December, 2020

• 14 December

  Iran upholds death sentence against French-based journalist captured last year

  Iran’s Supreme Court has upheld a death sentence against a dissident journalist who was captured in 2019 after years in exile in France, the judiciary said on Tuesday.

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• 14 December

  Cyberattacks in UAE up 250% during pandemic, Emirati cyber chief says

  Emirati cybersecurity chief Mohamed al-Kuwaiti said his country is experiencing a “cyber pandemic.” The United Arab Emirates (UAE) has seen at least a 250% increase in cyberattacks during the coronavirus pandemic, the Emirati cybersecurity chief said Sunday, some of which can be attributed to the Gulf state’s recognition of Israel.

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• 14 December

  Are there signs of thaw in Turkish-Saudi relations?

  A phone call between the Turkish and Saudi leaders generated hopes for thawing of relations between Ankara and Riyadh, but significant roadblocks must be removed to end bellicose affairs. As the unofficial Saudi-led boycott of Turkish goods in multiple Arab states is hurting the Turkish sphere of influence, King Salman …

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• 14 December

  A new page in Israeli-Saudi relations? Not so fast

  With US President Donald Trump soon out of the picture, the Saudis prefer to take things slow with Israel, and await the new Biden administration. What’s going on between Israel and Saudi Arabia? The recent ups and downs in relations between these two regional powers are even more dizzying and …

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• 14 December

  Child recruitment casts shadow over Syrian Kurds' push for global legitimacy

  Failed efforts to secure the return of a recent spate of Kurdish youth recruited to fight in northeast Syria shows the delicate path the region’s autonomous administration must navigate in its relations with the PKK.

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• 14 December

  America’s Dark Side

  When I was in high school in the Bronx, there were round colored spots on the floor of the gym that showed us where to stand. The bigger, older kids would demand we pay a quarter for the spot, for which the school charged nothing. That’s what’s called a scam …

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• 14 December

  Trump’s Pernicious Military Legacy

  In the military realm, Donald Trump will most likely be remembered for his insistence on ending America’s involvement in its twenty-first-century “forever wars” — the fruitless, relentless, mind-crushing military campaigns undertaken by Presidents Bush and Obama in Afghanistan, Iraq, Syria, and Somalia. After all, as a candidate, Trump pledged to …

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• 14 December

  Gangsterism as Foreign Policy: Assassinations are Becoming the New Norm

  I was in Israel on 4 November 1995 when a student named Yigal Amir assassinated the Israeli prime minister Yitzhak Rabin as he left a peace rally in Tel Aviv. A video shows Amir loitering by an exit to the square for 40 minutes before Rabin appears, when his killer …

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• 14 December

  Mixed signals over Israel-Turkey relations

  An article published in the Tel Aviv University Turkeyscope review might suggest that Ankara wants to rehabilitate its relations with Jerusalem. The Tel Aviv Moshe Dayan Institute published Dec. 7 an exceptional article, titled “Israel is Turkey’s Neighbor Across the Sea: Delimitation of the Maritime Jurisdiction Areas between Turkey and …

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• 14 December

  Opposition turns up pressure on Erdogan over defense dealings with Qatar

  Turkey’s political opposition has stepped up pressure on the government over its often-opaque dealings with Qatar as the country’s tank production contract, awarded to a Turkish-Qatari joint venture, remains bogged down.

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