author - oman observer

In September 1996, I visited Tehran, Iran, for the first time. I stayed at the Homa Hotel, formerly a Sheraton. I wrote at the time that fixed above the door in the lobby was a sign that read, in...

Let’s stop beating around the bush: Israel’s far-right government, led by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, is spitting in America’s face and telling us it’s raining. It’s not raining. Bibi...

One of the biggest political lessons I learned covering the Middle East for four-plus decades is that there is only one good thing about extremists: They don’t know when to stop. As a result, they...

Every day now, I sit at my computer and ask myself: What is there left to say about the two news stories I care about most? One is unfolding in my hometown, on the banks of the Mississippi River; the...

President Trump said on Tuesday that Venezuela would begin handing over oil worth up to $3 billion that Trump would dole out “to benefit the people of Venezuela and the United States.” On what...

Every few years, I am reminded of one of my cardinal rules of journalism: Whenever you see elephants flying, don’t laugh, take notes. Because if you see elephants flying, something very different is...

I am sure President Donald Trump and his envoys to Russia, Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner, sincerely want to stop the killing in Ukraine, but they are failing and will continue to fail as long as...

Listening to President Donald Trump telling Israelis and Arabs on Monday that they were at “the historic dawn of a new Middle East” was like watching Trump selling his bankers on a plan to build...

Sometimes you have to get outside America, and go to a place like Ukraine, to see the full impact of Donald Trump’s policies on both our country and the world. What I saw so clearly from Kyiv...

I will leave it to historians to debate whether Israel is committing genocide in the Gaza Strip. But what is absolutely clear to me right now is that this Israeli government is committing suicide,...

Of all the terrible things Donald Trump has said and done as president, the most dangerous one just happened on Friday. Trump, in effect, ordered our trusted and independent government office of...

There are so many things to say in the wake of the US bombing of three key Iranian nuclear facilities that it is easy to get lost in the gripping details. So for now, let me try to step back and...

Israelis, diaspora Jewry and friends of Israel everywhere need to understand that the way Israel is fighting the war in the Gaza Strip today is laying the groundwork for a fundamental recasting of how...

I struggle these days whenever someone asks me for my political affiliation. But if you really force me, I’d describe myself as a 'Waymo Democrat.' Waymos are the self-driving electric taxis started...

There was a time when a meeting between the president of the United States and the prime minister of Israel brought only pride to both Israeli and American Jews, who saw two democratic leaders working...

After two trips to China in the past four months, I’ve been trying to say this every way I know how: Folks, you just don’t understand.Covid had terrible effects on human health and mortality, but...

Donald Trump is not known for doing his homework — he’s more of a go-with-my-gut kind of guy. What I find most terrifying about what Trump is doing today is that he seems to be largely relying on...

There is a lot of talk in Beijing this week over when President Donald Trump and President Xi Jinping of China will meet face to face. Some Chinese experts say the two leaders need to wait a few...

Whenever President Donald Trump talks about Ukraine there is always something off, something missing, that makes you wonder what he is really up to — and his brief remarks on Ukraine to a joint...

President Donald Trump’s plan to take over the Gaza Strip, remove its 2 million Palestinians and turn the coastal desert strip into some sort of Club Med proves only one thing: how short a distance...