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Looks like we’re heading for a good old fashioned Sunni-Shia showdown in Syria. From The Times of Israel (article links here and here):

1) Talkin’ Turkey Claire Berlinski provides the recent background for the foment going on in Turkey: Of late, almost every sector of the electorate has felt unease about one part or another of Erdoğan’s agenda. Restrictive new alcohol legislation, rammed through parliament, as usual, with...

After three weeks of often intense artillery barrages and air strikes, Hezbollah took over Qusayr near the border with Lebanon. While the Syrian government is proclaiming victory, the Syrian government was the tale on the dog — it was a Hezbollah operation. But NOW Lebanon...

1) Music lives in Israel Arsen Ostrovsky interviewed Zubin Mehta about performing Israel: According to Mehta, “it’s hard to find an emblem of cultural, national pride that burns as bright as Israel’s success in classical music.” He adds “the amount of culture going on in...

On May 23 I wondered Will Qusayr be Hezbollah’s Stalingrad? It’s hard to know what really is going on, with pro-Assad forces claiming great progress while rebel supporters claim they are hanging on and receiving reinforcements.  There has been a mostly futile attempt to gain...

1) Remember when they used to talk about Israel like this? I’m not used to Arabs talking this way about Arabs: Brigadier General Salim Idris, the current chief of Staff of the Supreme Military Council of the FSA, said: “If the attacks of Hezbollah [on]...

In October 2009, Charles Krauthammer critiqued President Obama’s foreign policy in a Weekly Standard article Decline is a choice: Indeed, as he made his hajj from Strasbourg to Prague to Ankara to Istanbul to Cairo and finally to the U.N. General Assembly, Obama drew the...

One of the key battles in Syria is for control of Qusayr, currently under rebel control.  Via NY Times, Syrian Forces and Hezbollah Fighters Press Assault on Key City: Official Syrian and Hezbollah news outlets said the government offensive was making rapid headway in retaking Qusayr, a...

1) When is news not really news? The Newseum – a museum devoted to the news business – recently held an event to honor journalists killed in the line of duty. Included in that honor members of Hamas who were killed by Israel this past...

The video below is linked at The Washington Post (h/t Dan Riehl) as showing a large fire on the outskirts of the Damascus airport around the time Israel reportedly attacked a missile shipment destined for Hezbollah: The strike took place about 4 a.m. Friday at an air...

1) Friedman resurrects “Fayyadism” Some time ago, Thomas Friedman coined the term “Fayyadism,” a concept that, according to Nathan Brown, never had a chance. Why Palestinian Prime Minister Salam Fayyad never had a chance to meet the high expectations placed on him http://t.co/veLJpvVyU0 — Foreign...

1) Middle East arms deal The United States is concluding an arms deal with the United Arab Emirates, Saudi Arabia and Israel. Hoagland: arms deal “weaken the only containment strategy Obama consistently practiced – the containment of Israel” wapo.st/12D0xtp — Shmuel Rosner (@rosnersdomain) April 23,...