I am often asked to explain why countries like Iran appear to be so aggressive, involving themselves in foreign wars and seeking to create alliances that they know will provoke the worst and most paranoid responses from some of their neighbors. My response is invariably that perceptions of threat depend very much on which side…
In 1994, Jordan became the second Arab country to sign a peace treaty with Israel, Egypt the first in 1979. Neither country recognized Israel as a Jewish state, nor was the provision part of the 1993 Oslo Accords or Bush/Cheney’s 2003 Roadmap for Peace. One-fifth of Israeli citizens are Arabs. Yet they’re mistreated like fifth…
After months of violence and widespread protests along the Israeli-Gaza border fence, Israeli is quickly ramping up its military presence with a show of force a day after launching deadly airstrikes on Gaza in response to what officials say were two rockets fired from the strip earlier this week. Reuters has reported some 60 Israeli…
The Trump regime’s one-sided support for Israel is deplorably hard-edged. Earlier this year, it cut off most US funding for Palestinians. All funding through UNRWA for its refugee population ended, a flagrant assault on their rights and welfare. In September, the State Department closed the PLO office in Washington after operating for 24 years. At…
No state established on land seized by force from the people living on that land can claim moral legitimacy and a ‘right’ to exist. A purported ‘right’ to exist is not central to the existence of states anyway, let alone colonial settler states established amidst the wreckage of the genuine rights of another people. States…
The onset of three major developments next month will change the entire dynamic of the War on Syria, meaning that the country’s decision makers must urgently assess the true state of strategic affairs as they presently stand, forecast the most probable scenarios that will unfold across the coming months, and seriously consider which policies could…
