The Turbulent World of Middle East Soccer

  By James M. Dorsey Hi, if you appreciate this type of content, consider upgrading to a paid subscription, to help ensure that independent journalism and analysis survive. Without your support this kind of hard-hitting, fact-based analysis would not be possible. To watch a video version of this story   or   listen to an audio podcast click  here .  Thank you for your support and loyalty.  Gaza is gearing up to be a war on President-elect Donald J. Trump’s watch that he doesn’t want but may be unable to end. Mr. Trump will likely discover that assembling a Middle East team closely aligned with Israeli Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu and his ultra-nationalist coalition partners will not solve the problem. It’s a lesson Mr. Trump failed to learn during his first term as president when Palestinians from all political walks rejected his “ deal of the century ” that, at best, offered them a semblance of an independent state. Mr. Trump’s failure was magnified by the Biden

  By James M. Dorsey  If you   value independent, fact-based analysis, please consider subscribing to my column and podcast. Paid subscribers help ensure the survival of The Turbulent World’s unvarnished journalism that lets the chips fall where they fall. You can contribute by clicking on the subscription button at https://jamesmdorsey.substack,com and choosing one of the subscription options.  To watch   a video version of this story or listen to a n audio podcast click  here   .  Thank   you for your support and loyalty.  Predicting President Donald J. Trump’s Middle East policy and his attitude toward Israeli Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu amounts to reading tea leaves.  The leaves are the cast of characters included in Mr. Trump’s administration when he takes office and who he excluded.  Yet even that could prove to be misleading.  “In the first Trump administration, there was that   ‘tyranny  of the final briefer’ —the last person he talks to can be extraordinarily influential

  Contrasting the displaced in Israel and Lebanon If you value independent, fact-based analysis, please consider subscribing to my column and podcast. Paid subscribers help ensure the survival of The Turbulent World’s unvarnished journalism that lets the chips fall where they fall. You can contribute by clicking on the subscription button at https://jamesmdorsey.substack,com and choosing one of the subscription options.  To watch a video version of this story   or  listen to a n audio podcast click   here .  Thank you for your support and loyalty.  Israel may soon return tens of thousands of evacuees to their homes along the border with Lebanon, with or without a ceasefire with Hezbollah. The return of the evacuees would allow Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu to tout a significant success in his 13-month-long war in Gaza and Lebanon, even if it may be short-lived without a ceasefire, if not in an equitable negotiated resolution of Israel’s disputes with Lebanon and the Palestinians. M

  By James M. Dorsey If you value independent, fact-based analysis, please consider subscribing to my column and podcast. Paid subscribers help ensure the survival of The Turbulent World’s unvarnished journalism that lets the chips fall where they fall. You can contribute by clicking on the subscription button at https://jamesmdorsey.substack,com and choosing one of the subscription options.  To watch a video version of this story   or  listen to a n audio podcast click  here .  Thank you for your support and loyalty.  The Middle East may not preoccupy Donald J. Trump. Still, the president-elect preoccupies the Middle East as it attempts to figure out how he will handle the wars ravaging Gaza and Lebanon and threatening to spark an all-out conflagration between Israel and Iran. Middle Eastern views run the gamut from optimism that Mr. Trump will strengthen Arab autocracy and cut a deal with Iran to pessimism that he will give Israel carte blanche to do what it wants to sugges