Fight extremism, not just ISIS

Spect_Sunni-Vs-Shia_cover — The mayhem in the Middle East is not about sectarianism, but sectarian divides and prejudices do play a major role.

Ready, Aim, Fire. Not Fire, Ready, Aim. – NYTimes.com.

The current drive by the Obama administration to unite Sunni and Shia powers in the region against ISIS, the group that everyone supposedly hate in equal terms, will not succeed, because by ignoring the atrocities that Assad and Hezbollah have been perpetrating in Syria before ISIS showed up on the scene, and because both are pillars of the Shia axis in the region, the administration, with its suborn refusal to act against Assad coupled with its current single-minded focus on ISIS, will be perceived as supporting the Shia Axis. The ongoing negotiations with Iran and the reconciliatory tone that many administration officials have assumed in her regard will strengthen that impression.

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What ISIS is really thinking!

What is ISIS thinking? Five possible explanations for why the group is beheading Americans.

Personally, I think that mass atrocities and beheadings is ISIS’ way of negotiating with the Americans over the issue of recognition of their de facto state. Because without recognition, even if unofficial, the state that ISIS is creating means little. With unofficial recognition, ISIS can make billions rather than millions of dollars from the sales of oil under their control, even if they have to sell it on the down-and-low. Recognition also allows ISIS the time it needs to consolidate its hold on the territories currently under its control, and to govern.

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From Syria to Ferguson: battling the symptom while embracing the disease

A scene from the protests in Ferguson, Missouri

Is it an ingrained American attitude: battling the symptom while embracing the disease? Creating beautiful façades behind which to hide something that is deeply rotten and festering? If so, if this is indeed the truth, what does it really say about America? More specifically, what does is say about America’s political, economic, intellectual and artistic elite – because no matter how democratic a nation is, it’s always this elite that is ultimately responsible for shaping its image and molding its moral fabric.

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Full-scale Israeli invasion of Gaza is good…for Iran.

Iran's supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamneie (R) hugs leader of the Islamic group Hamas Khaled Meshaal before their meeting in Tehran, Iran on February 1, 2009. (UPI Photo/ HO/Iran's Supreme Leader's official website) — Iran’s supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamneie (R) hugs leader of the Islamic group Hamas Khaled Meshaal before their meeting in Tehran, Iran on February 1, 2009. (UPI Photo/ HO/Iran’s Supreme Leader’s official website)

American and Israeli hubris over the last decade has allowed Iran to dictate the rules on engagement in the Levant and the Middle East. The crises in Syria, Iraq and now Gaza are cases in point.

So Hamas has broken a ceasefire to kidnap an Israeli soldier. It happens in wars: ceasefires are often broken and soldiers captured. The best response Israel can do at this stage, as counterintuitive this will seem to its current leaders and their myriad supporters in Israel and across the world, is to immediately accept a new ceasefire. Then, Israeli officials should explain to their people what everybody seem to know at this stage but few dare talk about, that the real battle in Gaza is actually part of a larger regional proxy war with Iran. For this reason, Israeli officials should tell their people that rather than rush into undertaking actions designed to satisfy a certain popular need for revenge, Israel needs to take the time and think in strategic terms, lest it keeps playing into Iran’s hands.

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