Fielding a question on the White House lawn, Donald Trump showed that he is always ready to believe a dictator … even when it requires saying something utterly ridiculous. Asked about the disappearance, and suspected murder, of journalist Jamal Khashoggi, Trump was ready to say who it wasn’t. Trump: The king firmly denies any knowledge of it. And, just like Vladimir Putin … Read More
The Apparent Murder of Khashoggi and the Chaos of The US-Saudi Relationship
Jamal Khashoggi, a well-known Saudi Arabian journalist and Washington Post columnist who has been critical of his country’s government, vanished last week. His disappearance is straining Turkey-Saudi relations and could complicate Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman’s recent attempts to recast his government as forward-thinking and reform-minded — as well as his country’s close relationship with the US. The 59-year-old … Read More
Trump Keeps Campaign Promise; Dozens Killed
… and the United States loses its status as an honest broker of Mideast Peace. That’s what happens when the US Embassy got moved to Jerusalem, a political move that is more symbolic (in its support for Israel) than practical: ZEITOUN, Gaza Strip — Israeli soldiers on Monday killed 41 Palestinians demonstrating along the border fence between Israel and the Gaza Strip … Read More
Trump Recognizes Jerusalem As Capital Of Israel
Trump’s speech in a nutshell: “Today we finally acknowledge the obvious: That Jerusalem is Israel’s capital,” Trump said. “This is nothing more or less than a recognition of reality. It is also the right thing to do. It’s something that has to be done.” This is the actual presidential proclamation on Jerusalem. PRESIDENT DONALD J. TRUMP’S PROCLAMATION ON JERUSALEM AS THE … Read More
Russian Plane Crash In Egypt
A Russian charter plane crashed over the weekend on the Sinai Peninsula in Egypt. All 224 aboard the Airbus jetliner were killed, with company executives ruling out technical or human error only to be upbraided by aviation officials who called such assertions premature. The Metrojet flight full of mostly Russian vacationers, bound for St. Petersburg from the Egyptian resort of … Read More
When Will We Ever Learn… Oh, When Will Weeeee Ever Learn?
I don’t write much about the Middle East because — Jesus, it’s a clusterfuck and it just gets worse and worse and it is depressing. It’s basically an unsolvable problem and everybody wants to kill each other. But I think I have figure out ONE truism. Intervention on the part of the United States makes things worse for us. I … Read More
Fair And Balanced: Fox News In The Mideast
As Israel bombs Gaza, the Palestinian death toll stands at 576. There have been 27 Israeli deaths as well. And how does Fox report it? Fox News actually just announced this re: Gaza: “So far, violence has killed over 600 people on both sides" — brendan james (@deep_beige) July 22, 2014
The Onion Sums Up The Situation in Syria Pretty Well
So, What’s It Going To Be? Aug 28, 2013 By Bashar Al-Assad Well, here we are. It’s been two years of fighting, over 100,000 people are dead, there are no signs of this war ending, and a week ago I used chemical weapons on my own people. If you don’t do anything about it, thousands of Syrians are going to … Read More
Shalom
President Obama has been taking a lot of hits on the right for not having visited Israel (despite the fact that he did visit Israel during the 2008 campaign). "Anti-semite!" they cried. And so on. Even Romney raised it during the 2012 presidential campaign. I was never sure what the fuss was about. Reagan never visited Israel. Bush Sr. didn't either. … Read More
GOP Gets Its Scapegoat
Susan Rice is now the latest victim of the baying hyenas in the modern Republican Party: U.N. Ambassador Susan Rice withdrew her name from the list of candidates for secretary of state Thursday afternoon, ending a weeks-long fight with Republicans over statements she made on television talk shows shortly after the attack that killed four Americans in Benghazi, Libya, on Sept. … Read More
Worse Than Watergate Even If We Don’t Know The Facts
Rep. Steve King (R-IA) has no idea what happened in Benghazi but he does know that it’s worse than Watergate and the Iran-Contra scandal times 10. Here’s King from a Washington Times article published on Wednesday: “I believe that it’s a lot bigger than Watergate, and if you link Watergate and Iran-Contra together and multiply it times maybe 10 or so, you’re going to … Read More
The Benghazi-gate Thing
It's not that I haven't been paying attention. I really have. But I still don't get what the hell Susan Rice did wrong. As UN Ambassador, she went on television to answer questions about Benghazi. Of course, being UN Ambassador, she wasn't exactly at the forefront of the intelligence gathering apparatus, so she relied on information told to her by the … Read More
Breaking: Israel-Hamas Agree To Cease Fire
Israel and Hamas have agreed to a cease-fire, the Egyptian foreign minister said Wednesday, ending eight days of fighting that killed more than 140 Palestinians and five Israelis. The cease-fire is set to start at 9 p.m. Cairo time (2 p.m. ET), Egyptian Foreign Minister Mohamed Kamel Amr announced in a news conference alongside visiting U.S. Secretary of State Hillary … Read More
Scandal Envy
I outsource to Paul Waldman at The American Prospect, because he nails it oh so rightly: If you're looking at the Republican harumphing over Benghazi and asking yourself, "Why are we supposed to be so mad about this again?" you're not alone. Let's review: There was an attack on our consulate that killed four Americans, including our ambassador. Amid confusing … Read More
Cartoon Nails It
Boy, if this Oliphant political cartoon doesn't accurately describe Romney's desparation over the past few days, nothing does: These past few days, Romney has been playing to the crowd that was so outraged by a mosque bgeing built at Ground Zero (by the way, I've been there — you can't see any mosque — it's blocks away). And he thinks this … Read More