Dr. James M. Dorsey is a senior fellow at the S. Rajaratnam School of International Studies, co-director of the University of Würzburg’s Institute for Fan Culture, and co-host of the New Books in Middle Eastern Studies podcast. James is the author of The Turbulent World of Middle East Soccer blog, a book with the same title as well as Comparative Political Transitions between Southeast Asia and the Middle East and North Africa, co-authored with Dr. Teresita Cruz-Del Rosario and Shifting Sand ...
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Gaza’s fault lines are less linear than meets the eye
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9:25Like much else in the Middle East, Gaza’s fault lines are less linear than meets the eye.Av James M. Dorsey
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Want to join the fight against anti-Semitism Check your anti-Semitic antecedents at the door.
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9:49It’s ok to be anti-Jewish as long as you support Israel. That is Israeli Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu’s bottom line.Mr. Netanyahu is willing to risk losing European officialdom and prominent mainstream intellectuals and activists in the fight against anti-Semitism to garner the support of the global far-right, despite its anti-Jewish roots and…
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At first glance, Israeli Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu could not have a better friend in the White House.In his first two months in office, President Donald J. Trump authorised US$11 billion in arms sales, signed a swath of executive orders to crack down on criticism of Israel, put universities and student protesters in his crosshairs, and legi…
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When Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu first cultivated Evangelical and far-right support for Israel, he didn’t worry about their theologically rooted associations with anti-Semitism and/or willingness to turn a blind eye to racially-motivated anti-Jewish sentiment. It was a bet that paid off for decades. It solidified Republican support for Israel…
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Netanyahu’s reshaped Middle East aligns neatly with Trump’s new world order
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11:41Israeli Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu’s effort to reshape the Middle East aligns neatly with US President Donald J. Trump’s notion of big power geopolitics.In 2023, Mr. Netanyahu outlined elements of his vision in an address to the United Nations General Assembly. The prime minister held up a map that erased Palestine and showed the Golan Heigh…
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With his right hand not knowing what his left hand is doing, Trump plays with fire
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10:57US President Donald J. Trump may be a classic case of the left hand not knowing what the right hand is doing.Mr. Trump’s dealings this week with the Palestinians tell the story.Av James M. Dorsey
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There is logic to Donald J. Trump’s madness.Irrespective of the merits of the US president’s ethics, policies, and style, Mr. Trump’s grenade-throwing shock-and-awe approach has galvanised Arab states into action over Gaza, much like it did with the Europeans regarding their defense and Ukraine policies.“Love him or hate him, Trump has shaken thing…
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Israel joins Russia in laughing its way to the bank after Trump-Zelensky spat
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10:48Russia is not the only country laughing all the way to the bank after US President Donald J. Trump’s war of words with his visiting Ukrainian counterpart, Volodymyr Zelensky.So is Israel. Mr. Trump’s willingness to accommodate Russian President Vladimir Putin serves Israeli Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu’s purpose as he seeks to redraw the Middl…
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Israeli security demands threaten to upset Syria’s apple cart
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8:55Israeli security demands threaten to upset Syria’s apple cart by James M. DorseyAv James M. Dorsey
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US President Trump’s Gaza shock therapy rocks Arab boats
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12:51US President Donald J. Trump’s shock-and-awe Gaza therapy appears to be working.Infuriated by Mr. Trump’s assertion that the United States will take ownership of the Strip, resettle its 2.3 million inhabitants in Egypt, Jordan, and elsewhere, and turn it into a high-end beachfront real estate development has forced Arab leaders to come up with an a…
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Trump can only play both sides against the middle so long
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12:22Second-guessing US President Donald J. Trump is a tricky business.Av James M. Dorsey
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Israel and Hamas adopt hard line as they enter second-phase ceasefire talks
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8:51An Israeli refusal to allow mobile homes and heavy construction equipment into Gaza bodes ill for this week’s second-phase indirect Gaza ceasefire talks with Israel and Hamas hardening their negotiating positions.Av James M. Dorsey
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UAE emerges as the United States and Israel’s best Arab friend
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12:45With Arab leaders gathering in Cairo later this month for an emergency summit on Gaza, the United Arab Emirates has emerged as the United States and Israel’s best Arab friend.Av James M. Dorsey
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Trump puts ‘might is right’ principle on steroids in Gaza and Ukraine
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13:15Might is right.That sums up US President Donald J. Trump’s vision of a 21st-century world order.Barely a month in office, Mr. Trump has not wasted time creating building blocks for his worldview. Mr. Trump’s efforts to end fighting in Ukraine, coupled with his territorial ambitions in Gaza, Greenland, Panama, and Canada, have put the ‘might is righ…
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Saudi Arabia’s Future-Palestine or Zion
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15:40Israeli Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu may have opened a Pandorra’s Box when he suggested creating a Palestinian state on Saudi territory.Mr. Netanyahu wasn’t just throwing a hand grenade into US efforts to engineer Saudi recognition of Israel when he told Israeli television, “The Saudis can create a Palestinian state in Saudi Arabia; they have …
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Marco Rubio treats himself to a Middle East reality check
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8:48Marco Rubio is likely in for a reality check when he visits the Middle East for the first time this week as US Secretary of State.Av James M. Dorsey
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US President Donald J. Trump’s Gaza plan could change the nature of the Gaza war and prolong rather than end the hostilities.Amid calls for a unified Arab response to Mr. Trump’s plan to resettle or ethnically cleanse Gazan Palestinians, according to many Middle Easterners, officials, journalists, analysts, and social media activists are mulling op…
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Palestinian prisoners released by Israel arrive in Ramallah_TRT 9 Feb 2025
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5:33Hamas has released the fifth batch of hostages to the Red Cross.In exchange, Israel will release 183 Palestinian prisoners, some convicted of involvement in attacks that killed dozens of people, including 18 serving life sentences, and 111 detained in Gaza during the war, according to Hamas.James M. Dorsey, an adjunct Senior Fellow, at the S. Rajar…
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Trump focuses Middle Eastern minds with potentially unintended consequences
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10:52US President Donald J. Trump’s call for the permanent resettlement of Gazan Palestinians has focused regional minds, even if the White House and senior officials have walked back key elements of the president’s proposalAv James M. Dorsey
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Trump’s Gaza plan turns the Middle East on its head
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10:49US President Donald J. Trump’s plan to expel Palestinians and take control of Gaza threatens to render second phase ceasefire negotiations to the dustbin of history and kill prospects for Saudi recognition of Israel.So has Mr. Trump’s suggestion that he would decide in the next month whether to endorse Israeli annexation of the West Bank occupied b…
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Trump’s meeting with Netanyahu could decide the Gaza ceasefire’s fate
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9:36Donald Trump’s Oval Office could be Binyamin Netanyahu’s brick wall.That is if the president uses Tuesday’s meeting with Mr. Netanyahu, the first foreign leader to visit Washington since Mr. Trump returned to office, to ensure a successful Israeli-Hamas negotiation of the Gaza ceasefire agreement’s second phase.…
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Trump’s Middle East plan may have legs
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11:27US President Donald J. Trump’s approach to managing the Israeli-Palestinian conflict may have legs, even if Arabs and Muslims reject his call for the resettlement of Gazan Palestinians.Egypt, Jordan, and Palestinians have rejected resettlement in no uncertain terms. So have non-Arab Muslim countries like Indonesia and Albania, who the United States…
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Netanyahu flaunts his ties to the global far-right
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8:50Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu and Israel’s ultra-nationalists and ultra-conservatives have turned Israel into a ‘haven’ for some Jews rather than all Jews.Not only by encouraging an intolerant, supremacist domestic environment hostile to vigorous public debate and equality for all but also by endorsing the far-right’s flirt with language and im…
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Trump’s support for expelling Palestinians fans Middle Eastern fires
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12:02US President Donald J. Trump risks putting relations with Saudi Arabia and other US partners in the region on a knife’s edge, sending the Middle East into a tailspin, and complicating, if not undermining, negotiations to make the three-phase Gaza ceasefire permanent rather than temporary by advocating the removal to Egypt and Jordan of 1.5 million …
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Trump has everyone running in circles when it comes to his Middle East policy
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12:56US President Donald J. Trump has foreign governments, domestic constituencies, journalists, and pundits running in circles as they attempt to identify his Middle East policy.Av James M. Dorsey
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US-backed Israeli efforts to curb freedom of expression are likely to backfire
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12:05US President-elect Donald J. Trump and Israeli Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu may soon diverge in their approaches to a resolution of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.Yet, the Trump administration is set, as a ceasefire takes effect in Gaza, to cement suppression of criticism of the Jewish state, a pillar of Israel’s long-standing effort to mani…
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Trump puts Israelis and Palestinians on a knife’s edge
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9:15Israeli Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu may welcome two Middle East policy goals articulated by US President-elect Donald J. Trump in response to the Gaza ceasefire but may not like what it will take to achieve them.The same is true for the Palestinians, including the West Bank-based, internationally recognised Palestine Authority and Hamas.…
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Decimating Hezbollah and ousting President Bashar al-Assad were the first steps in a Middle Eastern power struggle that is likely to define not only who wields the most influence in Syria but also who will emerge as regional hegemons. Turkey, Israel, and Iran are prime candidates, with countries like Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, and Qata…
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Saudi Arabia and international sports, a tale of politics and greed
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11:47Saudi Arabia brings out the worst in the world of international sports in terms of politics and greed. FIFA’s awarding Saudi Arabia the 2034 World Cup hosting rights is just the tip of the iceberg.The awarding violated the world soccer body’s human rights policy and mocked the sports world’s fiction that sports and politics are separate rather than…
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Iran Fears Setback May Open A Pandora’s Box
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13:03With Donald j. Trump two weeks away from returning to the White House, Iran and its Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC) fear that recent setbacks could open a Pandora’s box.Israel’s puncturing of Swiss cheese-sized holes in the Iran-backed Axis of Resistance has upended the Islamic Republic’s forward defence strategy, raised questions about t…
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Israel’s Military Has A Crisis Even If It Refuses To Admit It
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16:52Israel’s once-vaunted military faces an uncertain future.Not just because the International Court of Justice (ICJ) is set to judge Israel's Gaza war conduct and the issuance by the International Criminal Court (ICC) of arrest warrants for Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu and former Defence Minister Yoav Gallant.But also due to assertions that the …
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Putting Humpty Dumpty together in Syria
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11:53Israel’s demolition of the ill-equipped Syrian military and the recent occupation of additional Syrian territory beyond the Golan Heights it conquered in the 1967 Middle East war is just one obstacle.So is a daunting list of challenges that, if unresolved, threaten the new Syrian rulers’ ability to rebuild an economy ravaged by 14 years of civil wa…
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How important is the Syrian Foreign Minister's first overseas visit to Saudi Arabia_TRT 02012025
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3:37The new leadership in Syria has dispatched officials to Saudi Arabia, for the first official visit outside the country. The delegation is being led by Foreign Minister Asaad al-Shibani, the defense minister and the head of intelligence services. James M. Dorsey, a senior fellow at the S Rajaratnam School of International Studies in Singapore, discu…
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Saudi Arabia balances ‘tolerance’ with support for ultra-conservatives in conflict zones
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11:46Once viewed as a breeder of religious extremism, Saudi Arabia earned brownie points as the international community sighed a sigh of relief when Mohammed bin Salman, the kingdom’s de facto ruler, substantially reduced global funding of ultra-conservative strands of Islam and started to propagate a socially more relaxed interpretation of the faith.Al…
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Israel’s Middle East war-Yemen definitely next, maybe Iran too
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9:46Much like Hezbollah miscalculated with its 15-month-long war of attrition against Israel, Yemen’s Houthi rebels risk being the next target in Israel’s campaign to rewrite the Middle East’s political map.“We will act with strength, determination, and ingenuity. Even if it takes time, the result will be the same as with other terrorist arms,” said Pr…
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Turkey dreams of a neo-Ottoman Middle East
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17:46Syrian President Bashar al-Assad’s fall has seemingly turbocharged Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s neo-Ottoman dreams.Av James M. Dorsey
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James M. Dorsey discusses on Radio Islam International the enormous challenges Syria confronts in the wake of the toppling of President Bashar al-Assad.Av James M. Dorsey
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A US-Israeli masterclass in how to discourage change in Syria
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12:35US and Israeli responses to President Bashar al-Assad’s fall offer a masterclass on how to discourage change in Syria.Rather than test and encourage Syria’s new leader, Ahmed al-Sharaa, aka Abu Mohammed al-Jawlani, US and Israeli actions seem designed to box him in and potentially set him up for failure.…
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Syria may be tired of war, but war may not be tired of Syria
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23:34Syrian rebel leader Ahmed al-Sharaa, aka Abu Mohammed al-Jolani, appears to be a man who picks his battles.Av James M. Dorsey
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Picking up the pieces-Russia and Iran seek to limit losses in Syria
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10:00Policymakers in Tehran and Moscow are asking who lost Syria in a tectonic rewrite of the Middle East’s geopolitical map that has ousted President Bashar al-Assad ‘s principal backers struggling to limit their losses.Av James M. Dorsey
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Saudi Arabia to host the 2034 World Cup -- JMD on the BBC
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4:16Saudi Arabia has been awarded the men's 2034 World Cup. It will be the crowning event in the kingdom’s sport spending spree, having already reportedly invested USD6.3 billion since 2021, as it tries to diversify away from oil. James M. Dorsey discusses FIFA’s awarding of the World Cup to Saudi Arabia with Steve Lai on the BBC.…
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How did Saudi Arabia land the 2034 World Cup_SkyNews 12122024
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15:11Saudi Arabia has been awarded the men's 2034 World Cup.It will be the crowning event in its sport spending spree, having already reportedly invested £5bn since 2021, as it tries to diversify away from oil.Niall Paterson is joined by Sky News' Rob Harris and Middle East football expert James M Dorsey to discuss what it means for football and the kin…
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Ahmed al Shara, aka Abu Mohammed al-Jolani, would like you to think he is a changed man.Av James M. Dorsey
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James M Dorsey The Fall Of Syria JFRadio 9 Dec 2024
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26:58“If Assad doesn’t have a force that’s willing to stand up for him, what are the Russians and Iranians going to do?”Dr. James Dorsey explains on the John Fredericks Show how the fall of Assad’s regime in Syria is a significant blow to Russia and Iran’s presence in the region.Av James M. Dorsey
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Assad Toppled by Syrian Rebels in a Tectonic Shift for the Middle East w_ James Dorsey
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1:02:52On this edition of Parallax Views, Bashar al-Assad has fled Syria as the country's rebels have taken over the capital, Damascus. Assad has been President of Syria since 2000. His toppling at the hands of Syrian rebels, most notably Hay'at Tahrir al-Sham led by Abu Mohammed al-Golani, represents a historic moment both for Syria, which has been ravag…
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Syrian rebels are gunning for Damascus. Turkey may like the prospect
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13:21Syrian rebels know what they want. Having captured two of Syria’s four largest cities, Aleppo and Hama, the insurgents are gunning for Homs, the country’s third largest urban center, and then the capital Damascus.That is what Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan would want if it doesn’t significantly accept Turkish apple carts In Washington, Mosc…
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It’s make or break for Syria’s Bashar al-Assad, not only on the battlefield
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17:38A week into a rebel offensive, Syria is the potential fulcrum of a tectonic reordering of Middle Eastern geopolitics with President Bashar al-Assad as a key player.That is if Mr. Al-Assad is willing to play ball this time around.Av James M. Dorsey
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Ceasefire brings Lebanon’s chicken home to roost
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15:47Gulf leaders told Lebanese Prime Minister Najib Mikati what they said to Palestinians when he asked the region’s wealthy energy exporters to fund the reconstruction of areas devastated by Israel’s war machine: “We will not pour money into a black hole. Call us when you have put your house in order.."…
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Israeli commander’s West Bank woes spotlight a military tied up in knots
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11:53Israeli commander’s West Bank woes spotlight a military tied up in knots by James M. DorseyAv James M. Dorsey
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