Harold Rhode

Western diplomats who think that ceasefires and compromise with Iran and its proxies will pave the way to peace are deluding themselves, according  to Middle East scholar Harold Rhode. In the Arab and Muslim worlds, negotiating before avenging prior humiliations is regarded as a sign of weakness and defeat, Rhode told a Jewish Policy Center webinar […]

Following Israel’s recent strike on Houthi targets in Yemen, White House National Security Communications Advisor John F. Kirby said: “We did not participate in today’s Israeli attack on Yemen and did not help Israel.” This is wonderful news. It shows to the Iranians, Arab states and others that Israel is an independent actor, not a […]

Before Harold Rhode spent 28 years working in the Pentagon, most of the time advising secretaries of defense on the Muslim world, he had lived and studied in Egypt, Syria, Iran, Turkey, Jordan and elsewhere in the greater Middle East. Rhode had been a university student in Iran during that country’s Islamic revolution of 1978 […]