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Posted by David Gerstman on July 04, 2013 15 Comments
1) When all else fails focus on Israel I’m not sure that the editors of the New York Times realized how absurd the title of this recent article on the Middle East sounded, Chaos in Middle East Grows as the U.S. Focuses on Israel. Surely...

Posted by William A. Jacobson on June 16, 2013 12 Comments
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):

Posted by David Gerstman on June 05, 2013 8 Comments
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...

Posted by William A. Jacobson on June 05, 2013 5 Comments
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...

Posted by David Gerstman on June 04, 2013 4 Comments
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...

Posted by William A. Jacobson on June 04, 2013 2 Comments
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...

Posted by David Gerstman on June 02, 2013 3 Comments
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]...

Posted by David Gerstman on May 31, 2013 14 Comments
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...

Posted by William A. Jacobson on May 23, 2013 15 Comments
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...

Posted by David Gerstman on May 10, 2013 2 Comments
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...
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