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When Washington cheered the Jihadists

Official Washington helped unleash hell on Syria and across the Mideast behind the naïve belief that jihadist proxies could be used to transform the region for the better. by Daniel Lazare Part 3 - Deals with the Devil The U.S. would settle with the jihadis only after the jihadis had settled with Assad. The good would ultimately outweigh the bad. This kind of self-centered moral calculus would not have mattered had Gambill only spoken for himself. But he didn’t. Rather, he was expressing the viewpoint of Official Washington in general, which is why the ultra-respectable FP ran his piece in the first place. The Islamists were something America could employ to their advantage and then throw away like a squeezed lemon. A few Syrians would suffer, but America would win, and that’s all that counts. The parallels with the DIA are striking. “The west, gulf countries, and Turkey support the opposition,” the intelligence report declared, even though “the Salafist[s],

How Trump’s declaration inflames a Middle East already ablaze

Donald Trump’s recognition of Jerusalem as the capital of Israel is a turning point in the history of the Israel-Palestine conflict. However, the issue is much bigger than Palestine as Donald Trump may have just lit the match that will set off the powder keg of the Arab World. by Eric Draitser Part 5 - Out of turmoil, freedom? Trump has wittingly or unwittingly opened a political can of worms, one that cannot simply be closed again. The recognition of Jerusalem as Israel’s capital will undoubtedly have severe ramifications for the politics of the region. But what impact will it have on Palestinians themselves, on the future of a free Palestine? No one can say for certain how this conflict will play out; whether we’re going to see a third intifada or just some anger and indignation followed by deafening silence. Sadly, Palestinians have become all too accustomed to a world long on rhetoric but very short on action in their defense. The struggle

Πενήντα μουσουλμανικές χώρες ανακηρύσσουν την Ανατολική Ιερουσαλήμ πρωτεύουσα της Παλαιστίνης

Οι ηγέτες περισσότερων από 50 μουσουλμανικών χωρών που συμμετείχαν σε σύνοδο κορυφής στην Κωνσταντινούπολη κάλεσαν σήμερα τη διεθνή κοινότητα να αναγνωρίσει την Ανατολική Ιερουσαλήμ ως πρωτεύουσα ενός παλαιστινιακού κράτους, αντιδρώντας στην απόφαση των ΗΠΑ να αναγνωρίσουν την Ιερή Πόλη ως πρωτεύουσα του Ισραήλ. « Ανακηρύσσουμε την Ανατολική Ιερουσαλήμ πρωτεύουσα του κράτους της Παλαιστίνης και καλούμε τις άλλες χώρες να αναγνωρίσουν το κράτος της Παλαιστίνης και την Ανατολική Ιερουσαλήμ ως κατεχόμενη πρωτεύουσά του », ανέφεραν οι μουσουλμάνοι ηγέτες σε ανακοίνωση που εξέδωσαν μετά τη λήξη της συνόδου κορυφής του Οργανισμού Ισλαμικής Συνεργασίας που διεξήχθη στην Κωνσταντινούπολη. « Απορρίπτουμε και καταδικάζουμε σθεναρά την ανεύθυνη, παράνομη και μονομερή απόφαση του προέδρου των Ηνωμένων Πολιτειών να αναγνωρίσει την Ιερουσαλήμ ως δήθεν πρωτεύουσα του Ισραήλ. Θεωρούμε αυτή την απόφαση άκυρη και μη γενόμενη », προσθέτουν. Εκτιμούν επίσης πως η απόφαση του

When Washington cheered the Jihadists

Official Washington helped unleash hell on Syria and across the Mideast behind the naïve belief that jihadist proxies could be used to transform the region for the better. by Daniel Lazare Part 2 - Assessing the Damage Five years later, it’s worth a second look to see how Washington uses self-serving logic to reduce an entire nation to rubble. First a bit of background. After displacing France and Britain as the region’s prime imperial overlord during the 1956 Suez Crisis and then breaking with Egyptian President Gamal Abdel Nasser a few years later, the United States committed itself to the goal of defeating Arab nationalism and Soviet Communism, two sides of the same coin as far as Washington was concerned. Over the next half-century, this would mean steering Egypt to the right with assistance from the Saudis, isolating Libyan strongman Muammar Gaddafi, and doing what it could to undermine the Syrian Baathist regime as well. William Roebuck, the American

How Trump’s declaration inflames a Middle East already ablaze

Donald Trump’s recognition of Jerusalem as the capital of Israel is a turning point in the history of the Israel-Palestine conflict. However, the issue is much bigger than Palestine as Donald Trump may have just lit the match that will set off the powder keg of the Arab World. by Eric Draitser Part 4 - Beijing, Moscow, and competing interests in Palestine China and Russia have, each in its own way, begun asserting themselves in the Middle East. Naturally, Russia’s military intervention in the war in Syria has made Moscow a belligerent in the region, with all the baggage that comes with that role. In contrast, Beijing has begun asserting itself economically, which is fairly typical of the Chinese strategy for power projection. These differing approaches, each capitalizing on the strengths of the respective countries, further complicate the picture in Palestine. In response to the move by Trump, China’s foreign ministry spokesman reaffirmed that China “ support[s]