The Israel-Palestine conflict has been at the heart of regional affairs since the creation of the state of Israel in 1948. This is the context wherein the “de facto” Iran-Turkey-Syria axis should be understood, although substantive normalization of relations in the last decade between Turkey and its neighbors Iran and Syria served as a pre-requisite for the supposed alliance.
An attack on Iran may be high on the wish list of U.S. and Israeli hawks, but a positive outcome is likely wishful thinking.
According to Meir Dagan, director of Mossad, “Israel is turning from an asset to the United States to a burden.” Though an alignment of interests between the United States and Israel existed from the 1960s to the end of the Cold War, the two countries’ strategic interests no longer coincide. This is clear from U.S. reactions to the Turkish flotilla incident, which indicate a major shift in American grand strategy in the region.
Israel seems to think that when Palestinians are outbid by violence, they’ll fold their hand and meekly comply.
Nearly lost in the furor over the Israeli attack on the Turkish civilian aid flotilla is an incredible assessment delivered to the Knesset’s Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee. “Israel is turning from an asset to the United States to a burden,” testified Meir Dagan, the director of Mossad, on June 1.
Egypt and Saudi Arabia, the United States’ old allies in the Mid-East’s southern are likely to wield less influence in the future than the northern tier, which includes Turkey, Iran, and Syria.
The U.S. has spent a trillion dollars since 2001 on military operations in Iraq and Afghanistan. Now, it is being estimated that another $800 billion plus will be added to the tab before the wars are ended, yet it’s questionable what the return on that investment is. New ideas and new perspectives are needed to rebalance a deeply dysfunctional system.
Our intervention in Afghanistan should evoke a national soul-searching, as we thought we did after Vietnam.
The blank check Israel has enjoyed from the US all these years is about to be torn up.
You wouldn’t be surprised that the Ghazi force, and not the Taliban, are behind recent attacks in Pakistan’s capital city if you knew the story of the Red Mosque and its late leader.