The Middle East? I wouldn't start from here.

Dubia, where global capital, commodity fetishism and conservative Islam form an (un)holy alliance seems a very fitting location for the (probable) Mossad assassination of Hamas strong man Mahmoud al Mabhough. The "problem" of the Middle East is in fact the ongoing failure to build any kind of stable, decent, fair society after the collapse of the Old Empires at the end of World War 1. After paying a huge price in blood Europe has more or less emerged from this phase of history; but not so the Middle East. Here the fall of the Ottomans, the rise of Arab Nationalism,the establishment the state of Israel and finally the resurgence of jihad have continued to produce misery and insecurity. The inability of Europeans to deal with each other in any kind of rational and humane way resulted in the making real of the Zionist project. The "final solution" was thankfully not the one that Hitler had in mind but rather the final act of European colonial expansion. A land without people for a people without land - like Africa, Australia and the American West. One can't turn the clock back. We have to deal with the world as it is but truly, if asked how the Middle East could be made whole the only response would have to be like the old answer to a request for directions, "I wouldn't start from here".