Barry Rubin was director of the Global Research in International Affairs (GLORIA) Center, editor of the Middle East Review of International Affairs (MERIA), and a professor at the Interdisciplinary Center (IDC) in Herzliya, Israel.
All of us who admired his work and helplessly watched his relentless fight with a killer disease, will miss him. His body of work, his sharp and uncompromising articles will stay with us, however.
And what he said himself of his work:
It’s like an iceberg. What you see is only a small portion of what goes on behind the scenes, including contacts with people all over the region, sometimes people whose lives would be in danger if it were known they were talking to me. As an Israeli, I often find it’s much easier to talk with Turks, Iranians and Arabs because we are on the same page – especially in private – about understanding the reality of the region compared to the fantasies often held in Western academic, media and governmental circles.RIP, Barry.
5 comments:
Of course, nothing is certain aside of the usual, but it is hard for me to see the rational for Russian to go in guns blazing. Of course there is the old imperial ego and the common history and the Russian population involved, but Putin is quite a cold-blooded pol. I am not sure that he will want to encumber the poor enough Russia with poor Ukraine.
But of course, who knows: you may be right.
Yes, he was really one of a kind.
It looks that way, with his unconditional and misplaced enthusiasm.
At least the Ukrainians have real choice:
- the current Mafiosi who did time for robbery and is trying to turn the country into another Belarus.
- a very different bunch of kleptomaniacs who are in coalition with the recently renamed "Social Nationalist Party of Ukraine".
And... I wouldn't be too surprised if Russia were to move its troops into Ukraine.
Some choice that...
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