Author Archives: Tony

The Dissembling of Dennis Ross

It is time someone in the mainstream media (besides my hard-working friend Scott MacLeod, here and here) took to task Dennis Ross, the AIPAC man who served the first Bush Adminsitration and then Clinton as a Middle East mediator, before … Continue reading

Posted in Situation Report, Unholy War | 15 Comments

Still Looking Busy in the Mideast

In his latest effort to look busy on the Israeli-Palestinian front, President Bush has now proposed a regional conference to be chaired by Secretary of State Condi Rice, in which Israel would join its Arab neighbors at the table. But … Continue reading

Posted in Situation Report, Unholy War | 24 Comments

Perry (& others): Why an EU That Knows Better Apes the U.S. on Hamas

A couple of days ago, I did a quick survey of some of my regular readers to canvas opinions on why it is that Europe, so obviously knowing better, has nonetheless wholly embraced the disastrous U.S. boycott of the democratically-elected … Continue reading

Posted in Guest Columns, Situation Report | 39 Comments

How the 1967 War Doomed Israel

I. Avir harim kalul ba’yayin, ve reach oranim… The opening lines of Naomi Shemer’s legendary Yerushalayim Shel Zahav (Jerusalem of Gold) can still bring goosebumps to my flesh, even decades after I deconstructed and relinquished the mythology connoted by the … Continue reading

Posted in A Wondering Jew | 31 Comments

The West’s Costly Hamas Error

Hamas represents the moderate current in Islamism that advocates for democracy and electoral politics. The alternative — which the West is effectively chosing — is violent nihilism First, it’s worth noting that the whole idea that Palestinian “moderates” are being … Continue reading

Posted in Featured Analysis, Situation Report | 93 Comments

A Playground Lesson for Bush

How a spontaneous alliance of jocks, do-gooders and lesser bullies against the biggest bully at the school changed the balance of power at Milnerton Primary Continue reading

Posted in From Tony's Archive | 7 Comments

Cracks in the Anti-Hamas Front

It’s all very well getting Egypt, Jordan and Israel together with Mahmoud Abbas to scold Hamas and talk about “strengthening Abbas,” but the problem is that the U.S. and Israel, on the one hand, and the Arabs and Abbas, on … Continue reading

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Cracks in the Anti-Hamas Facade

In a fashion typical of its strategic and tactical ineptitude, the Bush Administration has responded to Hamas’s ouster of Fatah security forces from Gaza by madly rushing to cobble together an anti-Hamas alliance through a series of high profile gestures … Continue reading

Posted in Situation Report, Unholy War | 36 Comments

The Long March of General Tso

Don’t Try This At Home: (No Chinese chef would dare!) Chicken chop suey is an American creation I’ll freely admit to being a sucker, at least occasionally, for the sweet and starchy Hunan/Canton/Sichuan fare — cooked by people who were … Continue reading

Posted in Cuisine | Comments Off on The Long March of General Tso

The 8 Fallacies of Bush’s Abbastan Plan

“Hello, Condoleezza Rice,” the Hamas gunman joked, speaking into the President Mahmoud Abbas (a.k.a. Abu Mazen)’s phone from the Palestinian Authority president’s chair in his abandoned Gaza office. “You have to deal with me now, there is no Abu Mazen … Continue reading

Posted in Featured Analysis, Situation Report | 52 Comments