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   Politics & Policies by Claude Salhani

a different  perspective on Middle East politics & policies...


Politics and Policies: What's Next in the Middle East?


Hezbollah, the Lebanese Shiite movement, is building training facilities in the eastern Bekaa Valley within close proximity of the Syrian border, reported a local Beirut newspaper earlier this week. The facility, according to the report, is clearly visible to Israeli spy drones that conduct daily reconnaissance flights over Lebanon. And the site can also be seen using a simple computer with Google Earth software, if, as the report mentions, one knows where to look and what to look for.

The site comprises what is described as a suspected driving training course, along with a 100-meter firing range and other facilities that includes an urban terrain assault course. Western intelligence officials and imagery analysts seem to confirm the report. The imagery dates back to 2008, just two years after the last major confrontation between Hezbollah and Israel.

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Dealing With Ankara No Turkey Trot for Damascus
By Claude Salhani


As Bob Dylan used to sing back in the 1960s: "The times, they are a-changin'." Indeed the times they are changing, even in Syria, the last bastion of staunch Arab nationalism. And if the Assad dynasty began its reign in a bloodless coup, here too, things have changed.

When it comes to intra-Arab issues, Syria's tactics of resorting to strong-arm policies when dealing in the complex, complicated and, often, backstabbing politics of the Middle East stems from the fact that Damascus has dealt with parties that have been politically and/or militarily far weaker than itself. By and large this has been the secret to the Assad clan's success over the past 40 years.
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From the archives

War with China?

The Four Day War: The Iran/Israel conflagration, a history.

The state of dis-Arabia     

A-French-faux-pas?















Islam Without a Veil
 
   At the height of the Cold War US President John F. Kennedy stood in front of the Berlin Wall and addressed the world: “There are some who say that communism is the wave of the future. Let them come to Berlin.

 Today, the threat of communism has dissipated after the Soviet Union imploded, giving way to a new conflict, some would say between Islam and the rest of the world. Some advocate that there can be no understanding or common ground between the House of Islam and the non-Muslim world. Indeed, ever since the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001 by 19 Muslim terrorists, Islam has come under the spotlight and what emerged was not a pretty picture. Hijackings, bombings, beheadings, suicide fanatics who killed scores of innocents, including women and children, slaughtered other Muslims  Nineteen men was all it took to stain the name of one of the world's three great religions and to open a schism between the East and the West, between the Judeo-Christian West and the mostly Muslim East. However, true Islam offers a very different picture.

To paraphrase President John F. Kennedy let me say those of you who believe that there cannot be a gentler, kinder and more pragmatic face of Islam, let them come to Kazakhstan.

















Books by 
Claude Salhani                                                       

About
Claude Salhani is  a seasoned journalist,
      author of several books, special reports and hundreds of articles, commentaries and analysis.
 His focus has been mostly on the politics of Middle East and on US policies as they relate to the Greater Middle East region. He also focuses on

   politicized Islam
and terrorism.

(see more)

              




Contact Claude: 
   Email: Claude@politicspolicies.com
                 Claude@ClaudeSalhani.com

    On the web:

www.claudesalhani.com

www.politicspolicies.com

 
“…a fascinating walk through the Arab world and the events of recent years, while at the same time it reminds us that one's lack of history will often make us repeat our mistakes.  Mr. Salhani gives us an amazing perspective on the real situation in the world, one that US policy advisors would be smart to follow.”
 --Edward Gabriel, former US Ambassador to Morocco.
 
We need a careful and discriminating analyst to help us avoid being blown up intellectually and, alas, even literally. Claude Salhani is that analyst. He is familiar with all the twists, turns and disappointments of the Middle East’s history because (among other things) it is his history. He is moved to write by a loyalty to the people with whom he grew up and whose pains he feels as his own. But he also knows that many Middle Eastern problems arise in part from the clumsy interventions of outsiders ignorant of that history and so liable to repeat their clumsiness. Claude is always lucid, readable, and entertaining—his prose is as sharp and well-defined… Claude’s love and knowledge of the Middle East and Middle Easterners shine through the analysis.
--John O’Sullivan, former speechwriter for British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher

 

 
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 All images and  material in these pages  are copyrighted by the author and/or his agents and/or representatives and may not be reproduced, redistributed, or manipulated in any form without written consent, © 2009 by Claude Salhani. All Rights Reserved.