The sudden, unexpected downfall of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad last month was a searingly stunning blow to Russia’s status in Syria, its ambition to be a key player in the Middle East, and its international prestige. Syria was not only Russia’s chief client state in the region, but the locale of its only military bases […]
A new and thoughtful documentary about Jewish resistance to Nazi oppression, Resistance: They Fought Back, will be broadcast on the PBS network on Monday, January 27 at 10 p.m. (check local listings). It coincides with International Holocaust Remembrance Day and the 8oth anniversary of the Red Army’s liberation of Auschwitz-Birkenau, the Nazi extermination camp in […]
A wave of elation and relief swept across Israel as a long-awaited ceasefire pausing Israel’s protracted war with Hamas took hold on January 19 and three Hamas hostages, Romi Gonen, Emily Damari and Doron Steinbrecher, were released after enduring 471 horrendous days of captivity in the Gaza Strip. The celebratory mood was marred by an […]
As he begins his second four-year term as president of the United States, Donald Trump faces a myriad of challenges in the Middle East, one of the world’s most volatile and unstable regions. When he was inaugurated in Washington, D.C. on January 20, the fate of Israel’s ceasefire/hostage agreement with Hamas still hung in the […]
In the final days of his four-year presidency of the United States, Joe Biden delivered a farewell speech defending his foreign policy legacy. Speaking at the State Department a week before President-elect Donald Trump returns to the White House for one more term, Biden boasted that, while the U.S. is stronger today, its “adversaries and […]
Fifteen months after the outbreak of the cross-border war in the Gaza Strip, Israel’s longest, Israel and Hamas have finally reached a ceasefire and hostage release agreement. The Israeli cabinet is expected to ratify it in the coming days. The deal, the product of months of on-again, off-again negotiations, will officially take effect on Sunday, […]
The downfall of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad last month has clearly benefited Turkey, one of Syria’s neighbors. A key regional state, Turkey will most likely be a major player in Syrian politics from this point forward. For years, however, Turkey and Syria were estranged, greatly diminishing Turkish influence in Syrian affairs. Turkish President Recep Tayyip […]
An inflection point in American history, the U.S. Civil War erupted less than a century after the formation of the United States. Resulting in the deaths of 620,000 soldiers, or six million by today’s calculation, it was the costliest war ever waged by the United States. Breaking out in 1861 and ending in 1865 with […]
Donald Trump, the U.S. president-elect, is still ten days away from his inauguration in Washington, D.C., yet he is already causing shock waves in foreign capitals. In the past few weeks, he has unleashed a series of contentious comments strongly suggesting that he covets Canada, Greenland and the Panama Canal. In this respect, he sounds […]
He was a divisive and corrosive force in French politics, and he will not be missed by the majority of voters. A rabble-rouser who pandered to xenophobia, racism and resentment, Jean-Marie Le Pen was the founder of the National Front and a major figure in the right-wing movement in contemporary France. Le Pen, who died […]