makdisi

  In the case of the Middle East, the need to demythologize communities and their ideological underpinnings needs to go hand in hand with evoking a dynamic history of coexistence that transcends communalism. 

• 
• 11/7/19
  

  The History Briefing on the Assassination of ISIS Founder Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi: How Historians Have Discussed Recent News

  by Lila Someshwar

  Historians give much-needed context to a complex issue. 

• 
• 10/24/19
  

  We Must Not Grow Numb To The Yazidi Genocide

  by Alon Ben-Meir

  The international community cannot grow numb to genocide, as this will continue to haunt us only with greater force. The Yazidis have paid the ultimate price, and no other ethnic group should be subjected to the same fate by any perpetrator with impunity, and with apathy from the international community.

• 
• 10/20/19
  

  The Greatest Danger in the Kurdish Crisis

  by Zaman Stanizai

  If the heavy-handedness of the Turkish military is any indication, Erdogan seems to be bent on the ethnic cleansing and relocation of Kurds in northern Syria and resettling their lands along the Turkish border with Arab Syrian refugees currently residing in Turkey.

• 
• 10/20/19
  

  Kurdish Stalingrad: The Origins of the US-YPG Battle Synergy

  by Robert Troy Souza

  The American president would be wise to familiarize himself with the recent history that led to the small falafel shop in central Kobane that bears his name.

• 
• 10/15/19
  

  An Act of Betrayal and Infamy

  by Alon Ben-Meir

  To think that the President would sell America’s interests and abandon its allies for the sake of personal financial gain is not merely outrageous but criminal.