Category: Middle East
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Will the 20 point plan lead to more….
Having read Yair Lapid’s argument for change in Israel there is one lesson and that is not to take anything coming out of the mouth of Netanyahu as having any value when in negotiation. In announcing Trump’s proposal for his 20 point peace plan, there is a realisation that Netanyahu had decided to destroy the…
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The miracle of Lebanon
The miracle of Lebanon is that it did not de-generate into the mess of the 1970s and 1980s. The Lebanese security forces have managed a crisis through extraordinary diplomacy even though it has been starved of funding by a political class that has been driven by infighting. Parliament has managed to elect a new government,…
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At first it was denials, then admittance – the excuses…. Is the Tony Blair foundation above criticism
The Neenah Cherry song 7 seconds, is about starvation, war, pestilence and disease. Bob Geldoff got onto the phone to his mates and pushed to save the millions dying in Ethiopia, but the originator of the war in the Middle East – Tony Blair took advice and argued that $9,000 would cut the population of…
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Christmas News Letter
Welcome to the final newsletter of 2024 from WorldThoughts.UK This year has been extraordinary, from a continuation of the war in Ukraine to the war in Gaza and finally the collapse of the Assad regime in Syria. The argument that has been at the forefront of most conversations has been who will be the next…
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Its all in the air now the US election is over
It is all in the air with the US elective electing Trump to the presidency. Countries in Europe, China and right across the Middle East are wondering what his presidency will bring. For Europe it is about trade, for China it is about tariffs and for the Middle East it is about stability, all arguments…
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There are options
The Arab people are seething about the conflicts in Lebanon and Gaza, they want more than their autocratic governments are willing to give. But there is also a realisation that the peace treaties that were set are keeping. The idea that Jordan, Egypt, Syria or the Gulf states would willingly join the war that Iran…
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Voices in the Middle East
There is an argument that if you shout loud enough you will be heard. But in Israel there is also an argument that if you don’t give a damn, those voices will not be heard. The press in Israel is very slanted and the voices that are heard are those that shout loudly for the extermination…
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Critical time for the world, is America up to it…?
It was sad to see Biden stumble about on stage and lose his train of thought. Neither candidate seemed that well-informed and if the free world rests on the inconsistencies of Trump or the frailty of Biden, the world is in trouble. There was an element of sadness that the frailties of Biden were on display,…
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Middle East in conflict
In an article by editor in chief of Haaretz, Aluf Benn, tells the story of Roi Rotberg, a man patrolling the fields of kibbutz Nahal. He had been taken by Palestinians and was horribly tortured, his eyes were poked out and the body was found on the Gaza side of the border. He told this…
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Is US intelligence being undone by the isolationists in US Congress.
The rise of intelligence agencies activities is not much of a surprise, but the movement into the realm of technology is a spate that worries those who remember Edward Snowdon and Julian Assange’s warnings of mission creep. That William Burns, the head of the Central Intelligence Agency is writing in this weeks Foreign Affairs, tells…
Current Affairs 