The Turbulent World of Middle East Soccer

  Lebanese Prime Minister Najib Mikati arrives in Riyadh in November 2024 to attend a summit of Arab and Muslim leaders. Credit: SPA By James M. Dorsey Hi and welcome. 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.   Subscribing will allow you to read the full text of this article, listen to the podcast, and/or watch the video.   Subscribing will allow you listen to the podcast and/or watch the video.   It will also give you access to the full archive, exclusive posts and polling, and allow you to comment and join debates.   To subscribe, please click here.   It’s the season of gifting. Why not gift a Turbulent World subscription ?   Thank you for your support and loyalty.    Gulf leaders told Lebanese Prime Minister Najib Mikati what they said to Palest...

  By James M. Dorsey Hi and welcome. 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.  Major General Avi Bluth, the head of Israel’s Central Command, switched roles this weekend. Suddenly, Mr. Bluth, in occupied Hebron to protect Israeli worshippers and settlers during a controversial annual pilgrimage, was not the guardian of vigilante youth but their target . Several dozen protesters, some of them masked, shouted “Traitor” and hurled stones at Israeli troops, including Mr. Bluth and border police. The troops and police were managing tens of thousands of pilgrims, marking the yearly Torah reading of Abraham’s purchase of the Cave ...

  By James M. Dorsey Hi and welcome. 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.  An earlier version of this story appeared on Channel News Asia . Israeli Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu’s world just shrunk considerably. An International Criminal Court (ICC) arrest warrant on charges of war crimes and crimes against humanity in Gaza obliges the Court’s 124 members, or two-thirds of the world’s countries, to arrest Mr. Netanyahu on sight. Russian President Vladimir Putin’s world contracted similarly when the Court ordered his arrest in 2023 for alleged war crimes in Ukraine. Even so, Mr. Netanyahu and Israel are...

  Associated Press interviews Mousa Abu Marzouk in US detention. Source: YouTube By James M. Dorsey Hi and welcome. 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. Subscribing will allow you to listen to the podcast, and/ or watch the video. To subscribe, please click here .   Thank you for your support and loyalty.  Hamas political bureau member Mousa Abu Marzouk knows a thing or two about Israeli Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu’s decades-long support for the group. In fact, Mr. Abu Marzouk is Exhibit A. Thanks to Mr. Netanyahu, Mr. Abu Marzouk operates from the luxury of Doha instead of rotting in an Israeli jail since 1996 when Mr. Netanyahu first became prime minister. In a move never adequately justified, Mr. Netanyahu, in his first year in office, dropped a request by his pred...

  Secretary of State George Shultz listens as President Ronald Reagan warns Israeli Prime Minister Menahem Begin in an August 12, 1982, phone call. Credit: The New York Times By James M. Dorsey Hi and welcome. 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. Subscribing will allow you to l isten to the podcast, and/ or watch the video. To subscribe, please  click  here .  Thank you for your support and loyalty.  Appalled by Israel’s carpet bombing of Beirut during the 1982 Lebanon war, US President Ronald Reagan didn’t mince his words with then-Israeli Prime Minister Menahem Begin. “I was angry. I told him it had to stop, or our entire future relationship was endangered. I used the word holocaust deliberately & said the symbol of his war was becoming a picture of a 7-mon...