Hezbollah, the Lebanese Shi’a militia which perceives Israel as its prime enemy, was uncharacteristically mute as the Israeli armed forces and Hamas fought an eleven-day border war in and around the Gaza Strip from May 10 to May 21. Its usually outspoken leader, Hassan Nasrallah, remained deafeningly silent, even after one of its members was […]
During the latest cross-border war pitting Israel against Hamas in the Gaza Strip, U.S. President Joe Biden and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu were in constant communication, taking to each other on the phone at least six times during the course of the eleven-day conflict. Biden was taken completely surprised by the outbreak of hostilities. […]
As might have been expected, Israel and Hamas each declared victory after an Egyptian-brokered ceasefire ended the fourth cross-border Gaza war in 13 years. In fact, neither side won, failing to inflict the kind of decisive knockout blows that might have altered its outcome significantly. Hamas, though battered, remains unbowed and defiant. Israel, the strongest military […]
Until Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan opened his big mouth recently, his Islamist government seemed headed toward some sort of a rapprochement with Israel after years of acrimony. But with the outbreak of the fourth Gaza border war on May 10, Turkey’s attempts to mend its frayed bilateral ties with Israel have crashed and burned. From […]
The explosive Palestinian problem should be addressed by the international community so that the Palestinians achieve statehood and Israel attains security and legitimacy from its Arab neighbors, says Yair Hirschfeld, one of the architects of the Oslo peace process. Only a gradual approach to this complex issue will work, he told a Canadian Friends of […]
Trevor Noah, the host of the popular television program, The Daily Show, got himself into hot water the other day by implicitly advising Israel to lie down and play dead in reacting to naked aggression by Hamas. In the past seven days, Hamas has fired more than 3,000 rockets at Israel, twice as many as […]
Itamar Ben-Gvir is a disgrace to himself and Israel. This extreme right-wing member of the Knesset is a malignant agitator who has been fanning the flames of the most serious outbreak of civil unrest in Israel since its establishment as an independent state. As Jews and Arabs clash in inter-communal violence of the sort that […]
Synagogues are set alight by arsonists. An elderly Arab man is killed. A Jewish soldier is viciously beaten. A Jewish police officer is shot. A Jewish family is attacked. A fish restaurant and a hotel owned by Jews are torched. A pregnant Arab woman is seriously injured by a rock thrown at her head. An […]
What seems clear from the latest round of fighting in and around the Gaza Strip is that Hamas has improved its military capabilities since its last war with Israel seven years ago. In the last few days, Hamas has fired a barrage of more than 1,600 rockets at Israel. Some have landed as far away […]
Israel is embroiled in a new and dangerous round of fighting with the Palestinians on three separate fronts. For the past few days, Israeli forces have been engaged in battles with Palestinian Arab protesters in East Jerusalem, the Islamic fundamentalist Hamas regime in the Gaza Strip, and Israeli Arabs of Palestinian descent. The violence, probably […]