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What Effect Will The U.S. Elections Have On Its Middle East Policy?

What effect will the congressional elections have on U.S. foreign policy generally and Middle East policy in particular? It isn’t a matter of the individual candidates, since nobody lost or won who will have some big influence on U.S. policy in the next couple of years. The important factor is… Continue reading

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A Jewish State or Not?

The root cause of the mess in the Middle East is really quite simple. In 1947 The United Nations (General Assembly Resolution 181) called for the area of Palestine between the Jordan River and the Mediterranean Sea to be partitioned into… Continue reading

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Iran Sets Conditions Ahead of Resumption of Talks With the West

President Ahmadinejad stated this week that Iran is willing to resume talks on its nuclear program with the G5+1 (United States, Britain, France, Russia, China, and Germany) if they are based on “dignity and justice”. That was the president’s reply to an announcement made by EU Foreign Minister Catherine Ashton according… Continue reading

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The Good Enemy, the Bad Enemy and the Palestinians

Israel’s relationship to the Palestinians has always been globally approached with standardized heavy criticism made to Israel. The main charges waved in Israel’s face have always been “the Disapropriate use of force” and… Continue reading

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Saudi and Egyptian Forces Carried Out Their First Ever Joint Exercise

Egypt and Saudi Arabia secretly carried out their first ever joint exercise this week with the participation of their special operations, marine, armored, missile, air and naval forces, debkafile’s military sources reveal… Continue reading

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International Conference On Palestine: No Option But Resistance

The Second International Conference on Palestine hosted by Tehran, was inaugurated on Saturday with the participation of Iranian Majlis Speaker Ali Larijani. He stated during his speech on Saturday that there is no option for Palestinians but resistance… Continue reading

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Iran-Syria Bloc Consolidates Alliance With Turkish Regime

In effect, Ahmadinejad is saying: I insult America! I am leader of the Palestinian struggle! I’m going to get nuclear weapons! I’ve got it all. Now, if there was only some Western leadership to organize the other side there might be more hope of… Continue reading

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Chinese Warplanes In Turkey and Iran

The arrival of a new Middle East player startled Washington and Jerusalem: debkafile’s military sources disclose that when Turkish Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan met Syrian president Bashar Assad in Damascus Monday, Oct. 11, they talked less about the Kurdish question and more about… Continue reading

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World Leaders Ignore International Law

The U.S. Administration, the European Union, the United Nations, and Russia made the decision to rewrite history by labeling the Territories ‘Occupied Territories,’ the Settlements as an ‘Obstacle to Peace’ and ‘Not Legitimate….’ Continue reading

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Foreign Minister of Turkey Says Turkish Relationship With Israel Might Be A Permanent Problem

On thursday, Turkish Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoglu said that the relationship between Turkey and Israel might be a permanent problem, because Turkish civilians were killed during Israel’s raid on the Mavi Marmara… Continue reading

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A Future History of Palestine

The following article isn’t intended to reject a two-state solution but to point out issues that would inevitably arise if one ever came about. Recently, a once-major American magazine ran a cover story saying Israelis aren’t desperately eager for “peace” without ever mentioning the real reasons… Continue reading

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Understanding the Middle East: The Sources of Iranian Negotiating Behavior

This analysis identifies patterns exhibited by the Iranian government and the Iranian people since ancient times. Most importantly, it identifies critical elements of Iranian culture that have been systematically ignored by policymakers for decades… Continue reading

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The Arab League Refuses to Recognize Israel as Jewish State

While negotiations on a future peace agreement between Israel and the Palestinians have just been resumed, the Arab League draws a line in support of the Palestinian decision not to recognize a Jewish State. As a consequence, the members of the Arab League will also not… Continue reading

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Growing Criticism of Ahmadinejad’s Plan to Appoint Special Envoys On Foreign Affairs

The president’s plan to appoint some of his close associates as special envoys on foreign affairs has been increasingly criticized by Iran’s media and political establishment this week. The president recently announced his intention to appoint his… Continue reading

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Trying To Bring Reality Into the Debate On Islam and Islamism

People are fascinated by the discussion over Islam and seem hungry for some honest and accurate analysis on it. So let me continue to try to bring reality into this debate. Now I know too many Muslims and how they act in practice to accept some mechanistic model that they respond like robots to the presence of radical concepts in… Continue reading

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Israel, Islamism and the War Within Islam

I would stress that “Islam” as a religion functioning in the world is not at war with anyone as such. There are those who want to steer Islam toward an active war against how the majority of Muslims live at present and almost all the governments… Continue reading

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Help Us By Telling the Truth

During my last speaking trip, which usually focused on the battle between Islamists and nationalists, there were Arabs or Iranians present at each event who enthusiastically endorsed what I said. In one case, a Palestinian… Continue reading

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What Threatens Peace: a Mountain of Hate or a Few Nasty Words?

About twenty-five years ago I had my great success in affecting mass media coverage of the Middle East in one newspaper for one day. I had been complaining to a New York Times correspondent, who was briefly covering the Middle East beat, about the incitement, hatred, and extremism… Continue reading

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The Real Middle Eastern Cold War

This new Cold War represents the current ideological division in the Middle East between the “revolutionary bloc,” led chiefly by Iran, Syria, and more recently Turkey, and the “status-quo bloc,” led by Saudi Arabia and Egypt… Continue reading

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Israel’s Critical Security Needs for a Viable Peace

Israel, in any future agreement with the Palestinians, has a critical need for defensible borders. This video outlines the threats to Israel from terrorist rockets, ballistic missiles, and conventional ground… Continue reading

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Obama and Netanyahu’s Assent to Bushehr – a Slippery Slope for Israel’s Security

The Obama administration and Netanyahu government greeted the start-up of Iran’s first nuclear reactor at Bushehr with extraordinary meekness, given the grim military and strategic hazards it represents for the region and Israel in particular… Continue reading

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How Would a Nuclear Iran Behave?

President Obama says Iran’s acquisition of nuclear weapons is “unacceptable,” but he appears resigned to the eventuality that the Islamic Republic will build a bomb. Iranian leaders are defiant in the face of sanctions… Continue reading

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Opiniepeiling Onder Arabische Moslims Laat Schokkende Resultaten Zien

De resultaten van deze opiniepeiling geven aan dat er een grote kloof bestaat tussen het Midden-Oosten zoals het werkelijk is en het Midden-Oosten zoals veel Westerse politici en de Westerse media het ons… Continue reading

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Iranian Posters to Persuade Women to Wear a Hijab

Forcing women to wear a Hijab is seen as a far greater virtue in Iran’s Shi’ism and Saudi’s Wahhabism than the freedom of choice, freedom of self-expression and… Continue reading

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Poll Shows the Shocking Reality of Arab Public Opinion

As long as there is a huge gap between the actual Middle East and the fantasy Middle East so dear to many Western academics, journalists, and diplomats, the region will remain… Continue reading