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In the Human Interest – Mel Gurtov

In the Human Interest – Mel Gurtov

Critical appraisals of foreign affairs and politics from a global-citizen perspective

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Tag: Middle East

BLOG

Post #355: Israel’s Religious Terrorists

10 Nov 20229 Nov 2022
Note to Readers: Larry Kirsch is co-author of this blog. He is a consulting economist who focuses on economic and social justice, consumer protection, and public finance. Note to Readers…
BLOG

Post #354: Time to Reset Military Relations with Saudi Arabia

4 Nov 2022
An Uneven Balance Sheet             Saudi Arabia and OPEC have decided to cut oil production by 2 million barrels a day. The President is miffed, and has signaled that he’s…
BLOG

Post #345: Back to the Future: Biden in the Middle East

23 Jul 202229 Jul 2022
The audio version of this blog is at https://www.podserve.fm/episodes/65600/54-back-to-the-future-bidens-middle-east-trip.mp3             President Biden has now completed his first visit to the Middle East. The trip was billed as an opportunity to…
BLOG

Post #319: The US and Yemen: Putting a Disreputable Policy Right

29 Nov 202128 Nov 2021
An audio version of this blog is at https://www.podserve.fm/episodes/44803/27-the-us-and-yemen-putting-a-disreputable-policy-right.mp3 In Yemen, Saudi Arabian and Iranian interests collide, a civil war involving multiple parties has devastated the country, important issues of…
BLOG

Post #317: Israel’s New Leadership Offers Nothing New to Palestinians

13 Nov 202112 Nov 2021
A podcast of this blog is available at https://www.podserve.fm/episodes/43705/25-israels-mistreatment-of-palestinians-continues.mp3 How have Israeli-Palestinian relations changed since the end of the right-wing Netanyahu government? The short answer: Not much; a right-wing government…
BLOG

Post #311: The US and Yemen: Putting a Disreputable Policy Right

15 Sep 202114 Sep 2021
In Yemen, Saudi and Iranian interests collide, a civil war involving multiple parties has devastated the country, a humanitarian crisis has been going on for several years, and important issues…
BLOG

Post #310: The Road to Afghanistan is Littered with Bad Calls

2 Sep 20211 Sep 2021
Inevitably, given the sorry state of American politics these days, Joe Biden will be blamed by many people for the humiliating US defeat and withdrawal from Afghanistan.  But he is…
BLOG…

Post #306: Pegasus and the Global Surveillance Business

9 Aug 202110 Aug 2021
Listen to an audio version of this blog at https://www.podserve.fm/dashboard/episode_player_2/37159 We have just learned about a powerful spyware known as Pegasus, manufactured and leased by the Israeli company NSO Group…
BLOG…

Post #305: Influence Peddling, A Threat to Democracy and a Humane Foreign Policy

1 Aug 2021
A shorter audio version of this blog is available at: https://www.podserve.fm/dashboard/episode_player_2/36759             Modern-day democracy has numerous weaknesses, as we’ve been made well aware: policy differences that cannot be resolved, corruption,…
BLOG

Post #298: After the Cease-fire: Peace or War?

24 May 202123 May 2021
This blog is also available as a podcast via podserve.fm: https://www.podserve.fm/dashboard/episode_player_2/31406 U.N. Secretary General António Guterres urged Israeli and Palestinian leaders to go “beyond the restoration of calm to start…
BLOG

Post #271: The Israel-UAE Agreement: Good for a Few, Bad for Most

26 Aug 202025 Aug 2020
The Real Deal Commentators evidently desperate for good news are touting the Israel-United Arab Emirates (UAE) agreement as a welcome path to Middle East peace. The agreement trades Israel’s promise…
BLOG

Post #255: Donald Trump’s Fantasy World

5 Feb 2020
House speaker Nancy Pelosi tore up Donald Trump’s speech, saying he was “shredding the truth.” It was quite a moment, and though she took some heat for such an impertinent…
APB

APB: Thanks to Trump, Iran Has the Upper Hand

8 Jan 20208 Jan 2020
The assassination of General Soleimani is proving to be a resounding success for Iran. It accomplished what the ayatollah could not: common ground between Iran and Iraq, Iraq’s invitation to…
BLOG

Post #252: No Room for Dialogue

3 Jan 20203 Jan 2020
“Our president will start a war with Iran because he has absolutely no ability to negotiate. He’s weak, and he’s ineffective. So the only way he figures that he’s going…
BLOG

Post #250: The Afghanistan Pentagon Papers

10 Dec 20199 Dec 2019
The war in Afghanistan, America’s longest, has cost about 2,300 US lives, over 20,000 wounded, and about $1 trillion. Now, thanks to the persistence of the Washington Post, we have…
BLOG

Post #248: Getting Rid of Treacherous Friends

17 Nov 201916 Nov 2019
Backing the Wrong Horse, Again The United States has a long record of befriending the wrong people—authoritarian leaders who rely on military and police power to enforce social inequality and…
BLOG

Post #243: No War for Saudi Oil!

17 Sep 201922 Sep 2019
Even if US intelligence decisively shows that some of the drones and cruise missiles used in the attack on Saudi Arabia’s oil fields originated in Iran, a decision to go…
BLOG

Post #237: The Trump Way of War

29 Jun 20191 Aug 2019
Notice how similar are the Trump administration’s interactions with Iran and North Korea?  The pattern in both cases is dangerous, ill-informed, and bound to fail.  US adversaries by now understand…
BLOG

Post #236: Iran—Who and Where is the Threat?

21 Jun 201921 Jun 2019
The official US narrative on Iran is that it is an escalating threat to “peace and security” in the Middle East and must be stopped. Step by step, with Mike…
BLOG

Post #233: Another Fake “Emergency”

25 May 201924 May 2019
Just a few months ago Saudi Arabia’s leader, Mohammed bin-Salman (MBS), was on the defensive.  He had authorized the murder of an independent journalist, his domestic “reforms” had turned out…

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