BLOG Post #368: A Big Deal: China’s Middle East Diplomatic Coup 26 Mar 202325 Mar 2023 A Big Deal for Some By any stretch of the imagination, the March 10 announcement of China’s brokering of a Saudi Arabia-Iran agreement to resume diplomatic relations and exchange security…
BLOG Post #365: The Coup in Israel 28 Feb 202328 Feb 2023 Israel has always been touted as America’s most reliable friend in the Middle East, a bastion of democracy in a region dominated by autocracies. Now that picture is fraying as…
Podcasts Russian Policy in the Middle East: A Conversation with Prof. Mark Katz 31 Jan 2023 Prof. Katz discusses Russia's relations with Iran, Syria, Israel and other countries; points out how Russia has effectively handled its Middle East ties in the midst of war in Ukraine;…
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…
In the Human Interest - Mel Gurtov 