Throughout much of the Arab world, Israel is regarded as a pariah state, a country that occupies Palestinian land and oppresses the Palestinians. But alongside this black cloud is a silver lining in which a more positive view of Israel has taken hold among a handful of conservative Arab states. The United Arab Emirates and […]
No one should be surprised in the least by Iraq’s recent decision to criminalize normalization attempts with Israel, its longtime enemy. On May 27, Iraq’s parliament passed a law criminalizing contacts between Iraqi citizens, institutions and organizations and the state of Israel, or “the Zionist entity,” as it is derisively known in Iraq. The new […]
With Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu having paid a landmark visit to Israel, Turkey and Israel have begun the arduous and lengthy process of patching up their often contentions bilateral relations. Cavusoglu, the first high-ranking Turkish official to set foot in Israel in more than a decade, arrived at Ben-Gurion Airport on May 24, about […]
Six days after Israeli Defence Minister Benny Gantz vowed to prevent Iran from transferring advanced technology to its Shi’a proxies in the Middle East, Colonel Sayyad Khodaei, a senior official of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps’ Quds Force, was assassinated in broad daylight in Tehran. The timing was hardly coincidental, given Israel’s under-the-radar battle against […]
Israel’s discriminatory Nation State Law, or Nationality Law, needs to be drastically amended or replaced with equitable legislation that pays due respect to its Arab and Druze citizens, who comprise one-fifth of its population. Passed in July 2018 at the initiation of Israel’s former prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, this controversial law is weighed heavily in […]
Israeli Public Security Minister Omer Barlev recently announced that the Jerusalem Day Flag March, an event celebrated annually by right-wing secular and religious nationalists marking Israel’s conquest of East Jerusalem during the Six Day War, will take place as usual on May 29. In accordance with Barlev’s plan, the marchers will enter the Muslim Quarter […]
Hezbollah and its allies lost their parliamentary majority in Lebanon’s May 15 election, but Hezbollah remains a potent and potentially destabilizing force in Lebanese politics as well as a major threat to Israel. Four years after the last election, Hezbollah, backed by Iran and largely supported by the Lebanese Shi’a population, managed to regain its […]
On May 13, in what may have been a significant shift in Russia’s policy, Russian forces manning an S-300 air defence system opened fire on Israeli aircraft striking targets in northwestern Syria. The Israeli jets had just bombed an Iranian base in the Masyaf area when the Russians let loose with a barrage of missiles, […]
A few days ago, Israel took yet another step to consolidate its problematic occupation of the West Bank. On May 12, the Ministry of Defence advanced plans to build 4,427 new homes in Jewish settlements there. In addition, the ministry retroactively legalized two unauthorized outposts, Mitzpeh Dani and Oz V’gaon. It also approved a plan to […]
Hamas, the governing authority in the Gaza Strip for the past 16 years, has escalated its bitter conflict with Israel beyond Gaza’s borders. This is a provocative and potentially dangerous development that bodes well neither for Israel nor Hamas. Since last May’s cross-border war in and around Gaza, the fourth in 13 years, Hamas has […]