During the reign of the Emperor Justinian I (527-565 AD), a mysterious plague spread out of the Nile Valley to Constantinople and finished off the Roman Empire. Appearing first in China and North India, the “Black Death” (Yersinia pestis) radiated throughout the Mediterranean and into Northern Europe. It may well have killed close to half…
Months before the announcement that the UAE was going to recognise Israel, breaking the status quo that normalisation would come only after Palestinians achieved statehood, analysts puzzled over US President Donald Trump’s “deal of the century”. Why, they asked themselves, is the US president investing so much energy in a deal that Palestinian leaders boycott,…
In a desperate attempt to gain some semblance of an advantage before the presidential election, US President Donald Trump, who is currently trailing his opponent from the Democratic party by 5-7%, decided to play the only trump card he has left – by sending his political “special operatives” to the Middle East. US Secretary of…
The decision by the UAE to establish diplomatic relations with Israel keeps a negotiated solution with Palestine on life support. There is no indication that forging relations with Israel will be more successful in nudging the Jewish state towards peace with Palestine on mutually acceptable terms than the failed formula of offering Arab recognition in…
President Trump called it “historical” citing previous peace agreements in the region (the last one being between Jordan and Israel in 1994) while his son-in-law, awkwardly, heaped praise on him in a White House moment which made the president look like a belligerent tyrant of an African state and Jared Kushner his overpaid media consultant…
The Crown Prince of Saudi Arabia, Mohammed bin Salman, pulled out of a planned visit to Washington DC next week to meet the Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu after he feared that the news had leaked and that his presence in the US capital would become a “nightmare”. It had not yet been agreed whether…
