Showing 11 - 20 of 58
Israel, Hamas and the elusive ceasefire
Oped, Gwynne Dyer, Published on 07/05/2024
» Hamas did not need a ceasefire. It had already demonstrated that Israel could not eradicate it. It had achieved its primary goal of wrecking the anti-Iran alliance that was brewing between Israel and the major Arab Gulf states. And it doesn't care about how many Palestinians get killed; they are all "martyrs" for the cause.
Democracy survives crucial test in Senegal
Oped, Gwynne Dyer, Published on 04/04/2024
» The crisis in Senegal, the one country in West Africa that has never had a military coup, has passed. Few people outside Africa were paying close attention to it, but I'm sure you will be pleased to know that democracy has survived.
Israel-Hamas war can only be stopped by Biden
Oped, Gwynne Dyer, Published on 28/02/2024
» More than four months into the sixth Arab-Israeli War, with about 1,500 Israelis dead and 30,000 Palestinians dead, all the major local actors are stuck. Only the United States can stop the killing -- if it chooses to do so.
Imran Khan: from cricket star to jailbird
Oped, Gwynne Dyer, Published on 06/02/2024
» Pakistan's former prime minister, former cricket superstar and latter-day populist politician Imran Khan was having a quiet week in jail, six months into his three-year sentence for corruption, and suddenly all hell broke loose.
Israel held hostage -- and Joe Biden, too
Oped, Gwynne Dyer, Published on 06/01/2024
» Israel is withdrawing some troops from Gaza because the reservists who were called up for the fighting amount to 10%–15% of the country's workforce and the economy is showing the strain. But "nobody is talking about doves of peace flying", said a senior Israeli official. The intense fighting in Gaza will continue "for six months at least".
Long ceasefire in Gaza may snooker Hamas
Oped, Gwynne Dyer, Published on 24/11/2023
» There are really three parties to the "pause" -- nobody is officially using the word "ceasefire" -- that brings at least a temporary end to the fighting in the Gaza Strip. Two of the three parties, Hamas and the United States, would very much like it to turn into a permanent ceasefire, but Israel emphatically does not.
Predicting what Israel will do next is easy
Oped, Gwynne Dyer, Published on 08/07/2023
» The two-day Israeli military incursion into the Palestinian city of Jenin in the northern West Bank (12 Palestinians killed, one Israeli dead) seems at first glance like just another example of "mowing the lawn". That's what the Israeli Defence Forces (IDF) call these periodic futile raids they make to kill some Palestinian fighters.
Prigozhin and the aftermath of Russian folly
Oped, Gwynne Dyer, Published on 30/06/2023
» 'I said to Putin: 'We could waste [Prigozhin], no problem. If not on the first try, then on the second.' I told him: 'Don't do this'," said Aleksander Lukashenko, long-ruling dictator of Belarus, clearly delighted at having upstaged his arrogant Russian counterpart. The worm had turned, and it was the Russian dictator who needed help.
Is it the end of populism, or just a pause?
News, Gwynne Dyer, Published on 19/06/2023
» We're going to miss the populist "big beasts" now that they're gone. Who will now tell us that "Voting Conservative will cause your wife to have bigger breasts and increase your chances of owning a BMW M3"? (Boris Johnson) Who will describe Barack Obama as "handsome, young and also suntanned"? (Silvio Berlusconi)
Sudan: Thieves fall out and the people suffer
Oped, Gwynne Dyer, Published on 18/04/2023
» It's a pity that both sides can't lose in the war that broke out between rival generals in Sudan on Saturday, but the best that the 48 million Sudanese can hope for now is that one side loses quickly. Beyond that, it's all bad: the rival generals both want to strangle the democratic revolution that began in Khartoum four years ago.