War in Context

Talking to terrorists

Paul Woodward — Tue, 16 Mar 2010 22:00:54 +0000

The Washington Post has a passage from Mark Perry’s new book, Talking to Terrorists: Why America Must Engage With Its Enemies. As Perry notes, talking to groups that the US government has labelled as “terrorists” is not only necessary but is a choice that has already been pursued and shown highly effective. As he [...]

Israel is empowering al Qaeda, Petraeus warns

Paul Woodward — Tue, 16 Mar 2010 18:00:13 +0000

As erupting violence in Jerusalem suggests a third intifada may soon take hold, the CENTCOM commander Gen David Petraeus, testifying before the US Senate Armed Services Committee today, gave a grave warning about the wider impact of a conflict that has been the epicenter of Middle East hostilities ever since the creation of Israel. In issuing [...]

Netanyahu remains defiant

Paul Woodward — Tue, 16 Mar 2010 01:30:59 +0000

As Bill Clinton famously said about Benjamin Netanyahu in 1998, “Who the fuck does he think he is? Who’s the fucking superpower here?” Twelve years later there is no sign that Bibi’s hubris has been tempered. In the midst of what Israel’s ambassador to the United States, Michael Oren, has told the country’s diplomats is the [...]

Israel is putting American lives at risk

Paul Woodward — Sun, 14 Mar 2010 19:38:02 +0000

In Foreign Policy, Mark Perry describes an extraordinary Pentagon briefing on Israel’s impact on conflicts across the Middle East. Here is an excerpt and following some comments of my own, the author has provided me with additional background on his reporting. [Important update: A senior military officer told Foreign Policy by email that one rather minor [...]

Obama gets kind of tough with Netanyahu

Paul Woodward — Sun, 14 Mar 2010 16:00:33 +0000

The Los Angeles Times says: “a dispute this week between the Obama administration and Israel has ballooned into the biggest U.S.-Israeli clash in 20 years.” Tom Friedman says: “what the Israelis did played right into a question a lot of people are asking about the Obama team: how tough are these guys? The last thing the [...]

Washington’s cult of narcissism and Iraq

Paul Woodward — Sat, 13 Mar 2010 22:00:30 +0000

Tom Engelhardt writes: Hubris? We’re bigger than that! We’ve now been at war with, or in, Iraq for almost 20 years, and intermittently at war in Afghanistan for 30 years. Think of it as nearly half a century of experience, all bad. And what is it that Washington seems to have concluded? [...]

Why did Joe Biden insult America’s friends?

Paul Woodward — Sat, 13 Mar 2010 15:35:42 +0000

In an interview on CNN, Hillary Clinton was refreshingly blunt in saying that Israel insulted the US: But now that’s been clearly stated, why did Joe Biden have to cap the first insult by adding another when he said: “the United States has no better friend in the community of nations than Israel”? That’s not true — [...]

Poll: Half of Israeli high schoolers oppose equal rights for Arabs

Paul Woodward — Sat, 13 Mar 2010 12:00:19 +0000

Haaretz reports: Nearly half of Israel’s high school students do not believe that Israeli-Arabs are entitled to the same rights as Jews in Israel, according to the results of a new survey released yesterday [Thursday]. The same poll revealed that more than half the students would deny Arabs the right to be elected to the Knesset. [...]

CIA drone attacks produce America’s own unlawful combatants

Paul Woodward — Sat, 13 Mar 2010 11:00:22 +0000

Gary Solis, an adjunct professor at Georgetown University Law Center, writes: In our current armed conflicts, there are two U.S. drone offensives. One is conducted by our armed forces, the other by the CIA. Every day, CIA agents and CIA contractors arm and pilot armed unmanned drones over combat zones in Afghanistan and Pakistan, including Pakistani [...]

Afghan tribal rivalries bedevil a U.S. plan

Paul Woodward — Sat, 13 Mar 2010 03:00:49 +0000

The New York Times reports: Six weeks ago, elders of the Shinwari tribe, which dominates a large area in southeastern Afghanistan, pledged that they would set aside internal differences to focus on fighting the Taliban. This week, that commitment seemed less important as two Shinwari subtribes took up arms to fight each other over an ancient land [...]

In early tally, tight Iraq race deepens splits

Paul Woodward — Sat, 13 Mar 2010 01:00:01 +0000

The New York Times reports: Iraq’s major coalitions were locked in a surprisingly close race on Thursday, in initial results from elections that deepened divisions across a fractured landscape. Candidates were quick to charge fraud, heightening concerns whether Iraq’s fledgling institutions were strong enough to support a peaceful transfer of power. The day was the most tumultuous [...]

Dubai tells spies to clear out

Paul Woodward — Fri, 12 Mar 2010 22:58:13 +0000

Newsweek reports: Police in the Persian Gulf emirate of Dubai have advised all foreign spies to get out of town—and preferably out of the region—within a week. Although it is widely known in international spy circles, news of the expulsion threat has received little circulation beyond media in the Arab world. However, Gulf News, a newspaper [...]

Time for George Mitchell and the US to step aside

Paul Woodward — Fri, 12 Mar 2010 15:34:28 +0000

Among commentators unable to see beyond the bankrupt perspective that the United States has the indispensable role of mediating a Middle East peace agreement (if such an agreement is ever to be reached), much is being made about Joe Biden’s tough words “behind closed doors”. Laura Rozen quotes from a Yedioth Ahronoth report: People who heard [...]

Cornel West points out Obama’s hypocrisy on Israelis and Palestinians

Paul Woodward — Thu, 11 Mar 2010 23:00:25 +0000

Watch the clip above as Cornel West responds to this question: The Obama administration talks about a new era of engagement. You spoke earlier about a “friendlier face of empire”. What does that mean? Is that just marketing? Or is there actually a change in US foreign policy these days? Watch the whole 23-minute interview:

The peace-process masquerade falls apart

Paul Woodward — Thu, 11 Mar 2010 21:00:26 +0000

It turns out that at least when it comes to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict the difference between the Bush administration and the Obama administration is this: team Bush had better choreography. The Guardian now reports: The US vice-president, Joe Biden, today attempted to salvage the Middle East peace talks after the Palestinians announced they were pulling out of [...]