Friday, September 22, 2023

Worthy Talk…

Let the Bells Toll

Lebanon is at a crossroads, again. Some cynics say that there are no roads left, and lesser crosses than in the past, to even mention crossroads. Such wordplay is not mere humor but a reality in a country where sectarian divisions have reached new heights and calls for division or secess...

Rumors of peace ….are just that

The Biden administration is floating a rumor regarding an imminent Saudi Israeli peace deal and that for several reasons, none of them being persuasive or remotely convincing. Some US sources claim that Netanyahu finds himself in a bin with the ongoing judicial reforms and is desperately...

Vichy and Lebanon, faces of the same coi...

When France surrendered to Germany in the early period of WWII, the most decorated officer of the French army Phillipe Petain, made a conscientious (though treacherous) decision to execute the Armistice Accords with the Nazis on June 22, 1940. His, was logic that France needed to prevent...

America’s Dilemma in the Middle East

“To stay, or not to stay”, that is the question. That could be a passage from Hamlet, paraphrased by U.S. strategists when reviewing their next moves on the Middle East chessboard. When the U.S. inherited the colonial crown of the British Empire, especially after WW II, it did not bargai...

A cry for Rome, before the Fall …. 

America is not losing to its foreign enemies, rather it is falling victim to its self-inflicted, domestic wounds. Ever since Barrack Obama’s presidency came to the fore, we have witnessed a rhetoric in America scarcely seen before. A loathing for what America stands for, on all counts...

Kung Fu Panda vs. John Wayne

The brokered truce between Iran and Saudi Arabia is an astounding diplomatic victory for China. Conversely, it is a gigantic diplomatic failure on the part of the Biden administration and for the US’ strategic interests as far as the Middle East is concerned. The regional protagonists...

Biden’s Expedient Realignment with the G...

Dana Stroul, US Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense for the Middle East recently attended a series of meetings in the GCC to discuss regional threats. Stroul leads the development of U.S. Department of Defense Policy and Strategy for Bahrain, Egypt, Israel, Iran, Iraq, Jordan, Kuw...

Hezbollah’s Pyrrhic Victory

What Bashir Gemayel could not deliver, namely a peace treaty with Israel in 1982, and what Rafik Hariri could not offer, namely joining a bandwagon of Arab States willing to swap land for peace with Israel in the mid-1990s, Hezbollah did! Hezbollah, the narco-terrorist arm of Iran tha...

Davos without Panache

Davos’ organizers this year must feel a whiff of geopolitical pressure floating in the air. 2023 is starting with a certain je ne sais quoi of uneasiness for the debate on global trade and cross-border deals. Although many attendees, with impressive pedigrees, will show up in t...

Federalize or Agonize !

From 1624 to 1642, under the influence of Richelieu, the Kingdom of France tried to centralize power in the hands of Louis XIII by “Breaking the Powerful”. The French termed the matter as ‘Cassez les Grands’ meaning to crush the Nobles who were choking the royal power and freely conspiri...

NEWS JIGSAW !