Great news: Israel and Arab nations brought closer to each other thanks to Iran

That's right, after years of enmity, and mutual distrust, Israel and Arab nations have finally found a reason to get along; Iran. With the announcement of a deal between the P5+1 that includes Russia, France, Germany, the UK, China and the US, Israel and Saudi Arabia have come out against the agreement. Most Gulf states are also expected to oppose the deal. Both Israel and the Arab regimes in the region fear the rising Persian power, and each will seek new ways of undermining it. Israel will try to dismantle the nuclear deal in Congress, where it has a lot of support, while Saudi Arabia and its allies will seek to undermine Iranian influence in the region by rebuilding the old Arab front against Iran. This means patching up and finding common ground with Turkey. In a way, the Arabs and Israel have ended up in an alliance of sorts, with the end goal being, the containment of Iranian influence.

In short, the more these guys are forced to cooperate, the easier it will be for them to live with one another in the region.

Mazel tov!

Update: Well, so much for that. Saudi Arabia just gave a cautious nod to the deal. Then again, Saudi Arabia has a deal with Pakistan to get nukes in case Iran does the same. They will likely still find ways to undermine Iran though, so Israel has that going for them.

Foreign policy is for n00bs, Real Americans follow Israel

That's right, our wonderful GOP has come up with a brilliant idea! Why study the Middle East, and try and come up with complicated answers to the most vexing issues affecting the region? Why waste all that tax payer money, when a free market solution is right at our fingertips? All our independent foreign policy does is to complicate matters that are already quite complex.  Enough waste, they say, enough of trying to fit a round peg through a square hole, or is it a square peg, through a round hole? (ok, we don' quite remember, but you get the point).

In typical republican fashion, and in line with their free market ideology, the GOP have figured out that we can save millions simply by following and supporting Israeli policy(1) in the region. BOOM! A lot less confusion now.

But why stop there? Can you imagine how much we would save, if the US and the Israeli leader where one and the same? Well, someone has at least thought about it.

“It is remarkable,” said William Kristol, editor of The Weekly Standard, a conservative magazine and one of the leading voices promoting Israel’s cause in the United States. Mr. Netanyahu, who goes by the nickname Bibi, has become a rallying point for Republicans, he said. “Bibi would probably win the Republican nomination if it were legal,” he said.

Bibi for President, 2016! You heard it here first, er, second...ok, maybe 4th or 5th, but definitely in the top 100,000 (give or take a couple of million).

1 Since 1985, it has provided nearly $3 billion in grants annually to Israel, with Israel being the largest annual recipient of American aid from 1976 to 2004 and the largest cumulative recipient of aid ($121 billion, not inflation-adjusted) since World War II. - So, we kinda already paid for it, might as well cash in those chips, right?

Hello again...

So, I've been away from blogging for a long time now. I can't say it was because I didn't have anything to say, on the contrary, I just didn't have time to say it. Life has changed, and my time constraints with it. That said, I want to give blog writing one more go. This time, I plan to add a little more humor to my posts. This is the reason I created this new blog, as opposed to continuing with my old one. In that one, I focused on international relations and our place in the world. I'm not exactly sure where this is going, but I do know it will take a much lighter tone than my last one. We'll see how it turns out.