Is the recent agreement between North Korea and the United States, whereby the latter took the former off its list of countries that support terrorism in exchange for the former reopening access to its nuclear facilities, a model for a future settlement of the nuclear standoff between Iran and those countries who don’t want it to develop nuclear weapons? The answer is no, because the two countries are very different from each other and they have very different aims in their negotiations with the outside world.
Continue reading ‘A North Korean Solution For Iran?’
There follows my response to comments made here about my post on the Yom Kippur War.
Continue reading ‘Surprise’
1.
On Yom Kippur thirty five years ago, Israel was simultaneously attacked by Egypt and Syria. The military and political leadership of Israel was taken by surprise because over the preceding years they had convinced themselves that the Arab states had no viable military option open to them to recover the territory lost in the Six Day War.
Continue reading ‘The Yom Kippur War 35 Years On’
I have already commented on the first four posts of a series by Samuel Fleischacker - hereinafter SF - on the Israeli-Palestinian dispute currently appearing over at Normblog here, here, here and here. The fifth in the series, dealing with the validity or otherwise of the historical claims of the parties, appeared yesterday and here are some comments on it.
Continue reading ‘A Response To “A Cool Hour on the Israel-Palestine Conflict 5”’
There follows my response to certain matters raised in the third post, titled “Racism and Anti-Semitism”, in a series by Samuel Fleischacker - hereinafter referred to as SF - about the Israel-Palestinian conflict, currently appearing over at Normblog. My responses to the two previous posts can be found here and here.
Continue reading ‘A Response To “A Cool Hour on the Israel-Palestine Conflict 3”’
There is an extremely interesting essay by Perry Anderson here about contemporary Turkish history. It deals at length with the similarities and differences between the genocides of the Jews and Armenians and the different degrees of recognition that they have received since they occurred.
Continue reading ‘Genocide Comparisons’
There follow some comments on Samuel Fleischacker’s second post in a series on the Israel-Palestine conflict which is appearing over at Normblog. You’ll find my response to his first post here.
Continue reading ‘A Response To “A Cool Hour on the Israel-Palestine Conflict 2”’
