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A Most Discreet Intervention

By May 30, 2025
IDF soldiers prepare near Israeli-Syrian border

Jerusalem Post, 30/5 Israel offering limited assistance to rebels in southern Syria Since the outbreak of the civil war in Syria in 2011, Israeli officials have observed events to the north with caution and concern. The concern has derived from the presence of anti-Israel paramilitary and terrorist elements on both sides of the fighting lines in Syria. The caution, meanwhile, relates to the very deep aversion felt in the Israeli system toward the possibility of Israel’s being sucked … [Read more...]

Filed Under: GLORIA, Israel, Syria Tagged With:

ISIS Committing Atrocities Against Civilian Population in Northern Syria

By May 27, 2025
Fighters from the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) marching in Raqqa, Syria.

PJmedia, 27/5. Co-authored with Aymenn Jawad al-Tamimi (WARNING: contains graphic images.) Evidence is mounting that the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria (ISIS) is systematically committing atrocities in eastern and northern Syria, its areas of control. While individual incidents of brutality have been well-documented, the near-impossibility of on-the-spot reporting in the area controlled by the organization has made it difficult to build a general description of the situation there. … [Read more...]

Filed Under: GLORIA, Syria Tagged With: , ,

Turnaround: Is Saudi Arabia shifting course towards Iran?

By May 23, 2025
Saudi King Abdullah bin Abdul Aziz al-Saud and US President Barack Obama inspect an honour guard

Jerusalem Post, 23/5 A number of recent Saudi moves and official statements have led to speculation regarding a possible shift on the kingdom’s stance toward Iran. The Saudis appear to be moving at least on a declarative level away from a position according to which Iranian ambitions are a threat to be resisted, toward an attempt to accommodate Teheran. The speculation regarding a changed Saudi stance rests largely on three recent public events. The first was the meeting last month … [Read more...]

Filed Under: GLORIA, Iran, Saudi Arabia Tagged With:

[PHOTO] At a Front Line Position Near Jarabulus, April, 2014

By May 16, 2025
Jonathan Spyer at a front line position near Jarabulus, April, 2014

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Filed Under: GLORIA, Syria Tagged With: , ,

[PHOTO] YPG Fighters in Action During an ISIS Attack on Haj Ismail Village, April, 2014

By May 16, 2025
YPG fighters in action during an ISIS attack on Haj Ismail village, April, 2014

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Filed Under: GLORIA, Syria Tagged With: ,

Wars Within Wars

By May 16, 2025
PYD supporters at a funeral for a local of a village outside of Afrin, Syria, in 2012.

Weekly Standard, 16/5 With Syrian presidential elections scheduled for June, the incumbent and shoo-in for reelection, Syrian president Bashar al-Assad, is campaigning on the promise that 2014 will be the year in which military operations in Syria end. However, the situation in northern Syria, exemplified by the conflict in the canton of Kobani, an area stretching from the Turkish border to south of Kobani city, and from Tell Abyad in the east to Jarabulus in the west, casts doubt on … [Read more...]

Filed Under: GLORIA, Kurds, Syria Tagged With: ,

Palestinian Magical Thinking

By May 10, 2025
Palestinian Authority Lead Negotiator Saeb Erekat faces U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry in Ramallah, 2013.

Palestinian Magical Thinking PJMedia, April 30, 2014. So April 29th has arrived, and the nine month period allotted by the current US Administration for its effort to resolve the Israeli-Palestinian dispute has come and gone. Entirely predictably, it has failed, in its entirety. What can be learned from the failure? And what may be expected to happen now? The failure of the talks was predictable first and foremost because of the irreconcilable positions of the sides. This is not … [Read more...]

Filed Under: GLORIA, Palestinian, Palestinians, U.S. Policy on the Middle East Tagged With: , , , ,

Sisi Wages ‘War by Other Means.’

By May 10, 2025
Abdel Fattah al-Sisi

  Since the coup of July 3, 2013, Egypt’s de facto ruler General Abd al Fattah al-Sisi has pursued a clear and uncompromising policy toward the Muslim Brotherhood and Egypt’s Islamists. Sisi has blocked any return to politics for the Brotherhood, instead seeking to maneuver them into the area of open confrontation with the authorities. He has dismissed any genuine distinction between the Brotherhood and the more extreme and openly insurgent jihadi currents. In so doing, … [Read more...]

Filed Under: Egypt, GLORIA, Israel Tagged With:

The Peace Process Is Dead. Let It Lie Down.

By April 11, 2025
2014 Israel-Palestinian Peace Talks

The April 29th deadline has not yet been reached, but it may be said with confidence that the initiative by Secretary of State John Kerry to revive the ‘peace process’ between Israelis and Palestinians has already reached its final destination: failure. The failure of this initiative was obvious from the beginning. To everyone except, apparently, Kerry himself. This reality lent an element of low farce to the entire proceedings. By now, it should really be obvious to any serious … [Read more...]

Filed Under: GLORIA, Israel, Israel-Palestinian Issues, Palestinians, U.S. Policy on the Middle East Tagged With: ,

Assad’s Boasts vs. Syrian Reality

By April 11, 2025
A Shaam News Network image shows damage in Qusayr, near the flashpoint Syrian city of Homs.

Syrian President Bashar Assad this week said that he expects that in the course of 2014, major military operations in Syria will end. Following this, all that will remain will be the need to deal with the ongoing problem of ‘terrorists.’ The bullish confidence of the Syrian leader followed recent remarks by Hizballah General-Secretary Hassan Nasrallah, who said in a speech that the danger that the Syrian regime could fall has now been averted. What do such statements reflect? Is the … [Read more...]

Filed Under: GLORIA, Syria Tagged With:
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