At face value – the notion that the US occupation of Syria is key to preventing the return of the so-called “Islamic State” (ISIS) to Syrian territory is unconvincing. Regions west of the Euphrates River where ISIS had previously thrived have since been permanently taken back by the Syrian Arab Army and its Russian and…
I predicted three weeks ago that the Senate bill on the Middle East, which was rejected three times while the government was shutdown, would quickly receive cloture by a comfortable margin to end debate and proceed to a full vote in the Senate after the federal bureaucracy reopened. That has proven to be the case….
The White House decision to withdraw American troops from Syria as soon as possible may or may not be on track depending on whom one believes. But one thing that is for sure is that the recent suicide bomber attack in Manbij, Syria, which killed four Americans and has been attributed to ISIS, has inspired…
The war that Israel initiated in June of 1967 became the stuff of myths and legends on many levels. Now, after fifty one years it may be time to unravel and demystify what took place during those fateful six days in June. There is the myth of the existential threat which called for Israel to…
There is much talk in the Levant, in Syria and Lebanon, that Israel, and more precisely Prime Minister Benyamin Netanyahu, is seriously contemplating a large-scale cross-border battle that could escalate into war to ensure his re-election. Notwithstanding his claims of a “tremendous success in “Operation Northern Shield” (ONS) launched last December, Netanyahu is sending the…
If Benjamin Netanyahu ever needs rest and recuperation from the travails of being Israel’s longest serving prime minister, if there is a shed in which he can hide from any one of the five police investigations threatening him, this place of relative comfort must surely be “the pit”. This is the name given to the bunker…
