Latest Analysis and Commentary
by Khaled Abu Toameh • January 14, 2025 at 5:00 am
""Among the Islamist terrorist organizations that Qatar and Al-Jazeera have supported over the years are the Muslim Brotherhood, Al-Qaeda, the Taliban, Hizbullah, the Al-Nusrah Front/ Hay'at Tahrir Al-Sham, ISIS, Hamas, and even the Shiite Iranian proxies in Yemen, Ansar Allah (the Houthis)..." — MEMRI, May 6, 2024.
"The Al-Jazeera TV network is an arm of the Qatari regime. It is owned by the government and carries out its foreign policy by means of indoctrination of the Arabic-speaking masses worldwide. Al-Jazeera, therefore, should not be discussed as a means of telecommunications, but instead as an unyielding and forceful political tool of Qatari foreign policy under the guise of a mass media network." — MEMRI, May 6, 2024.
"Al-Jazeera was the prime power for toppling the secular authoritarian regime in Egypt, when Qatar, by means of Al-Jazeera, supported the Muslim Brotherhood in ousting then Egyptian president Hosni Mubarak. Al-Jazeera, the single most significant platform for mainstreaming jihadi and Muslim Brotherhood ideology, was the power that accorded [Muslim Brotherhood member] Mohamed Morsi his victory [in Egypt's 2012 presidential election]." — MEMRI, May 6, 2024.
Al-Jazeera's role in providing a platform for promoting extremist Islamist ideologies goes back decades: "The case of promoting Al-Qaeda is of particular interest.... Al-Jazeera's official role in the current Israel-Hamas war is nowhere more evident that its exclusive broadcast of Hamas military commander Mohammed Deif... at the very time that Hamas terrorists were carrying out their mega-terror attack in Israel... Deif declared the launch of 'Operation Al-Aqsa Flood' and incited all Palestinians to join the war, using all means in their possession – guns, knives, Molotov cocktails, and vehicles." — MEMRI, May 6, 2024.
They [Israelis and Palestinians] have both come to the conclusion that Al-Jazeera's goal is to promote radical Islam and terrorism. It now remains to be seen whether the US and other countries will follow suit and stop the Qatari-owned TV station from supporting terrorism, poisoning the hearts and minds of millions worldwide, and ravaging global security.
They Israelis and Palestinians have both come to the conclusion that Al-Jazeera's goal is to promote radical Islam and terrorism. It now remains to be seen whether the US and other countries will follow suit and stop the Qatari-owned TV station from supporting terrorism, poisoning the hearts and minds of millions worldwide, and ravaging global security.Pictured: The headquarters of Al Jazeera in Doha, Qatar. (Photo by Karim Jaafar/AFP via Getty Images)
The Palestinians have finally discovered that Qatar's Al-Jazeera television network -- which has long been serving as a mouthpiece for the Muslim Brotherhood, Hamas, and virtually all other Islamic terrorist groups -- is "broadcasting inciteful content, spreading misinformation, and interfering in internal Palestinian affairs, which [the Palestinian Authority Ministerial Committee] claimed stirred division and instability." On January 1, the Palestinian Authority (PA) announced the suspension of Al-Jazeera's broadcast operations in the West Bank, ordering the temporary suspension of work by all journalists, staff and associated channels affiliated with Al-Jazeera, adding: "The decision will remain in effect until the network resolves its legal status, which was deemed in violation of applicable laws and regulations in Palestine.
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by Nils A. Haug • January 13, 2025 at 5:00 am
To their enemies, the Jews cannot do anything right. They are hated when they are strong; they are hated when they are weak. They are hated when they are poor; they are hated when they are rich. They are hated when they win; they are hated when they lose.
How this unfounded, blatantly anti-Semitic blaming of innocent Jews arose is difficult to fathom -- particularly as the traditional custodians and purveyors of Judeo-Christian moral-ethical precepts are, in fact, the Jews. It is their principles -- the Judeo-Christian values -- that underpin Western Civilization...
Even after the unspeakable events in Israel of October 7, 2023, with the slaughter of more than 1,200 innocents, many onlookers held Israel and the Jews -- not Hamas and Iran -- primarily responsible for the horror.
Frequently, the small population of Jews are held responsible for geopolitical and other events far beyond their control. Last month, Russia's President Vladimir Putin accused "ethnic Jews" of "tearing apart Russian Orthodox Church." How this unfounded, blatantly anti-Semitic blaming of innocent Jews arose is difficult to fathom -- particularly as the traditional custodians and purveyors of Judeo-Christian moral-ethical precepts are, in fact, the Jews. Pictured: Putin speaks to the media at Igora ski resort in the Leningrad region on December 26, 2024. (Photo by Alexei Danichev/Pool/AFP via Getty Images)
Frequently, the small population of Jews are held responsible for geopolitical and other events far beyond their control. This month, two American "far-left" anti-Israel groups -- Code Pink and Jewish Voice for Peace (JVP), among others -- actually blamed Israel for the ongoing California wildfires. "When US taxes go to burning people alive in Gaza, we can't be surprised when those fires come home," Code Pink posted on Instagram. It was, in fact, Palestinians from Gaza who burned Israelis alive -- including infants -- that started the current conflict. If you do not want your people killed, do not start a war. Code Pink apparently receives a major portion of its funding from an American couple, Sri-Lankan-born Neville Roy Singham and his wife Jodie Evans, based in Shanghai. "'Jewish Voice for Peace' is Neither," and appears to be a "false-flag" operation:
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by Alan M. Dershowitz • January 12, 2025 at 5:00 am
Israel agreed to Palestinian statehood in 1937-1938, 1947-1948, 1967, 2000-2001, and 2007. In each case, it was the Palestinian leadership that refused to agree to the two-state solution....
The Jews accepted the [1937] Peel partition plan, while the Arabs categorically rejected it, demanding that all of Palestine be placed under Arab control and that most of the Jewish population of Palestine be "transferred" — ethnically cleansed — out of the country...
The Jewish leadership [in 1948] declared statehood in the area allocated to it by the UN. The Arab leadership responded by declaring a genocidal war against the new state of the Jewish people. They did not want a Palestinian state. And they wanted there to be no Jewish state.
No one, therefore, should believe that it was Israel that has made the Palestinian people stateless. It was the Palestinians themselves... The current anti-Israel protesters in the West are not calling for a Palestinian state living in peace alongside Israel. They, like the failed Palestinian leadership, just wants to end Israel's existence. It is not going to happen. Until the Palestinians recognize this reality, they will be denying themselves any possibility of statehood.
In 1937, the Jews accepted the partition plan of the Peel Commission, while the Arabs categorically rejected it, demanding that all of Palestine be placed under Arab control and that most of the Jewish population of Palestine be "transferred" — ethnically cleansed — out of the country. Pictured: Lord William Peel (right) and Sir Horace Rumbold (left) leave the British War Cemetery on Mount Scopus in Jerusalem in 1936, as part of their work on the Peel Commission. (Image source: Library of Congress)
One of the most pervasive myths of the Palestinian protest movement is that Israel has denied statehood to the Palestinian people. To the contrary, Israel agreed to Palestinian statehood in 1937-1938, 1947-1948, 1967, 2000-2001, and 2007. In each case, it was the Palestinian leadership that refused to agree to the two-state solution that would have created a Palestinian state, alongside a state for Jewish inhabitants. In 1937 – in the midst of the terrorist revolt inspired by Adolf Hitler's ally, Hajj Amin al-Husseini, the Grand Mufti of Jerusalem – the British published the Palestine Royal Commission Report (also known as the Peel Commission Report).
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by Amir Taheri • January 12, 2025 at 4:00 am
Henry Kissinger took a walk up the garden path with his naïve understanding of détente that implied equivalence between the Soviet Union and the "Free World" led by the United States, and arguably helped prolong the life of the Evil Empire.
[T]he question that Obama and Kerry didn't tackle was why the mullahs might want to build a bomb and that, if they did, what they might do with it.
Here is what ["Supreme Guide" Ali Khamenei] says: "The assumption that the country's problems can be solved through talks or even relations with America, is a manifest error. America has fundamental problems with the very nature of our regime.... In other words, they want us to become an ordinary country, something that a system created by Imam Khomeini can never be!"
Accept Iran on its own terms, warts and all, and do not fall for the fetishistic diplomatic claptrap peddled by Obama, Malley and Kerry.
(Image source: iStock)
As they prepare to leave office, some members of the Biden administration are penning op-eds and making speeches to advise the incoming Trump team on a range of issues. The gist of their message is simple: Do what we tried to do but failed! One such issue is the perennial headache that Iran has caused eight US presidents over almost half a century. One outgoing official, Richard Nephew, who headed the Iran desk in the National Security Council, calls for "dialogue and negotiations" with the enthusiasm of a street urchin looking at a candy store's window. His enthusiasm has found an echo among the new presidential team in Tehran. Muhammad Reza Aref, who has self-upgraded to "Vice President" for President Masoud Pezeshkian, writes: "We are keen on dialogue and negotiations," and adds that diplomacy provides the key to all problems (He is an assistant to president as there is no vice-presidential post in the Khomeinist system.)
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by Majid Rafizadeh • January 11, 2025 at 5:00 am
Lest anyone think that this is a genuine attempt at diplomacy, it is not. Rather, it is a maneuver aimed at deceptively buying time, avoiding sanctions and deflecting impending actions of the Trump administration.
Iran's regime is playing a game of manipulation, apparently hoping to mislead the world and stave off serious consequences -- namely losing their nuclear weapons program -- which, mind-bogglingly, it denies even having, as well as, more importantly, losing their jobs.... It is a tactic known by every four-year old and absolutely should not be taken at face value.
Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, who backed HTS, apparently now sees a neo-Ottoman Turkey finally replacing Iran as the aspiring hegemon in the region, with himself as sultan.
The regime's goal is clear: buy time, reach a sweetheart deal similar to the one it was handed by the Obama administration, secure sanctions relief and opportunities to complete its nuclear weapons.
Unless Iran is stopped, it will continue covertly to advance its nuclear weapons program – regardless, of course, of any agreements made.
Will the incoming Trump administration let themselves be gamed and permit Iran to be capable of threatening the region again as soon as Trump's term is up? Iran's request for negotiations sadly seems part of a larger strategy to enable it to resume its reign of terror. The Trump administration must not allow it to succeed.... Make Persia Safe Again! -- for the Iranian people and for enduring global peace.
The Iranian regime's goal is clear: buy time, reach a sweetheart deal similar to the one it was handed by the Obama administration, secure sanctions relief and opportunities to complete its nuclear weapons. Pictured: Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian and commander of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps' Aerospace Force Amir Ali Hajizadeh look on as a Jihad missile is displayed at a parade in Tehran on September 21, 2024. (Photo by Atta Kenare/AFP via Getty Images)
The Iranian regime has made a sudden and calculated move to engage in talks about nuclear weapons. The UK, France, and Germany have announced that negotiations will begin on January 13. Lest anyone think that this is a genuine attempt at diplomacy, it is not. Rather, it is a maneuver aimed at deceptively buying time, avoiding sanctions and deflecting impending actions of the Trump administration. Iran's regime is playing a game of manipulation, apparently hoping to mislead the world and stave off serious consequences -- namely losing their nuclear weapons program -- which, mind-bogglingly, it denies even having, as well as, more importantly, losing their jobs. Their move is not an expression of good will or "putting out feelers" -- it is anything but. It is a tactic known by every four-year old and absolutely should not be taken at face value.
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by Drieu Godefridi • January 10, 2025 at 5:00 am
What is important is the solidarity being forged between the major US social media platforms and the incoming US administration in support of real freedom of expression.
The new US administration will not tolerate levying fines of tens of billions of dollars on major US technology companies by an EU that is drifting towards authoritarianism and is at the same time more dependent than ever on American power.
It would be in Europe's lasting interest to prepare for the return of free and unfettered expression.
The European Union's Digital Services Act (DSA) obliges US social media platforms to take a whole arsenal of preventive and repressive measures, basically to prevent the sharing of information that displeases the European Commission. The new US administration will not tolerate levying fines of tens of billions of dollars on major US technology companies by a European Union that is drifting towards authoritarianism and is at the same time more dependent than ever on American power. (Image source: iStock/Getty Images)
Anyone wishing to gauge the extent of the European Union's regulatory drift will need to read Articles 34 and 35 of the Digital Services Act (DSA). Given their length it is impossible to quote them in full here, so here is an extract: DSA Article 34, "Risk assessment":
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by Lawrence Kadish • January 9, 2025 at 4:00 pm
Unfortunately, what President Joe Biden has done in the final days of his single term is to turn a most prestigious national award into a gratuitous partisan medal of loyalty. Pictured: Hillary Clinton receives the Medal of Freedom from Biden at the White House, on January 4, 2025. (Photo by Chris Kleponi/AFP via Getty Images)
A recent decision by the outgoing 46th President of the United States to award the Presidential Medal of Freedom, the nation's highest civilian honor, to 19 Americans for what the White House describes as "good people who have made extraordinary contributions to their country and the world". Unfortunately, what President Joe Biden has done in the final days of his single term is to turn a most prestigious national award into a gratuitous partisan medal of loyalty. Consider: Biden presented the award to George Soros, a longtime Democratic Party donor and sponsor of district attorneys who appear to aid and abet criminal behavior by refusing to prosecute it rather than protecting law-abiding citizens. Soros also wrote, "The main obstacle to a stable and just world order is the United States." (The Age of Fallibility: Consequences of the War on Terror, 2006, p.16)
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by Bassam Tawil • January 9, 2025 at 5:00 am
"[M]edia freedoms" have never existed under the Palestinian Authority in the West Bank and Hamas in the Gaza Strip. For many years, the two parties have been imposing restrictions on Palestinian journalists, including a ban on criticizing PA and Hamas leaders. Palestinian journalists and activists who dared to speak out against the PA or Hamas found themselves incarcerated, and sometimes dead.
The silence of the international community and the so-called "pro-Palestinian" activists on the university campuses in the US and across the West has only encouraged the PA to dismiss launching an investigation into the killing of al-Sabbagh.
By turning a blind eye to violations committed by Palestinians against their own people, the international community, which appears to be solely obsessed with Israel, is displaying its hypocrisy, double standards and bigotry. Instead of helping the Palestinians, it is doing them a great, massive, gigantic disservice.
The family of a Palestinian female journalist has accused the Palestinian Authority (PA) security forces of killing their daughter in Jenin Refugee Camp. "Media freedoms" have never existed under the Palestinian Authority in the West Bank and Hamas in the Gaza Strip. For many years, the two parties have imposed restrictions on Palestinian journalists, including a ban on criticizing PA and Hamas leaders. Pictured: Palestinian Authority security forces in Jenin Refugee Camp on December 17, 2024. (Photo by Jaafar Ashtiyeh/AFP via Getty Images)
The family of a Palestinian female journalist has accused the Palestinian Authority (PA) security forces of killing their daughter in Jenin Refugee Camp in the northern West Bank. Shatha al-Sabbagh, 22, was reportedly shot in the head by a PA sniper on December 29, 2024, as she walked out of her home. PA officials have denied the allegation and claimed that al-Sabbagh was killed by gunmen in the camp. Anwar Rajab, spokesperson for the PA security forces, condemned the killing as a "despicable crime" and claimed that PA security forces were not present in the area. Rajab accused "outlaws" in the camp of shooting the journalist and vowed to pursue the "murderers."
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by Lawrence Kadish • January 9, 2025 at 4:00 am
Pictured: President-elect Donald J. Trump speaks at a press conference in the Mar-a-Lago Club on January 7, 2025 in Palm Beach, Florida. (Photo by Scott Olson/Getty Images)
Why is it that people are always calling for someone to think "outside the box," then when someone does, say, "Aaaak! He thought outside the box!" In that view, President-elect Donald J. Trump has already committed (at least) three heresies: Buy Greenland, stop China from controlling the Panama Canal and deepen America's affiliation with Canada. All three ideas are neither crazy nor even new. President Harry S. Truman looked at acquiring Greenland in 1946. Thomas Jefferson, after the Louisiana Purchase, proposed buying Cuba – just think how the Cubans would be prospering now, politically and economically, if that deal had gone through. Those acquisitions didn't take place but in 1917, the US did acquire Denmark's Virgin Islands for $25 million. As historian Stephen Press writes,
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by Lawrence Kadish • January 8, 2025 at 5:00 am
President-elect Donald J. Trump has warned that unless the hostages being held by Hamas are released by January 20, the day of his inauguration, "all hell will break out." Why is Trump's statement, "there will be all hell to pay," not, by itself, the negotiation? Why is the US degrading its prestige by even trying to negotiate with terrorists? Pictured: Trump speaks, against a backdrop of pictures victims of the October 7, 2023 Hamas attack on Israel, in Doral, Florida on October 7, 2024. (Photo by Joe Raedle/Getty Images)
President-elect Donald J. Trump has warned that unless the hostages being held by Hamas are released by January 20, the day of his inauguration, "all hell will break out." Trump's Middle East envoy, Steve Witkoff, is already in Doha, Qatar, negotiating. Not very astonishingly, the negotiations keep breaking down.... The question arises: why is Witkoff in Qatar negotiating? Negotiating for what? How many dead hostages for how many live Palestinian terrorists now in Israeli prisons?
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by Alan M. Dershowitz • January 7, 2025 at 5:00 am
Pope Francis has joined the chorus of blood libelers who have accused Israel of genocide, writing: "According to some experts, what is happening in Gaza has the characteristics of a genocide." This indictment is totally false as a matter of fact, law and morality. The Vatican knows what genocide is. It perfected this crime against humanity during the Crusades, the Inquisition and the priest-inspired pogroms that led to the Holocaust.
The reality is that Israel has killed far fewer civilians in relation to combatants than any nation in history while fighting comparable urban wars, especially where Hamas combatants hide among civilians, precisely in order to induce Israel to kill as many civilians as possible.
By accepting Palestinianism and supporting the Hamas narrative, he is siding with the enemies of Christianity, the enemies of Judaism and the enemies of decency. I will not curse Pope Francis; the bible has already done so: "Now the LORD had said unto Abram.... And I will make of thee a great nation.... And I will bless them that bless thee and curse him that curseth thee."
In an act that flies in the face of the Christian Bible, the Vatican recently featured a nativity scene which laid the baby Jesus on a keffiyeh, thus accepting the false Palestinian narrative that Jesus was a Palestinian and not a Jew. Pictured: Pope Francis looks at the "Nativity of Bethlehem 2024" at St Peter's Square in the Vatican on December 7, 2024. (Photo by Andreas Solaro/AFP via Getty Images)
Since the end of World War II, the Vatican has tried hard to make up for its centuries of attacks on the Jewish people, including the Crusades, the Inquisition, priest-incited pogroms, and theological claims that the Jews killed Jesus. The Vatican's complicity in genocide during World War II took the form of Pope Pius XII's refusal to create a "crisis of conscience" among German Catholics by forbidding them from participating in the mass murder of Jews. Since the death of Pope Pius XII, the Vatican has tried hard to make up for its sordid history. Pope Paul VI led the way by repudiating the allegation of collective Jewish guilt for deicide, with Pope John Paul II speaking of the Jewish faith as the ancestor of the Christian religion. In 1993, the Vatican, after too many years of silence, finally recognized the State of Israel, and over time, the relationships between the Vatican and the nation-state of the Jewish people improved.
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by Robert Spencer • January 6, 2025 at 5:00 am
Trump is once again being true to his America-First convictions.
[Trump's] question to Trudeau was pointed, and remains unanswered: "So your country can't survive unless it's ripping off the U.S. to the tune of $100 billion?"
Trump explained that the Panama Canal "was given to Panama and to the people of Panama, but it has provisions, you gotta treat us fairly and they haven't treated us fairly."
There's the bottom line: if the United States doesn't control the Panama Canal and Greenland, China or Russia likely will, and the consequences could be severe both for the American economy and for national security.
President-elect Donald Trump recently said that the Panama Canal should once again come under American control, and that the US should buy Greenland from Denmark. If the United States doesn't control the Panama Canal and Greenland, China or Russia likely will, and the consequences could be severe both for the American economy and for national security. Pictured: An aerial view of ships passing the Pedro Miguel locks in the Panama Canal, in May 2023. (Photo by iStock/Getty Images)
First, President-elect Donald Trump tweaked Canada's far-left Prime Minister Justin Trudeau about becoming governor of the 51st state of the United States of America. Then he said that the Panama Canal should once again come under American control. Make that the 52nd state. And now, are you ready for a 53rd state? Last month, Trump renewed a call he made during his first term: that the United States should buy Greenland from Denmark. Could the man possibly be serious? Maybe not. The left's propaganda arm, also known as the mainstream media, loves to portray Trump and his supporters as angry, bitter, ignorant people lashing out against the people who know better what's good for them. Trump has never gotten credit for his sense of humor, despite the fact that he is easily the funniest man to occupy the White House since Ronald Reagan, and may even surpass the Gipper.
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by Lawrence Kadish • January 5, 2025 at 7:00 am
(Image source: iStock/Getty Images)
The New Year has become a traditional time to reflect on the year past and ponder the year to come. Invariably, the forecasters focus on the next 12 short months while failing to appreciate the sweep of history that has brought us to this next chapter of American history. The pessimistic "Bears" among us will warn that there are systematic threats to our economy, our nation, and the stability of the world. The optimistic "Bulls" will tout the enormous advances in technology, Wall Street confidence, and a resilient American economy that continues to set the pace for the rest of the planet. In truth, they are both right, and the reality of America at the start of 2025 is far more nuanced than any one side would have you believe.
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by Robert Williams • January 5, 2025 at 5:00 am
"He [Christmas market attacker Taleb al-Abdulmohsen] himself claimed to be a Wahhabi. He had open contacts with Hamas people, as well as with supporters of IS. He threatened ex-Muslim and secular associations, as well as women who had fled from Saudi Arabia and renounced Islam. The association and the women legally defended themselves against him. He attacked the Central Council of Ex-Muslims as well as me as a member. All the major critics of Islam blocked Taleb because everyone received confused messages and threats. He never directly criticized Islam or its associations. While we protested in front of mosques, he fought us. He also repeatedly defended Saudi Arabia." — Ali Utlu, German ex-Muslim, X, December 21, 2024.
The German government, it appears, is covering up an Islamist terror attack at a Christmas market as "Islamophobic." Perhaps the ruling coalition of Social Democrat and Green parties is seeking new votes in next month's elections; perhaps it is seeking to pretend away its own massive failure at stopping a terrorist about whom the authorities were warned so many times.
Evidently, the German government does not consider disinformation a problem, so long as it is the German government that is doing it.
The German government, it appears, is covering up Saudi Arabian Taleb al-Abdulmohsen's Islamist terror attack at a crowded Magdeburg Christmas market as "Islamophobic." Abdulmohsen drove 200 meters into the market on December 20, murdering a nine-year-old boy and four women, while wounding more than 200 people, 40 critically.. Pictured: Ambulance crews evacuate people who were wounded in the attack. (Photo by Craig Stennett/Getty Images)
The German city of Magdeburg was written into the sad history of terrorist attacks by Muslim migrants, when Saudi Arabian terrorist Taleb al-Abdulmohsen drove 200 meters into a crowded Christmas market on December 20, murdering a nine-year-old boy and four women, while wounding more than 200 people, 40 critically.
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by Amir Taheri • January 5, 2025 at 4:00 am
[P]olicy wonks have decided that in a region that hasn't known good news for decades if not centuries, one should be content with news that is "less bad". Thus, the fall of the Butcher of Damascus is news that is less bad rather than good because, despite Ahmad al-Sharaa's trimmed beard, silk necktie and Colgate smile, no one knows where the new rulers might be heading.
[T]he current rush to brainstorm on the future of the Middle East ignores the geopolitical aspect of this complex situation.
That in turn is symbolized by the elephant in the room: Iran. This elephant has a genetic tendency to going rogue.
Anyone familiar with Iran's history under the theomaniacal system created by Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini would know that the regime has faced a dire choice from the start: become like the rest of the Middle East, or make a whole Middle East like itself.
The current rush to brainstorm on the future of the Middle East ignores the geopolitical aspect of this complex situation. That in turn is symbolized by the elephant in the room: Iran. Pictured: Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei stands with a rifle as he leads Friday prayers at the Imam Khomeini Musalla Mosque on October 4, 2024, in Tehran. (Photo by Iranian Supreme Leader's Press Office via Getty Images)
As the new year begins, think tanks and policy circles start buzzing with ideas about "the future" of Lebanon, Syria, Palestine, Yemen, in short, the Middle East. Some futurologists prefer to talk of a "new Middle East" made possible by the "liberation" of Syria, the near annihilation of Hamas and the serious downgrading of Hezbollah and the Houthis. All this is happening in a feel-good context as policy wonks have decided that in a region that hasn't known good news for decades if not centuries, one should be content with news that is "less bad". Thus, the fall of the Butcher of Damascus is news that is less bad rather than good because, despite Ahmad al-Sharaa's trimmed beard, silk necktie and Colgate smile, no one knows where the new rulers might be heading. One has to agree that "less bad" is better than no good.
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