Author: M Barbu

No direction home: What broke the Levant, and can it be fixed?

Returns

After 11 years in the United States, I was flying back to the land I called home. Beirut airport was its usual busy and chaotic self, but my fellow passengers and I all got through passport control and baggage claim with surprising efficiency. The hot and humid air, scented by the nearby Mediterranean, hit me as I walked out of the terminal. Expecting a grim mood, I was instead greeted by the festive drum and reed flute fanfare for a young man just returning from Hajj or preparing for a wedding — I could not tell which.

Weekly Briefing: The Biden administration discusses a “take it or leave it” cease-fire proposal

The Biden administration discusses a “take it or leave it” cease-fire proposal

Brian Katulis
Senior Fellow for US Foreign Policy
Brian Katulis

The murder of six Israeli hostages in Gaza more than three months after Biden released his cease-fire plan demonstrates the limits of the administration’s policy approach.

Biden may try to use the moment to get Israel and Hamas to end months of negotiations and achieve a cease-fire, but the odds of a successful outcome seem low.

The Biden administration is reportedly talking with Egypt and Qatar about presenting a “take it or leave it” deal to Israel and Hamas on a cease-fire and hostage release agreement this week. But for the past few months, the two main parties to this conflict roiling the Middle East have effectively already repeatedly responded in the negative.

How Israel’s war on Gaza is spilling into the West Bank

In-depth: There are fears that Israel’s military raids in the West Bank, the largest in decades, are fuelled by plans to annex the Palestinian territory.

For more than a week, Israeli forces have raided the Palestinian cities of Jenin, Tubas, and Tulkarem in the occupied West Bank – razing infrastructure, displacing residents, and killing at least 33 people.

FDD Identifies 19 Websites as Part of an Iranian Global Influence Operation

FDD researchers have uncovered the Iranian role in creating a network of at least 19 websites that present themselves as independent sources of opinion and analysis for audiences across the globe. Other researchers previously tied several of these sites to Iran, but FDD is the first to identify most of them while documenting the technical indicators that demonstrate their connectedness.

Yuval Noah Harari’s Apocalyptic Vision

“About 14 billion years ago, matter, energy, time and space came into being.” So begins Sapiens: A Brief History of Humankind (2011), by the Israeli historian Yuval Noah Harari, and so began one of the 21st century’s most astonishing academic careers. Sapiens has sold more than 25 million copies in various languages. Since then, Harari has published several other books, which have also sold millions. He now employs some 15 people to organize his affairs and promote his ideas.

Cryptarchie Dönmeh et Turquie moderne

Première partie

Après avoir évoqué la crypto-communauté turque des Donmeh1 – musulmans le jour, israélites la nuit – un curieux texte de Wayne Madsen2 initialement publié par la très sérieuse Strategic Culture Foundation en octobre 2011, a été récemment remis en ligne sur le site dissident CounterPunch3. Un texte éclairant qui retrace la filiation souterraine existant entre la Turquie kémaliste et la dynastie des Séoud… celle-ci apparaissant curieusement comme une sorte de reflet oriental de l’Amérique contemporaine, tout à la fois rigidement puritaine et moralement corrompue.

Moyen-Orient, le grand enfumage sur les raisons du chaos depuis avant les accords Sykes-Picot

L’articulation historique et stratégique entre les questions de la Palestine et de Mésopotamie, et des couloirs d’export depuis la Mésopotamie (et le Golfe depuis l’émergence du gaz comme remplaçant du pétrole pour la génération électrique et le chauffage) vers la Méditerranée Est, c’est essentiel pour comprendre et faire comprendre l’histoire tragique du Moyen-Orient, y compris la tragédie entretenue depuis 2011 en Syrie, pays situé entre Irak et Palestine. Cette analyse devrait aussi servir pour proposer, voire imposer, des solutions globales pour une paix juste et durable.

Les Rothschild gèrent la dette de l’Ukraine

Reuters : Le clan Rothschild a aidé à trouver un accord avec les créanciers privés de l’Ukraine.

L’Ukraine est un petit exemple concret de l’accaparement par certaines hordes financières de pays aujourd’hui privatisés comme de la marchandise et entraînés dans des conflits, puis dans l’esclavagisme de la dette au profit de clans non-politiques désireux de passer à la création d’un État mondial et à l’asservissement total de l’homme, encore mieux bien sûr du trans-homme, à la science financière vulgaire, ce qui est effectivement déjà bien avancé.

Filling the Void Left by Great-Power Retrenchment: Russia, Central Asia, and the U.S. Withdrawal from Afghanistan

The U.S. withdrawal from Afghanistan, ending in August 2021, created favorable conditions for Russia to reassert itself as a regional hegemon in broader Central Asia. Historically, as great powers retrench from a territory, the resulting void can be filled either by rival powers or by friendly successor states responsive to the retrenching power’s agenda. While the United States has lacked reliable successors to take its place in the region, Russia has asserted itself in a number of ways to boost its own power and influence. Moscow has not only cultivated bilateral ties with each of the five Central Asian states, but it has also instrumentalized regional security organizations to advance its interests. However, the full-scale assault against Ukraine beginning in 2022 has undermined Russia’s initiatives in Central Asia and its aspirations for regional hegemony. The Central Asian countries fear Moscow’s apparent neo-imperial ambitions and prefer to develop multi-vectored foreign relations. In this situation, China is poised to supplant Russia as the dominant power and security provider in the region, which could create tensions within the so-called partnership without limits between Moscow and Beijing.