Middle East 
-
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.
-
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.
-
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.
-
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.
-
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."
-
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.
-
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.
-
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.
-
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.
-
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.
-
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.
-
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.
-
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.
-
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.
-
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.
-
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.
-
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.
-
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.
-
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.
-
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?
News
- One Absurdity of Texas's Divisive Concepts Law? Call to Rename Slave Trade as "Involuntary Relocation"
- 3 Law Profs: Connecting Abortion and Voting Rights at SCOTUS
- The Other Cancel Culture: A University Administration Caves to a Conservative Crusade
- Unserved Warrant for Carolyn Bryant Donham's Arrest in Till Lynching Discovered in Box in Courthouse Basement
- 1989-2001: America's "Lost Weekend" When the Nation Blew its Shot at Peace and Prosperity