One might actually be willing to consider that there might be some value in the “rules based international order” being promoted by the Joe Biden Administration if such a thing actually existed and was applied equally to all transgressors. Of course, in reality, the “rules” being referred to are neither agreed upon nor driven by... Read More

The Obama Administration sent Secretary of State John Kerry to Israel to insist on a cease fire in Gaza. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu responds not only with a no but with a “hell no” and Kerry backed down, but Bibi didn't let it end there, telling Kerry and US Ambassador Daniel Shapiro "don't ever... Read More

In the real world diplomacy is most often successful when two sides represent parties that can each speak with one voice and that have clearly defined objectives that they seek to attain within the framework of a final agreement. This perhaps explains why so many United States’ negotiations worldwide, often erroneously described as diplomacy, have... Read More

Australian-American former Ambassador Martin Indyk is the lead negotiator for Secretary of State John Kerry’s Israeli-Palestinian peace initiative. He heads a nearly all-Jewish American negotiating team, including David Makovsky, a “mapping expert” from the American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC) spin-off Washington Institute for Near East Policy (WINEP). Indyk is currently briefing an array of... Read More

The death of former Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon, who has been in a coma for eight years, followed shortly after the tenth visit of Secretary of State Kerry to Israel in just the past six months as he continued his search for a conclusive peace to end the Israeli occupation of the Palestinian West... Read More

Some years ago I worked for a bank in Bahrain owned by several Arab governments. Having been on the payroll of a US bank for a number of years I found the atmosphere at my new employer quite refreshing. All memos my colleagues wrote were remarkably honest and occasionally amusing. About the Islamic Bank of... Read More