You Down With ICC (Yeah You Know Me)
The recent news that the International Criminal Court (ICC) has issued an arrest warrant for Libya’s Muammar Qaddafi has elicited very different reactions from around the world. The warrant is in response to allegations that Qaddafi, as well as his son Seif al-Islam and his feared chief of military intelligence Abdullah Senussi, knowingly ordered the … Read more
Obama Can’t Stop the Killing in Syria, and Certainly Not Like That
UPDATE: Marc Lynch agrees with me. Tony Badran has a piece in Foreign Policy discussing the various steps that US President Obama can take in order to facilitate the fall of Assad and the end of violence in Syria. As Badran notes, Washington has a poorly defined policy in regards to Syria and the increasing … Read more
Sports in the Middle East
The LA Times Middle East Blog “Babylon and Beyond” is reporting that Dubai is contemplating a bid for the 2020 summer Olympics. Cool (not literally), but, of course, there are tons of problems that the Emirate would need to overcome. As the UAE has no formal diplomatic relations with Israel, one obvious question is whether Israeli athletes … Read more
Whats Happening In Gaza?
Logically, any peace deal that is made between Fatah and Israel, but excludes Hamas would inevitably break down as the democratically elected Hamas would reject the deal. For peace to be made between Israel and Palestine, the US and Israel must begin to engage the Islamic group. I have seen engaging Hamas as a necessity … Read more
