Analysis & Commentary - Emanuele Ottolenghi
The Muslim Brotherhood Owns Egypt
When the Arab Spring bug caught on in Egypt, in late January 2011, commentators rushed to explain that the Tahrir Square crowd was hip and Western, secular and “facebooked.” more...
One More Lesson From Shamir
Jonathan did a great service to our readers in his eulogy of Yitzhak Shamir. I would like to add one more lesson we, in the West, should take from this great man’s lifelong political career. more...
The Syrian Conundrum
As the Syrian uprising enters its 17thmonth and the casualty toll mounts dramatically,Western inability to address the crisis, beyond strong rhetoric and sanctions, risks further harming Western interests in the region. more...
Yes We Still Can
In 1999, as America prepared to enter the new century, French leaders decried its rising status as a "hyperpower". A hyperpower, explained then French foreign minister Hubert Védrine, is one that is so dominant in all spheres, that there is no counterbalance. more...
Iran Talks Resemble Mood Swings of a Manic Depressive
In recent weeks, public discussion about ongoing negotiations between Iran and the P5+1 — the five permanent members of the UN Security Council plus Germany — has experienced the same mood swings of a manic depressive. more...
The West Plays the Cuckold and Ignores Evidence of Iran’s Infidelity
AS negotiations over Iran's nuclear program are about to resume in Moscow next Monday, Western leaders insist that Iran's Supreme Leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, has yet to make a decision about whether to build nuclear weapons... more...
In Nuclear Talks, Iran Plays the Victim Card
With the third round of nuclear talks approaching, Iranian senior figures are taking turns to the airwaves to present a well-rehearsed, grievance-filled version of the issues at stake in their current nuclear standoff with the international community. more...
OPEC Battle Ahead for Iran
When OPEC meets later this month for its ministers’ summit, price-hawk Iran will confront a new reality – for the first time since the beginning of international sanctions against the regime in Tehran, oil prices are in free fall. more...
The Real ‘Spring’ is Not Arab
Buried beneath the news’ cycle of the Arab Spring is a much overlooked and potentially revolutionary fact – the real “spring” under way across the lands of the Arabian Peninsula, the Levant and North Africa is not Arab. more...
“The Sword On Our Neck”
Remember when Meir Dagan, upon leaving office as head of Israel’s Mossad spy agency, gave a briefing to the press, where he warned against hasty military decisions and said that “Israel should not hasten to attack Iran, doing so only when the sword is upon its neck”? more...
European Profligacy
In his 1992 book The Culture of Contentment John Kenneth Galbraith said the cyclical failure of political systems to recognise and adapt to paradigm shifts was caused by the comfort of their beneficiaries. more...
Sorry Baroness Ashton, Iran Won’t Concede in Baghdad
When, over a year ago, tensions began to publicly surface between Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad and Iran’s Supreme Leader, Ali Khamenei, the Western press concluded that Ahmadinejad was the more moderate element. more...
Alleged Iranian Spy Was Scapegoated
Last week, Iranian blogger Potkin Azarmehr questioned the authenticity of reports that Iran had executed Majid Jamali Fashi, the 24-year-old Iranian accused of carrying out the assassination of Iranian nuclear scientist Massoud-Ali Mohammadi. more...
Iran Decided Long Ago on Nuclear Weapons
Michael Rubin has referenced important statements, recent and past, made by senior Iranian officials on Iran’s nuclear program and its ambitions. To this important list, I would add the following. more...
Clumsy Assassins
When, last October, U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder announced that the FBI and DEA had thwarted a plot to assassinate the Saudi Ambassador to the United States by planting a bomb in a Washington, DC restaurant... more...
Of Masterstrokes and Apoplectic Strokes
Netanyahu has strengthened his hand significantly but not for the reasons spouted by the left more...
Nukes and a Fatwa
In the same week that Iranian nuclear negotiators in Istanbul mentioned an alleged fatwa issued by Ayatollah Ali Khamenei banning nuclear weapons to offer reassurances about Iran’s peaceful nuclear intentions. more...
Beinart’s Argument Was Already Debunked
As a further thought to Michael Rubin’s response to Joe Klein’s defense of Peter Beinart, it is not true that nobody has yet replied to Peter Beinart’s demographic argument. First of all, the argument is not Peter Beinart’s. more...
March on Syria
The Assad dynasty is not content with slaughtering its own people in great numbers. It is also destroying Syria's rich archaeological past. Writing last month in the US Weekly Standard, Victoria Coates described the devastation in detail. more...
Gary Sick, Discredited but Honored
The so-called "October Surprise" plot that briefly enthralled the American public twenty years ago is one of the most influential political conspiracy theories in U.S. history. more...
