A selection of LobeLog's most popular articles and other items of note.

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** Democratic Voters Have Known For Some Time What Some Liberals Are Just Now Coming To Terms With: Israel Is An Occupier ([link removed])
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** by James Zogby
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The Israeli occupation has been enabled by both Republican encouragement and the cowardice of the Democratic establishment to challenge it. What’s new is that the voices of the Democratic voters, long disenchanted by their leadership’s acquiescence now have champions in Congress who are bringing this divide into the open. And Congresswomen Tlaib and Omar exposed all this without even setting foot in Israel or Palestine.

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** Israel Uses Its Firepower, Far And Wide ([link removed])
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** by Paul Pillar
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A question that needs to be pondered carefully is, “Who is destabilizing the Middle East?” The stock and overly simple answer has been, “Iran.” That is an insufficient answer even when excluding Israel from the picture. And Israel does get excluded, and excused, for the variety of reasons—ranging from religious doctrine and historical legacies to the inner workings of domestic U.S. politics—for the strong U.S. favoritism toward Israel.

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** The Houthi-Hezbollah Surrogate Nexus ([link removed])
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** by Giorgio Cafiero and Andreas Krieg
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The advancements in Houthi missile and drone capabilities all highlight the extent to which Hezbollah has made a difference in the conflict, which has seen Ansarullah assume de facto control of northern Yemen. Nonetheless, Ansarullah is more than just a mere Iranian franchise outfit. Unlike Hezbollah, Ansarullah—as a homegrown movement—would continue to fight, albeit less effectively, even if its link to Tehran were severed.

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** Trump’s Anti-Semitism Spawns Dangerous Reactions ([link removed])
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** by Mitchell Plitnick
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The attacks on Omar and Tlaib are based on disingenuity and bad faith, combined with some poor word choices on the parts of the congresswomen that left them vulnerable to these attacks. Of course, most of us would occasionally make such errors if every single word we said were parsed the way theirs are. It is imperative that truth be spoken but the only way to do that is with honesty and a commitment to fighting anti-Semitism wherever it exists, and not by trying to imagine it into existence where it does not.

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** The Trump Administration Has Criminalized The Iranian Economy ([link removed])
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** by Tyler Cullis
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No successor administration will be able to recalibrate U.S. policy towards Iran without rescinding the IRGC’s designation. There is no doubt that hard challenges lie ahead and difficult choices need be made to mitigate the self-harm to U.S. interests caused by the Trump administration’s actions. Whether Washington will have the stomach to make them is unclear.

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** GOP’s Biggest Donors Laid Groundwork For Trump And Netanyahu’s Targeting Of Muslim Congresswomen ([link removed])
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** by Eli Clifton
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Smearing and bullying Tlaib and Omar fits with Trump and Netanyahu’s pattern of pandering to white nationalists and Islamophobes. But it is at least partially the product of an ongoing campaign generously funded by Trump and the GOP’s two biggest donors. It’s well worth considering the role the Adelsons may have played in laying the groundwork for Trump and Netanyahu’s attacks on Omar and Tlaib, if not the implicit or explicit approval they may have given Trump for escalating the attacks into a call for the two members of Congress to be barred from Israel.

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** The Dogs Of War That Have Not Barked ([link removed])
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** by Helena Cobban
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There may yet be a military conflagration in the Gulf, though the chances of that diminish by the day. But whether there is one or not, the ugly, bullying way President Trump and his key advisors have dealt with the region has already inflicted deep harm on far too many Iranians (and Yemenis.) It has also considerably weakened Washington’s role in the international system and exacerbated instabilities in that system that will be felt in areas far from the Persian Gulf.

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** Trump’s Middle East Communications Theater ([link removed])
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** by Sam Bahour
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The bottom line is simple and doesn’t require wasting more U.S. taxpayers’ funds on trying to tame Arab media into accepting the unacceptable. It’s past time that this U.S. administration wake up and smell Israel’s 52-year military occupation. Then and only then will strategic communications work—namely, communicating to their strategic ally Israel that it should exit the State of Palestine, once and for all.

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** Barring Members Of Congress From Israel-Palestine ([link removed])
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** by Mitchell Plitnick
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Trump has decided that his strategy will be to make “The Squad”—and especially its two Muslim members, Tlaib and Omar—the face of the Democratic party and ride what he expects to be a renewed wave of hate and bigotry to his second term in office. Ultimately, that’s why he pressed Netanyahu on this, and that’s why, despite all these objections, Rashida Tlaib and Ilhan Omar will be barred from entering Israel and the Palestinian territories it occupies.

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** Violence In Aden Tests Emirati-Saudi Alliance ([link removed])
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** by Giorgio Cafiero and Dr. Khalid al-Jaber
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The situation in southern Yemen will likely remain volatile, with prominent analysts warning of a “civil war within a civil war” as southern secessionists continue fighting Hadi’s loyalists. As that unfolds, the Saudis and Emiratis will try to manage their conflicting interests and different priorities in Yemen in a way that prevents a major rift in their broader relationship.

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** Noteworthy
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** It’s Time to Indict Aung San Suu Kyi for Genocide Against the Rohingya in Myanmar ([link removed])
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by Mehdi Hasan

In a Major Shift, South Korea Defies Its Alliance With Japan ([link removed])
by Tim Shorrock


** Boris Johnson goes nuclear with a plan to sideline parliament. The no-deal rebels need a nuclear response ([link removed])
by Andrew Grice
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** The decades-old war on Palestinian workers ([link removed])
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by Ramzy Baroud


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