Tag: Middle East
The United States and Iran have signed a 14-point memorandum of understanding after over 100 days of bombing and war by the U.S. and Israel since February...
Those living today are destined to experience a rare Triffin’s Dilemma moment, when one dominant but fading empire transitions uneasily to a more robust one. The end of the Portuguese and Spanish empires can be understood as examples of such turning points, with the defeat of the Spanish Armada...
Treating a state as a god is a very frightening endeavor. It confers upon mortals a level of veneration that we do not deserve and will always abuse. Liebowitz called it “the essence of fascism.” It is especially frightening when that state operates along explicitly tribal lines.- Peter...
On May 28, Senator Chris Van Hollen (D-MD) endorsed a Palestinian state, with the West Bank and Gaza to be connected physically.
As an advocate for peace, I do not agree that Israel must be defeated for Palestinians to achieve liberation. That is a forever...
Gaza Flotilla Boats Get Their Resilience from Palestinians
Gaza flotilla boats have become like Palestinians. They—like Palestinians—have been attacked, beaten, partially destroyed, and thrown to the four winds by a brutal, violent Israeli government.
Some of the 2026 Gaza flotilla boats were purposefully damaged so severely by Israeli military forces that they...
Of the twentieth century’s most consequential political melodramas, the Ben Barka case ranks with the murder of John F. Kennedy.—Henrik Kruger, The Great Heroin Coup.
The investigative journalist Henrik Kruger wrote about the Ben Barka murder in 1980 when it was still unsolved. He said it contained “unexploded fireworks.”
Even after...
On March 22, Israeli Defense Minister Israel Katz ordered the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) to “accelerate the destruction of Lebanese homes” near the Israeli border based on the “model in Gaza” as part of its campaign against Hezbollah.
Since October 2023, the IDF has destroyed 250,000 homes in southern Lebanon,...
A massive military and intelligence failure, or something else?
On October 7, 2023, Hamas and other militant forces crossed from Gaza into southern Israel, attacking military sites, roads, kibbutzim, and the Nova music festival. Roughly 1,200 Israelis and foreign workers or visitors were killed during the attacks, and 251 were...
Recipient of the Serena Shim Award for uncompromised integrity in journalism, Vanessa Beeley gained an excellent reputation for first-hand reporting during the Syrian War (2011-2024) that challenged dominant media narratives.
In December 2024, Beeley was forced to flee Syria after the overthrow of Syrian leader Bashar al-Assad, who was replaced...
Reflections on the Carnage...and What Lebanon Used to Be
I am an American citizen, born in Beirut, Lebanon, the daughter of a diplomat/spy, which makes me immune from President Trump’s deportation efforts.
My father, Daniel Dennett, served as head of counter-intelligence for the Office of Strategic Services (OSS) and later the...
