Christmas in the Middle East

Christmas in the Middle East

You wouldn’t expect to find the celebration of Christmas in the Middle East. The Pagan/Christian holiday doesn’t really fit into the whole Islamic cultural narrative except as maybe a subject of protest. But there I stood, on a Kurdish sidewalk in Sulaymaniyah staring into a local shop window. In the window, a snowy landscape adorned […]

There’s confusion about US troop levels in the Middle East, and Trump may keep it that way

There’s confusion about US troop levels in the Middle East, and Trump may keep it that way

The Defense Department has released conflicting numbers about the number of US troops deployed overseas. It has acknowledged the differences and promised to be more transparent about troop levels. But comments by President Donald Trump and ongoing operations suggest that discrepancies will remain. Recent data on troop levels in Afghanistan, Iraq, and Syria released by […]

Paradise Papers expose offshore tax secrecy of Middle East elite

Paradise Papers expose offshore tax secrecy of Middle East elite

Sons of the Turkish prime minister, a Jordanian dowager Queen and a Saudi prince who owns a superyacht longer than a football pitch, are just a few Middle Eastern figures whose offshore dealings have been laid bare by one of the largest ever data leaks. Published by the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists (ICIJ), the […]

Former White House advisor says democracy not impossible in the Middle East

Former White House advisor says democracy not impossible in the Middle East

On October 23, 2017, former White House Advisor on U.S. Middle East Policy under President George W. Bush, Elliott Abrams, spoke at Georgetown University about American foreign policy in the Middle East in the aftermath of the Arab Spring.  The speech centered around Abrams’ new book, “Realism and Democracy: American Foreign Policy after the Arab […]

The US is on a collision course with Iran in the Middle East

The US is on a collision course with Iran in the Middle East

President Trump’s assertive new strategy toward Iran is already colliding with the reality of Tehran’s vastly expanded influence in the Middle East as a result of the Islamic State war. The launch of the strategy signaled an important shift in U.S. Middle East policy away from an ­almost exclusive focus on fighting the Islamic State to an […]

ISIS Defectors Fleeing Syria For Turkey, Europe, Middle East

ISIS Defectors Fleeing Syria For Turkey, Europe, Middle East

Like rats fleeing a sinking ship, hundreds of foreign fighters for the Islamic State, seeing the writing on the wall, are massing in Syria’s Idlib province with plans to cross into nearby Turkey and find other ways to get back into the Middle East, Africa, and Europe. Several dozen former fighters have already made it […]

Hezbollah: Iran’s Middle East agent, emissary and hammer

Hezbollah: Iran’s Middle East agent, emissary and hammer

For three decades, Hezbollah maintained a singular focus as a Lebanese military group fighting Israel. It built a network of bunkers and tunnels near Lebanon’s southern border, trained thousands of committed fighters to battle Israel’s army and built up an arsenal of rockets capable of striking far across the Jewish state. But as the Middle […]

Jared Kushner visited the Middle East this week to revive peace talks with Israeli and Palestinian leaders — here’s how it unfolded

Jared Kushner visited the Middle East this week to revive peace talks with Israeli and Palestinian leaders — here’s how it unfolded

Jared Kushner, a White House adviser and son-in-law of President Donald Trump, wrapped up his trip to the Middle East on Thursday, for which the top priority on the agenda was furthering peace talks between Israel and Palestine. The US described Kushner’s trip as “productive,” despite rumors of disquiet on the Palestinian side. Kushner was accompanied […]

What Gertrude Bell can teach us about the Middle East 100 years later

What Gertrude Bell can teach us about the Middle East 100 years later

By K. J. WETHERHOLT A recent and much-celebrated documentary, Letters from Baghdad, produced by Zeva Oelbaum and Sabine Krayenbühl, depicts an essential figure from World War I and its aftermath: an explorer, archaeologist, mountain climber, and an intelligence officer for the British who became a modern nation-builder in the Middle East. She was a woman whose influence would […]

Russian fake news may be behind the Middle East crisis involving a major US ally

Russian fake news may be behind the Middle East crisis involving a major US ally

Russian hackers are believed to have breached Qatar’s state news agency in order to plant a fabricated news story that may have influenced the diplomatic crisis in the Middle East, CNN reported on Tuesday. US authorities said Russia’s goal may have been to sow discord between the US and its allies in the region. Intelligence […]

Christians Being Erased from the Middle East, Land of its Birth

Christians Being Erased from the Middle East, Land of its Birth

In the Middle East, Christianity is dying. Radical Muslims from the ranks of the Islamic State [ISIS] are killing them en masse and are threatening their very existence in the land where Christianity was born. And the world continues to turn a deaf ear. In the United States, our Congress gives lip service to the […]

The U.N. can find balance in the Middle East

The U.N. can find balance in the Middle East

The United Nations Security Council last month passed Resolution 2334, which states that Israeli settlements have “no legal basis.” The resolution made the mistake of only looking at one side of the map. To complete the job, the U.N. should pass a resolution that condemns Palestinian maximalist claims with the same sharp legal language it […]