AboutArticles by Michael Jansen

Tokyo Olympic Games and virus challenges

25 Jul 2021

The Tokyo Olympic Games are too big to fail but it remains to be seen whether the athletes or Covid will prevail. A second postponement or cancellation of the 2020...

An honourable award

22 Jul 2021

With the award of Knight of France’s National Order of Merit, Raji Sourani became the most highly and widely decorated civilian in the Arab world. The knighthood, conferred by French...

Selfish politicians send Lebanon to ruin

18 Jul 2021

In despair over the failure of entrenched politicians to form a government which would rescue Lebanon from economic collapse and ruin, numerous commentators have warned it is becoming a failed...

Continuing colonisation

15 Jul 2021

The West Bank town of Beita, south of Nablus, has become the latest icon in the 140-year history of the Palestinian struggle against Israeli colonalisation. Following the clashes between Palestinians...

Biden’s two dangerous foreign policy initiatives

12 Jul 2021

President Joe Biden has swept away many of his predecessor’s more egregious decisions but has retained two dangerously damaging foreign policy initiatives: Donald Trump’s abandonment of the 2015 nuclear deal...

A dire situation

08 Jul 2021

As Lebanon continued its tragic slide toward economic collapse, the World Bank reported the crisis could be among the world’s three worst since the middle of the 19th century. Since...

Freedom for Afghans is fast fleeting

04 Jul 2021

The death last week at 88 of former US Defence Secretary Donald Rumsfeld coincided with the cut-losses-and-run of US forces from Afghanistan, the country invaded and occupied by a US-led...

Culture cuisines

01 Jul 2021

A familiar face and bald pate on cinema’s silver screen, Stanley Tucci is striking out as a tour guide and host in a television quest for Italy’s finest food. “Searching...

Afghanistan now faces the Taliban once again

27 Jun 2021

During the summer of 2002, US Secretary of State Colin Powell warned President George W. Bush against invading and occupying Iraq. “You are going to be the proud owner of...

The irony

24 Jun 2021

On June 17, US President Joe Biden belatedly signed a law decreeing “Juneteenth,” celebrated for 155 years across the US as “Emancipation Day” for Black slaves. The name has been...

Michael Jansen

The author, a well-respected observer of Middle East affairs, has three books on the Arab-Israeli conflict.