Daniel Stoker

Professor of Middle East (southwest Asian) Studies, LDS, lover of food and travel, and annoying football fan.

[Daniel Stoker @stoker_daniel]

@maklelan Not to mention that so much of the Jewish and Christian scripture were deeply influenced by surrounding cultures (ie Mesopotamian, Persian, Greek, etc.). Much of the Judeo-Christian rhetoric is historically illiterate.

[Cédric Labrousse @CdricLabrousse]

SUWAYDAH OU L'IMPASSE QUI VA MENER AU DRAME...

Le sheikh al-Hijri, devenu le visage de la rébellion du Jabal, a pris la parole pour évoquer les horreurs de juillet 2025 et ses conséquences. Il a assuré que l'avenir de la région serait son indépendance de la Syrie, sinon son rattachement à un autre pays (Israël).

Mais tout cela est une impasse. Il le sait. Et de se demander vraiment où tout cela va mener la région qu'il dit défendre...

PS : c'est un autonomiste / régionaliste qui écrit. 1/

[AJ+ @ajplus]

This is the moment an Israeli soldier threw a stun grenade into a Palestinian’s car. CCTV footage shows soldiers trapping the passengers inside the vehicle and pointing a rifle at them as they tried to escape.

[Daniel Stoker @stoker_daniel]

@azelin Add to that how decades of military in Egypt have ruined its economy and impoverished millions. What claim to competent rule does Egypt have?

[The Big Pharaoh @TheBigPharaoh]

Sanctions Hurt Economies, Not Dictators

There is still too much emphasis in the West on the idea that authoritarian regimes somehow bend under economic pressure. They generally don't.

Saddam Hussein became enormously wealthy under sanctions. Bashar al-Assad and those around him also accumulated significant wealth despite years of sanctions. The Iranian regime has likewise shown remarkable resilience.

Economic pressure alone is unlikely to make such regimes change course because they are far less susceptible to public pressure than many assume. The reason is simple: if large-scale protests threaten their grip on power, they kill their own people.

[Gregory Brew @gbrew24]

Increasingly I'm not even sure "hardline" is a useful term at this point, it may obscure more than it illuminates.

[Ali A Olomi @aaolomi]

rich billionaire uses all his wealth searching for immortality. ends up betrayed by his own body destroying itself. they wrote whole Greek myths about this

[Ihab Hassan @IhabHassane]

It's pathetic how many self-described "leftists" in the United States can't even bring themselves to support their own national team.

You don't have to support every decision your government makes to support your country's team.

[Timothy E Kaldas @tekaldas]

This is Sisi confessing he saddled Egypt with massive debt and nearly bankrupted the state to build his new $58 billion capital city so he could move state institutions far from the reach of future Egyptian protestors. He drove poverty so high that Egypt stopped publishing data.

[Danny Boy @Care2much18]

One of the many problems with countering lies is it takes two seconds to lie and a lot more effort to share truth.

The truth in this case is that 13 years ago some terrorists stole a USAID tent.

13 years later a trillionaire manipulates that photo to lie.

I'm going to bed.

[Daniel Stoker @stoker_daniel]

@joshua_landis @karimbitar Furthermore, given Israel's behavior and rhetoric, it is not difficult to imagine it flexing its muscle on its borders regardless of who they are. The Israeli right it already imagining its next enemy (Turkey, Egypt, etc.) before they have vanquished their current one (Iran).

[Daniel Stoker @stoker_daniel]

@joshua_landis @karimbitar I don't disagree to a point with that line of thinking, but you asked why would the Gulf states agree to US sponsored deal, and it is likely that they don't see the ultimate outcome as Lebanon falling under the Israeli sphere but into an Arab sphere of influence . . .

[Daniel Stoker @stoker_daniel]

@IhabHassane Does she not realize that Dov Weissglass (Sharon confidant) is on record saying the purpose of the withdrawal was to kill pressure for a two-state solution?

[Daniel Stoker @stoker_daniel]

@joshua_landis @karimbitar Is it really a binary choice? If the Gulf states want more influence in Lebanon disarming Hezbollah serves their interests does it not?

[Joshua Landis @joshua_landis]

Like the Druze of Syria, the Kurds of Syria are also saying that the Kurdish politicians appointed to the new parliament by President Sharaa are regime pleasers, who don’t reflect the main stream interests within Syria’s Kurdish community.

[Dan Carlin @dccommonsense]

Ive always had a problem with the idea that "money=free speech" when given to candidates/parties.Because to me that would mean the very rich have much more free speech than poorer Americans. Why should a billionaire have as much "free speech" as hundreds/thousands of poorer folk?

[Sulaiman Ahmed @ShaykhSulaiman]

JUST IN: Syrian President Ahmad al-Sharaa on Israel:

“Israeli entity, which has always accustomed us to targeting our stability and creating discord among us since the overthrow of the defunct regime, is now seeking once again to turn our pure land into an arena of unending chaos.

This entity does not stop using all methods to plant disputes and conflicts.

It seeks to dismantle the unity of our people and weaken our ability to move forward in the process of rebuilding and renaissance.

A war that has no goal other than fragmenting our homeland and scattering our efforts towards chaos and destruction.

Possessing great power does not necessarily mean achieving victory, just as winning in a certain arena does not guarantee success in another arena.

You may be able to start the war, but it is not easy to control its outcome.

Syrians, throughout their long history, have rejected all separation and division.

We are the children of this land, and the most capable of overcoming all the Israeli entity's attempts aimed at tearing us apart, and too solid for our resolve to be shaken by fabricated sedition.

Syria is not a testing ground for foreign conspiracies, nor a place for carrying out the ambitions of others at the expense of the blood of our children and women.”

[Aaron Y. Zelin @azelin]

Israel continues its harassment of local Syrians. This time trying to enter the town of Abidin. They show up, but a bunch of teenagers block the roads with rows of larger rocks. UNDOF comes in to calm things down. Israel withdraws. Israel is big mad so then shells the town.

[Daniel Stoker @stoker_daniel]

@kbalian90 Netanyahu recognizes the Armenian Genocide after support Azerbaijan's war against Armenians in Artsakh (Nogorno-Karabakh) and doing nothing against Jewish extremist efforts to evict Armenian Christians from Jerusalem's Old City . . .

[Daniel Stoker @stoker_daniel]

@EricDHuntsman Love Istanbul, keep the pictures coming.