b. traven Interviewed on MSNBC’s All In, Bernie Sanders responded to Israel’s revocation of visas previously issued to Ilhan Omar and Rashida Tlaib. He suggested that if Israel does not want US Congresspeople to visit, then perhaps they can also do without the billions in aid the US sends them every year. Referring to Israel’s…
Richard Silverstein Events in the Gulf are unfolding so quickly and ominously that it’s impossible to keep up. They could easily spiral out of control. You might go to sleep at night to a region at peace and wake up the next morning to countries aflame. In the midst of this swirl of events, it’s…
Richard Silverstein You can forget that claim you hear from Trump, Netanyahu and MBS that Iran is the greatest sponsor of state terrorism in the world. That award goes to Saudi Arabia hands down. First, it spent and wasted billions building up ISIS and arming it in order to topple the Syrian Alawite regime. It…
Richard Silverstein 2018 was a terrible year for the Middle East. Months of massacres in Gaza, tensions between Israel and Hezbollah on its northern border, Qatar under siege from its Sunni neighbours, 85,000 children starved to death in Yemen, and a Sunni alliance rattling sabres against Iran. Though Bashar al-Assad appears to have secured his…
Richard Silverstein One of the many great tragedies of the Trump presidency is, just when you thought he couldn’t go any lower, he somehow figures out a way to do just that. Every day brings another insult to decency, democracy, the rule of law, and just plain sanity. But today marks a special new low.…
b. traven Well known, veteran Middle East journalist, Robert Fisk. tells how he really feels about our president. Of course it is “fake” news but if words like “Booby,” “Crank,” “Crackpot” and “Mad” ring a bell with you as possibly apt descriptions you can add, “a dangerous and racist xenophobe,” or ” …to enter Trump’s…
Richard Silverstein OK. So you have the Iranians getting nuclear plants, technology, and uranium enrichment expertise from the Russians. As a result, some fear the Iranians may be using these as components of a nuclear program to develop nuclear weapons. You have these same people warning that if Iran gets nuclear weapons that the Saudis…
In the final instalment of Richard Silverstein’s exploration of the massive changes going in the Middle East, he looks at just how effective Russia has been in filling the gap left by the United States. – Ed. Richard Silverstein The Russia factor It’s unclear how the Saudis believes he will force a much larger and…
In Part II of his analysis, Richard Silverstein explores the dangerous coalition of Israel under Netanyahu with Saudi Arabia under Crown Prince Salmon. Both seek to diminish Shiite Iran’s influence in the Middle East, and both are ready to bring financial and military pressure on Lebanon, Syria, and if need be, on Iraq, to assert…
Something unprecedented is going on in the Middle East. Not that war and chaos are anything new. But the seemingly new-found independence of some of the actors in the region, particularly Saudi Arabia, but to some extent Israel is a disturbing development. With the Trump administration effectively asleep at the international relations wheels, a coup…
The Contrary Perspective 