Bibi Netanyahu has proven himself masterful at drowning every U.S. effort at brokering Israeli-Palestinian peace talks in minutiae. Then, when he can't manipulate matters any further and has derived maximum benefit for Israel's negotiating position, as he did during John Kerry's shuttle diplomacy, he simply says No and walks away. With the incoming Trump … [Read more...]
Trump Selfie with Israeli MK Features Two Moral Degenerate Birds of a Feather
While Trump's Saudi visit was full of speechifying, pomp and circumstance; including receptions in gilded palaces and dinner feasts, the Israeli leg of his journey appears more like an old Mac Sennett Keystone Kops movie. It's been a minor fiasco from first to last. Even before he arrived Netanyahu's cronies were attempting to compel Trump to include the … [Read more...]
Rouhani Victory Crimps Trump-Israel-Sunni Axis
Two remarkable events coincided this week in the Middle East. Donald Trump made his first presidential visit abroad and Iran held its presidential election. Until yesterday, no one knew whether Iran would give a second term to an embattled moderate who'd had some success normalizing relations with the west, but less in improving the economy; or a clerical … [Read more...]
Al Jazeera: Jordan, Not Israel, Was Original Intelligence Source for ISIS Bomb Plot
Boy, what a difference a day makes. On Monday, I published an article in Middle East Eye in which I speculated that Jordan was the likely source of the intelligence which Donald Trump relayed to the Russians about an ISIS airplane bomb plot. I wrote then: None of the media stories reveal the name of the foreign nation whose operation Trump exposed. … [Read more...]