Genocide studies scholar Omer Bartov now believes that the Israeli government’s campaign in Gaza is genocidal: But another part of my apprehension had to do with the fact that my view of what was happening in Gaza had shifted. On 10 November 2023, I wrote in the New...
Harris’ Hollow Words on Gaza
The foreign policy section of Kamala Harris’ acceptance speech was predictably brief, and there wasn’t much to it. Anyone still holding out hope that she might signal a change in direction on U.S. policy in Gaza was completely disappointed. Harris said: With respect...
Blinken Wants To Sell Us a Bridge
Blinken is selling a bridge to nowhere: US Secretary of State Antony Blinken said Monday that Israel has accepted a proposal to bridge gaps in ceasefire negotiations and the next step is for Hamas to accept ahead of further negotiations expected to take place later...
Biden OKs More Weapons for War Criminals
Matthew Petti reports on a string of recent Biden administration decisions to provide even more weapons to Middle Eastern clients: It's been a good week for the weapons industry. President Joe Biden signed off on order after order allowing American weapons to flow to...
The Many Entanglements of the ‘Indispensable Nation’
The New York Times published a report on Biden’s foreign policy record last week that annoyed a lot of analysts and other readers because of its original hyperbolic headline about the U.S. being “consumed by war” on Biden’s watch. As Joel Mathis noted, the headline...
Most Americans Don’t Want US Troops To Fight for Israel
A new survey from the Chicago Council finds that most Americans oppose sending U.S. forces to defend Israel if it comes under attack. If Israel is attacked by Iran, 56% oppose U.S. intervention to defend them. If Israel is attacked by any of its immediate neighbors,...
A Reckless and Dangerous Israeli Assassination in Iran
The Israeli government assassinated the leader of Hamas’ political wing while he was in Tehran to attend the inauguration of the newly-elected Iranian president Masoud Pezeshkian: Ismail Haniyeh, the head of Hamas’s political wing, was killed in Iran, Hamas announced...
Vance and the War in Gaza
J.D. Vance sometimes talks like a non-interventionist, but most of his foreign policy positions don’t match his rhetoric. The other day, he was talking about foreign conflicts and he said, “Sometimes, it is just none of our business and we ought to stay out of it.”...
The Dreadful Continuity of British Foreign Policy
Robert Wright doesn’t think much of the foreign policy direction of the new Labour government in Britain: [Labour shadow foreign secretary] Lammy depicts his foreign policy vision as new, but it’s pretty much the same vision that has long guided his party and...
Further Escalation Against the Houthis Makes No Sense
James Stavridis isn’t satisfied with the current pointless war against the Houthis and wants something more: Four mariners dead. Two commercial ships sunk. One ship and 25 mariners held captive. Global supply chains distorted. Where is a strong military response to...