On Middle East Affairs

Volume XLII, No. 2

INTERPRETING THE MIDDLE EAST FOR NORTH AMERICANS

THE U.S. ROLE IN THE MIDDLE

EAST

March/April 2023

✮ INTERPRETING NORTH AMERICA FOR THE MIDDLE EAST

And The Israeli Occupation Of Palestine

8 Blinken Visits Israel/Palestine Amid Heightened Violence—Mariam Barghouti, Steven Simon, Midde East Monitor

12 Israel’s Military Leaders Fueled a New Wave of Terror Attacks, and They Knew It Gideon Levy

13 Israel’s New Hard-line Government Has Made Headlines— The Bigger Demographic Changes that Caused It, Not so Much Prof. Michael Brenner

15 Israel’s Far-Right Government Alienates Even American Zionists Allan C. Brownfeld

18 Israel Bounces Dead Cats at U.N. Ian Williams

20 Palestine is My Cause: Arabs Reaffirm Support for Palestinians, Rejection of the Occupation

Dr. Ramzy Baroud

22 Celebrating Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. While Supporting Apartheid Walter L. Hixson

29 Can a Conservative Movement for Palestine

Emerge?—Dale Sprusansky

31 Israel’s Ambassador to Canada Resigns Over “Different” Policy in Israel Candice Bodnaruk

58 John Kennedy Sometimes Hallucinates Brings a New Spin to Shireen Abu Akleh’s Journey

—Mohammed Omer

SPECIAL REPORTS

24 Kevin McCarthy’s Misguided War on Ilhan Omar Daniel Larison

26 Goodbye 117th Congress and Hello to the 118th House Members—Julia Pitner

34 Abu Ghraib Remembrance—George Aldridge

36 The Trial of Kidnapped Libyan Could Unravel Entire U.S. Lockerbie Bombing Narrative Mustafa Fetouri

40 Is Membership in SCO a Great Triumph for Iran?

Stasa Salacanin

42 A Cooler China-Iran Relationship

—Mohammad Javad Mousavizadeh

44 Anwar Ibrahim Wins Malaysia’s Premiership

—John Gee

70 In Loving Memory: Virginia Businessman’s Donation to Hospital in Gaza—Reilly Holder

72 John Goelet, in Memoriam—Delinda C. Hanley

ON THE COVER: People march on Jan. 29, 2023 in Chicago, during a protest organized by the Chicago Coalition for Justice in Palestine against the killing of 10 people in the Jenin refugee camp during an Israeli military operation on Jan. 26. Israeli forces killed 10 Palestinians and wounded 20 in a raid on Jenin refugee camp in the West Bank. (PHOTO BY JACEK BOCZARSKI/ANADOLU AGENCY VIA GETTY IMAGES)