US President Joe Biden’s months-long efforts to organize a Gaza war ceasefire and talks intended to secure a sustainable Middle East peace are stalled by a confusing tangle of disparate views between Israel and Hamas – and even within the American administration – about how negotiations should proceed. In almost desperate tones, the Biden administration […]

The post The Gaza peace talks that aren’t appeared first on Asia Times.

US Vice President Kamala Harris, newly tasked by the Democratic Party to run against ex-president Donald Trump at this year’s US presidential election, spent her first week as a candidate trying to outrun her political past. Her vigorous rebranding – occurring during one of the strangest episodes in recent US political history with Joe Biden’s […]

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Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is in Washington, where he will try to navigate the political minefield of a heated US presidential election campaign where all sides want to exploit the Gaza war to their own advantage. Netanyahu will kick off his US schedule Wednesday (July 24) with a speech to the US Congress. He […]

The post Netanyahu visit heightens US election drama appeared first on Asia Times.

On February 25, 1985, Soviet citizens went to the polls for one-party local elections, and as customary, top leaders cast ballots in public. General Secretary of the Communist Party of the USSR Konstantin Chernenko publicly appeared, as was customary for top Soviet leaders, casting a ballot, even if only on live TV. His performance was […]

The post Geriatric US politics reminder of USSR waning years appeared first on Asia Times.

After more than 28 months of devastating combat, earlier expectations of a decisive Russian victory have given way to the reality of a grinding war of attrition in Ukraine.   “Putin’s theory of victory is to make creeping advances in Ukraine indefinitely,”  wrote the Institute for the Study of War, a private US military think […]

The post All sides aiming for a long war of attrition in Ukraine appeared first on Asia Times.

In 1990, US President George H W Bush tasked Secretary of State James Baker to organize comprehensive Middle East peace talks to include Israel, the Palestinians and Israel’s other long-time adversaries throughout the Arab world. By June that year, Baker ran out of patience with Israeli Prime Minister Yitzhak Shamir, who had refused negotiations with […]

The post Washington’s hopeless road to Middle East diplomacy appeared first on Asia Times.

US President Joe Biden has mobilized his three top national security officials to pressure Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to accept US plans for ending the Gaza war and future Middle East peace. Biden wants Netanyahu to change battlefield tactics and prepare for negotiations leading to the creation of a Palestinian state. Netanyahu is resisting […]

The post Netanyahu not budging on Biden’s Gaza war plea appeared first on Asia Times.

Trapped in a Gaza war predicament between the irreconcilable goals of Israel and Hamas, US President Joe Biden has taken a whiplash approach of trying to please one side on one day and the other the next. From offering “unwavering support” for Israel at war’s beginning, Biden now withholds some weapons in protest of Israeli […]

The post Biden’s waffling war stances miffing allies, losing votes appeared first on Asia Times.

US-led efforts to forge a Gaza Strip ceasefire and win the release of Israeli hostages held by Hamas militants are in limbo after weeks of intense and by all accounts still inconclusive shuttle diplomacy. Moreover, US efforts to date show no sign of a potential grand accord to end the long-running Israeli-Palestinian conflict by carving […]

The post Biden’s Gaza diplomacy try falls fatally short appeared first on Asia Times.

Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelensky openly complained last weekend that his country was getting far less military support from Western allies needed to fend off fierce Russian bomb and missile attacks than Israel got last weekend during one night of drone and rocket bombardment from Iran. The Ukrainian leaders noted that the United States as well […]

The post Zelensky begs for Israel’s level of US support appeared first on Asia Times.

US President Joe Biden, locked in a rolling dispute with Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu over war tactics in the Gaza Strip, is banking on the threat of constitutional regime change to alter Israeli combat tactics and put the country’s post-war peace policy in sync with Washington’s desires. In Washington’s view, getting rid of Netanyahu […]

The post Why Biden now wants regime change in Israel appeared first on Asia Times.

Three decades ago, at the end of the Cold War, NATO members looked feverishly to find a mission to replace the then-defunct need to prevent the Soviet Union from invading Europe. NATO’s dilemma was encapsulated in the phrase “Out of Area or Out of Business.” That is, having been freed from the Soviet threat, the […]

The post Is NATO strong enough to deter a Russia-Europe war? appeared first on Asia Times.

It wasn’t enough that Russian courts had convicted dissident politician Alexei Navalny on bogus corruption charges, sentenced him to 19 years in jail and sent him to a penal colony 1,200 miles from Moscow near the Arctic Circle where he recently mysteriously died. Or that government agents tried to poison him with a nerve agent […]

The post Navalny’s death was grimly predictable appeared first on Asia Times.

Last month, Hamas ambushers fired a rocket-propelled grenade into a Gaza Strip residential building where Israeli soldiers were laying explosives to blow up the place later. The RPG round detonated the explosives prematurely, brought the building down and killed 21 Israeli troops. It was the largest one-day loss of life among Israeli troops so far […]

The post Hamas-Israel war rages on, unabated despite Biden appeared first on Asia Times.

[UPDATED] JERUSALEM – United States diplomatic efforts to get Israel and Hamas to agree on a Gaza Strip ceasefire and open the way to Middle East peace process failed Wednesday. The attempt faced an especially harsh rejection from Israel.  In a television appearance, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said there is no other option for […]

The post Israel rejects Biden’s war-ending plan [UPDATED] appeared first on Asia Times.

US President Joe Biden had hoped to avoid direct participation in the Israeli-Hamas war, even while wholeheartedly supporting Israel’s goal of defeating and destroying Hamas. Instead, the US is now involved militarily along two fronts trying to deter Iran-supported militias from firing on American troops based in the region and on ships traversing the Red […]

The post Pressure mounting for Biden to bomb Iran appeared first on Asia Times.

The United States and Saudi Arabia are pushing Israel to revive an old peace plan that would see Saudi Arabia and other Arab oil states recognize Israel in return for concrete moves toward the creation of a Palestinian state. US Secretary of State Antony Blinken and other high-ranking American diplomats have in recent weeks visited […]

The post The hopelessness of Biden’s two-state solution appeared first on Asia Times.

In 1990, fresh from serving over two decades in prison on charges of trying to “overthrow the state,” South African anti-apartheid leader Nelson Mandela delivered harsh remarks likening Israel’s treatment of Palestinians to the oppression of black South Africans under apartheid rule. “If one has to refer to any of the parties as a terrorist […]

The post The roots of South Africa’s Gaza case against Israel appeared first on Asia Times.

US President Joe Biden’s chief diplomat’s latest effort to persuade Israel to change its war tactics in Gaza and its long-range goals for pacifying the Palestinians has failed. Biden and his advisors have apparently underestimated the rage among the Israeli public over the October 7 assault of southern Israel by terrorists affiliated with Hamas, the […]

The post Biden’s diplomacy going nowhere fast in Gaza appeared first on Asia Times.

A parade of high-ranking officials from the United States have visited Israel to persuade Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to endorse a post-Gaza war peace plan that’s to Washington’s liking. Netanyahu has indicated repeatedly that discussion of “day after,” post-war planning must await the crushing of Hamas’ government and military capabilities in the Gaza Strip. Last […]

The post Netanyahu thinks he can wait out Biden in Gaza appeared first on Asia Times.