Washington Post: Old Arab Order Pro-bin Laden! British Government: Hamas-Fatah Merger is Great! It is amazing what nonsense appears in the mass media. Consider the following paragraph from a Washington Post story: "A decade ago, the Middle Eas
Saudis Rebel Against U.S. Egypt Policy--Out of Self-Preservation The Saudi offer to subsidize Egypt's President Husni Mubarak if the U.S. government tries to pressure him by cutting aid calls to our attention still
Egypt: The Turning Point, The Regime's Plan on What to Do Next In 1978 and 1979 I followed the Iranian revolution on a daily and hourly basis. Even before the hostage crisis, recognizing the importance of this eve
Signposts in the Middle East Undeterred by international pressures and internal opposition, the Iranian government is cutting subsidies to essential goods that have cost a lot and
A Hint On The Future of Obama "Peace Process" Policy George Mitchell, the U.S. envoy to the Middle East, has given the first hint about the Obama Administration's future strategy. He said that he will no
Thanks to International Aid, Gaza Is Going To Be A Well-Off Islamist Republic The Gaza Strip is doing really well economically and the Hamas regime seems set to go on forever. It's raking in the aid money but every dollar and ev
Why American Airport Security Is Really So Horrendous Security checks at American airports have become the most controversial topic in the United States. This debate is so full of mistaken assumptions and
The Great Mystery: What's The Obama Administration Up To On Israel-Palestinian Talks? Letters I receive from readers mainly focus on asking me what I think about the U.S.-Israel-PA negotiations about getting back to...negotiations. What
Why Do Christians Remain Silent About the Persecution of Christians in Muslim-Majority Societies? Christians in Iraq have been, and not for the first time, deliberately targeted in a major terrorist attack. Indeed, from Indonesia to Pakistan to Ira
U.S. Government "Threatens" Syria: Promote Terrorism, Take Over Lebanon, Block Peace, and We Won't Let You Make Apple iPads! If you think I'm exaggerating about the current administration's cluelessness toward the Middle East just read the State Department daily press confer
Is the U.S. Government and West Generally Starting to Comprehend the Real Issues and Problems in the Middle East? By Barry Rubin After acceding to U.S. requests for nine months by freezing construction on existing Jewish settlements in the West Bank and also not building over th
Two Constant Mistakes of the Mass Media: Dictatorships Don't Dictate; Almost Everyone's a Moderate I don't know about you but it always makes me feel better to be reminded that folly didn't start recently. In my view, the quality of reporting in the
Millions of Virgins; Millions of Martyrs. These Guys Have Followers and They Really Mean It Yes, it's true; a fringe minister with just fifty followers in America wanted to burn a Koran. But he didn't. Meanwhile another nut wants to kill all
Which Side Are You On?: The "Moderate Muslim" Litmus Tests In the controversy over the "Ground Zero" mosque in New York and other issues, Muslims are often asked if they condemn terrorism, Iran, or Hamas and o
What is the Threat: Islam, Islamism, or Western Sins? The current debate over the roots of Islamist revolution, clashes in the Middle East, and conflicts between forces in that region and the West involve
Competing World Views Tear A "Peace Process" to Pieces The U.S. announcement inviting Israel and the Palestinian Authority (PA) for direct talks shows quite clearly, though unintentionally, why the talks w
Can You Handle The Truth?: Poll Shows The Shocking Reality of Arab Public Opinion This is one of those stories about the Middle East that is totally amazing but not the least bit surprising. What, you ask, do I mean? From the standp
Today's Example of Ridiculous Media Bias Against Israel Along Israel's border with Lebanon, east of Metulla, some bushes were pushing in on the border fence. The fence is set in slightly from the border pre
Illusion and Reality Clash in Lebanon We depend on your contributions. To make a tax-deductible donation through PayPal or credit card, click the Donate button in the upper-right hand corn
Middle East 101: Understanding Regional Political Logic A reader asks why Egypt insists on tying restrictions on the Iran's nuclear program with putting restrictions on Israel's program, including demanding
Debating Obama Policy Doesn't Require Screaming But Logic and Honest Discussion As I look at the occasional responses to the arguments I'm making by defenders of the Obama Administration, the arguments used to avoid thinking and t
What's In a Name: Obama Can't Figure Out (Or Pretends He Can't) Why He Worries Israelis President Barack Obama insulted Israelis by saying they might distrust him because his middle name is Hussein. It's a small detail but one that shows
Yes, Still Another False-Moderation-of-Palestinian-Leadership Hoax Doesn't the West ever learn? Step 1: Al-Hayat reports that Palestinian Authority leader Mahmoud Abbas offers to give Israel the Jewish Quarter of t
A Terrorist's World View Signals What Our World View Should Be A dozen words spoken at his trial by Faisal Shahzad, the Times Square would-be bomber, are worth studying very carefully. When asked why he targeted A
What Will the Western Strategy Toward Gaza Produce? A "Normal" Revolutionary, Terrorist, Genocidal Regime There A reader asks: What is the West's strategy regarding the Gaza Strip. Good question. The strategy is to relieve the alleged "humanitarian" issue as soo
Flash: Israel Revises Gaza Policy; World Gets What it Wants: Terrorist, Genocidal, Antisemitic, Revolutionary Islamist Statelet on the Mediterranean Israel has looked for a policy that preserves its security to the maximum extent, undermines Hamas as much as possible, and reduces international crit
Major New Development in Flotilla Story? Evidence Emerges of Government-Flotilla Link; Brave Turkish Nationalists Try to Calm Things Down I've written about how the Gaza flotilla issue and stirring up a hysterical hatred of Israel is playing a role in internal Turkish politics as the gov
Turkish Regime Changes Sides, West Averts Eyes The foolish think that the breakdown is due to the recent Gaza flotilla crisis. The merely naive attribute the collapse to the December 2008-January 2
Islamist Extremists Hit Israeli Soldiers with Iron Bars, West Surrenders? "I have not yet begun to fight!" --Captain John Paul Jones 1779 "Don't Give up the ship!" -- Captain James Lawrence, 1813 "Damn the torpedoes! F
Sympathy for the Devil and the Gaza Sea Confrontation: How Can Helping a Repressive Fascist, Genocide-Intending Hamas Regime be Noble? "Israeli assault complicates efforts to improve relationship with U.S.," says the Washington Post. "Israeli Raid Exacerbates Regional Tensions and Thr
The U.S. Government Knows that Iran Helps al-Qaida But Does Nothing About It It's that important. But it isn't that new. The basic information here was supplied almost two months ago and covered by me HERE. Yet in all that time
General Jones Tells A Joke Today's public culture focuses a lot more on categorization than though processes. The immediate question that arises after various incidents is wheth
A Tale of Two Palestinian Authorities Four years after the Hamas victory in elections to the Palestinian Legislative Council, and three years since the movement's successful coup in Gaza,
Has the Obama Administration, Against U.S. Interests, Declared Diplomatic War on Israel? Has the Obama Administration, against U.S. interests, declared diplomatic war on Israel? Up to now my view has been that the U.S. government didn't wa
White House Ignores Iran's Help to al-Qaida in Its Passion over Jerusalem Apartments The United States is at war with al-Qaida. Al-Qaida carried out the attack on the World Trade Center that killed 3,000 Americans. Al-Qaida is killing
Other Than Apartments in Jerusalem, What Else is Going on in the Middle East? While the Obama Administration is fiddling over the construction of apartments in Jerusalem, the Middle East is burning. Yet these other issues don't
Will Obama Have an Iraq Crisis? If-and I repeat, if--this story is true it is going to be a very big development that may, as they like to see in the television promos, change the Ob
Saudis to Obama Administration: We're Scared of Iran and You're Going Too Slow Secretary of State Hillary Clinton's trip to the Persian Gulf is generally being portrayed as a success in the media with the New York Times, for exam
The U.S. Military Looks at the Middle East: Bows to the White House but Knows Its Mission Too The Department of Defense has just released its new Quadrennial Defense Review Report for 2010. What does it say about the Middle East? Far less than
Defining "Victory" and "Peace": How the U.S. and Israel Reject General Sherman's Solution and Get Blamed Anyway "War," said General William Tecumseh Sherman, "is Hell." He knew what he was talking about. Sherman's march through Georgia and into South Carolina at
The Point of No Return: Clearly the Obama Administration Won't Ever Do Anything Serious Against Iran's Nuclear Program We must now face an extremely unpleasant truth: Even giving the Obama administration every possible break regarding its Iran policy, it is now clear t
Obama's State of the Union Message Tells Us Far More About the State of Obama Significantly, President Barack Obama's discussion of foreign policy came only at the end of his State of the Union message. Obviously, domestic matte
What We've Been Doing in 2009 and Will Be Doing in 2010 As a new calendar year begins, it seems appropriate to give you, gentle readers, some accounting of what I've been doing this year and the one coming
How the Auschwitz Sign Claiming that "Work Makes Free" Embodies Current Western Thinking and Policy The theft and then recovery of the famous sign at the entrance of Auschwitz-Arbeit macht frei, work will make you free-has brought that artifact of th
For Israel, Good Prospects in 2010 In contrast to my rather gloomy assessment of the Obama Administration's prospects in the Middle East, Israel's prospects look rather good. This is gr
Why All the Excuses for Palestinian Intransigence Don't Make Sense The Arab-Israeli, or Israel-Palestinian, conflict is the most misrepresented subject in the entire world. The most basic facts are often distorted and
An Article that gives an Amazing Insight into Radical Islamism, its Western Coddlers and its Cures This is perhaps the best newspaper article I've ever read on the phenomenon of radical Islamists in Europe, written from the point of view of those wh
Frolicking in the Quicksand: How the Obama Administration Keeps Making Huge Mistakes in the Middle East Of course, the Obama Administration has its defenders. They either ignore criticism of the Administration's foreign policy or claim it is all partisan
Europe Sells Out to Syria and Gets Slapped: A Middle East Case Study in Begging to Give Something for Nothing Ugarte: "But think of all the poor devils who cannot meet Renault's price. I get it for them for half. Is that so parasitic?" Rick: "I don't mind a p
And Now the Truth Becomes Clear: Hillary Clinton Announces that the Palestinians are the Obstacles to Peace We don't know what the plan is though there are hints that Israel agreed to stop all construction on the West Bank once the 3,000 apartment units now