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    Testing America’s National Character

    I hope that Americans who want to believe in the promise of their nation have paid attention to the presidential impeachment trial. I hope that those in the international community still clinging to the hope that America will finally live up to its promise have paid attention to the presidential impeachment trial. We all know the […] More

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    Iowa Caucus: The Democratic Party’s Fine Art of Losing

    The world of presidential electoral politics in the US has, for some time, become the Superbowl of hyperreality. The day after the NFL Superbowl, without the slightest pause, the physical sport of American football yielded the spotlight to the political sport of the presidential primaries, which will be marked by a slow build-up to the […] More

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    Fair Observer Debates the Trump-Kushner “Deal of the Century”

    On January 31, Gary Grappo, a former diplomat and Fair Observer’s chairman of the Board, grudgingly came to the defense of the Trump administration’s “deal of the century” that many feel has abusively been referred to as a “peace plan.” Grappo begins by admitting that it is unambiguously “an Israeli plan.”  His reasoning nevertheless echoes […] More

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    Will 2020 Be Another Victory Year for Trump and Brexit?

    In early 2017, Europe’s far-right parliamentary bloc met in Koblenz, Germany, to plot its political future. The meeting of the bloc’s leaders — which included Marine le Pen from France, Matteo Salvini from Italy and Geert Wilders from the Netherlands — took place shortly after the inauguration of US President Donald Trump. The group was […] More

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    As the Fog of Getting Brexit Done Begins to Settle, What’s Next for Britain?

    The week began with a tragic patch of fog in California, continued with the smoke-and-mirrors diplomacy of Donald Trump and Jared Kushner in the Middle East, and is ending with Boris Johnson kicking off his nation’s great adventure into the mists of the future, the great unknown. What’s the forecast? Eleven months of unabated and […] More

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    With Trump’s Peace Plan on the Table, Palestinians Face an Existential Decision

    Following President Donald Trump’s long-awaited unveiling of his “deal of the century” Middle East peace plan on January 28, the Palestinians now confront an existential moment: find a way to make it work or begin wrestling with how to accommodate a single state. The optics of Trump’s announcement ceremony said it all. A beaming Israeli […] More

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    Cubans Feel the Blow of US Sanctions

    In Havana, Cuba, the effects of sanctions imposed by the Trump administration have seeped their way into daily life: the long lines of cars outside gas stations, the dwindling stock on store shelves, the increasingly common apagones, or power outages. In early September 2019, Cuba’s President Miguel Díaz-Canel appeared on live television to address the […] More