The Turbulent World of Middle East Soccer

  By James M. Dorsey Hi and welcome. If you appreciate this type of content, consider upgrading to a paid subscription or gifting a subscription, to help ensure that independent journalism and analysis survive. Without your support hard-hitting, fact-based analysis would not be possible. Subscribing allows you to listen to the podcast, and/ or watch the video. To subscribe, please click here. Thank you for your support and loyalty.  Much like Hezbollah miscalculated with its 15-month-long war of attrition against Israel, Yemen’s Houthi rebels risk being the next target in Israel’s campaign to rewrite the Middle East’s political map. “We will act with strength, determination, and ingenuity. Even if it takes time, the result will be the same as with other terrorist arms ,” said Israeli Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu Some Israelis suggest that to effectively target the Houthis, Israel should simultaneously emasculate Iran, already on the defensive becau...

                                                                      Credit: Dinotrakker By James M. Dorsey Thank you for being part of The Turbulent World. You are the raison d’etre of The Turbulent World, irrespective of whether you are a free reader or a paid subscriber. However, allow me to extend a special thank you to paid subscribers who make The Turbulent World possible. Your support and loyalty are invaluable. You can contribute to an embattled world of independent reporting and analysis at a time when it could not be more crucial. To those debating whether to become a paid subscriber, consider the importance of maintaining media that empowers readers, listeners, and viewers to form opinions based on independent, rigorous reporting and analysis. Subscribing now will allow you to watch a video ver...

  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 gives you access to the full text of this article and allows you to listen to the podcast, and/ or watch the video. To subscribe, please click here.   To watch a video version of this story   or   listen to an audio podcast click  here .    Thank you for your support and loyalty.    US and Israeli responses to President Bashar al-Assad’s fall offer a masterclass on how to discourage change in Syria. Rather than test and encourage Syria’s new leader, Ahmed al-Sharaa, aka Abu Mohammed al-Jawlani, US and Israeli actions seem designed to box him in and potentially set him up for failure. Mr. Al-Sharaa is no run-of-the-mill rebel. He is a former Al Qaed...

  Credit: Firstpost 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.    Syrian rebel leader Ahmed al-Sharaa, aka Abu Mohammed al-Jolani, appears to be a man who picks his battles. Speaking at a Damascus mosque, Mr. Al-Jolani, a one-time jihadist with a history as an Al Qaeda and the Islamic State operative and a $10 million US bounty on his head, suggested Syrians were exhausted, focused on reconstructing their war-ravaged country, and unprepared for another war. “The country is moving towards development and reconstruction. It’s going towards stability. People are exhausted from war. So...