🇮🇱🇹🇷Netanyahu and Erdogan Compete for Middle East Leadership
As political dynamics in Syria shift, the Financial Times reports that Turkish President Erdogan and Israeli PM Netanyahu are vying for regional dominance.
❗️Erdogan's Goals: Expand Turkey’s influence by weakening Kurdish groups, addressing the refugee crisis, and consolidating power after Assad's fall.
❗️Netanyahu's Vision: Strengthen Israel’s regional position by countering Iran and potentially expanding borders.
However, both face constraints—Turkey’s economic struggles and Israel’s limited size—paired with mistrust from the Arab world. Meanwhile, Saudi Arabia and Gulf states could reshape the regional power balance, with Syria emerging as a potential hotspot in this rivalry.
🇮🇱🇹🇷Netanyahu and Erdogan Compete for Middle East Leadership
As political dynamics in Syria shift, the Financial Times reports that Turkish President Erdogan and Israeli PM Netanyahu are vying for regional dominance.
❗️Erdogan's Goals: Expand Turkey’s influence by weakening Kurdish groups, addressing the refugee crisis, and consolidating power after Assad's fall.
❗️Netanyahu's Vision: Strengthen Israel’s regional position by countering Iran and potentially expanding borders.
However, both face constraints—Turkey’s economic struggles and Israel’s limited size—paired with mistrust from the Arab world. Meanwhile, Saudi Arabia and Gulf states could reshape the regional power balance, with Syria emerging as a potential hotspot in this rivalry.
Telegram, which does little policing of its content, has also became a hub for Russian propaganda and misinformation. Many pro-Kremlin channels have become popular, alongside accounts of journalists and other independent observers. WhatsApp, a rival messaging platform, introduced some measures to counter disinformation when Covid-19 was first sweeping the world. Pavel Durov, a billionaire who embraces an all-black wardrobe and is often compared to the character Neo from "the Matrix," funds Telegram through his personal wealth and debt financing. And despite being one of the world's most popular tech companies, Telegram reportedly has only about 30 employees who defer to Durov for most major decisions about the platform. Official government accounts have also spread fake fact checks. An official Twitter account for the Russia diplomatic mission in Geneva shared a fake debunking video claiming without evidence that "Western and Ukrainian media are creating thousands of fake news on Russia every day." The video, which has amassed almost 30,000 views, offered a "how-to" spot misinformation. Overall, extreme levels of fear in the market seems to have morphed into something more resembling concern. For example, the Cboe Volatility Index fell from its 2022 peak of 36, which it hit Monday, to around 30 on Friday, a sign of easing tensions. Meanwhile, while the price of WTI crude oil slipped from Sunday’s multiyear high $130 of barrel to $109 a pop. Markets have been expecting heavy restrictions on Russian oil, some of which the U.S. has already imposed, and that would reduce the global supply and bring about even more burdensome inflation.
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