AboutArticles by Michael Jansen

Rebuilding culture

10 Mar 2022

On May 18 last year, during its 11-day bombing campaign on Gaza, Israel demolished the five-storey building housing Samir Mansour’s bookstore, the largest in the strip, reducing 100,000 books to...

Russia-Nato faceoff spells disaster for the world

06 Mar 2022

Russia’s bungled invasion of Ukraine was not “unprovoked,” as Western governments, media outlets, and public opinion loudly proclaim, but was provoked long-term by unheeding eastwards expansion of Nato after the...

Double standards

03 Mar 2022

Under US leadership Nato and the European Union (EU) have mobilised compelling military and financial resources to counter and halt Russia’s invasion and occupation of Ukraine. They have provided Ukrainian...

Russian invasion sees no political gains for Biden

27 Feb 2022

The Russian invasion of Ukraine has morphed into a war of miscalculation and misinformation. Russian President Vladimir Putin miscalculated when he thought a massive deployment of troops on Ukraine’s frontiers...

Caught in the middle

24 Feb 2022

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky is a man caught in the middle of an East-West Cold War-style tussle and is trying to do the best for his vulnerable, conflicted country. While...

The human cost of US freezing Afghan funds

20 Feb 2022

Last week International Rescue Committee chief David Miliband told CNN’s Christiane Amanpour that the US and its European allies have adopted a “catastrophe of choice” policy for Taliban-controlled Afghanistan. The...

Gold getter

17 Feb 2022

Gold medal skier Gu Ailing, a San Francisco-born 18-year-old Stanford university student, has attracted both praise and criticism as she represents China rather than the US at the Winter Olympics...

Most Americans feel Biden should keep out of Ukraine

13 Feb 2022

The over-hyped Ukraine crisis could be resolved with one simple word: neutrality. If Ukraine were to choose neutrality over Nato and the Western powers were to agree on inclusive Europe-wide...

Controversies, covid and consternation

10 Feb 2022

Last Friday’s splendid opening ceremony of the 24th Winter Olympic Games, which coincide with the Chinese New Year symbolised by the tiger, launched 16 days of events that are gripping...

Operation against Qurayshi a good PR exercise for Biden

06 Feb 2022

US President Joe Biden hailed the demise of Daesh leader Abu Ibrahim Al Qurayshi during a US commando raid in Syria’s north-western Idlib province as a major victory in the...

Michael Jansen

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