In the USA there has been a lot of talk about how newly inaugurated President Biden will deal with his campaign promise to rejoin a diplomatic deal to keep Iran from having nuclear weapons. I decided to throw out a few thoughts about this and see what some of you who read my blog might … More Yemen – Thinking About a Different Part of the Middle East.
We’re very preoccupied with Corona virus. It seems the rest of the world is, too. Nobody hears much from India or Iran or Turkey. They’re busy with the virus. But there are other Arab countries around us that have different things on their minds. The United Arab Emirates are on their way to making a … More And Meanwhile, In the Arab World…
As always, the Middle East, where I live, is full of “interesting” news. The most important item, in my view, came a few days ago. The United Arab Emirates decided to make a normal peace treaty with Israel. The two sides are formalizing relations and looking into various mutually beneficial trade , commerce, and health … More Extortion Politics
A major obstacle to reaching an accommodation between Israel and the Palestinians has always been Jerusalem. The Palestinians have claimed that all or part of the city is theirs and that it is their capital. The fact that they actually run their services from Ramallah doesn’t affect that claim. Even the UN partition resolution of … More Deal of the Century – part 3
Every so often part of Israel, usually in the South, gets bombarded with some rockets fired by one Arab terrorist organization or another. In recent times, the Israeli Air Defense Command has been intercepting these rockets with the IRON DOME AA system. It is an amazing bit of technology. The control radar is able to … More I live in a Tough Neighborhood
UNIFIL (UNITED NATIONS INTERIM FORCE IN LEBANON) just had it’s annual mandate renewed on August 29th. The organization currently comprises some 10,500 personnel from over 40 countries. Participation ranges from over 1300 Indonesians to single individuals from several different countries. What they have in common is an assignment to try to keep the Lebanon-Israel border … More UNIFIL is still with us
Wetherhorn 