Lebanon was once a shining star in a dark constellation, a thriving democracy in an Arab sea of autocracy, but today it is little more than an increasingly dysfunctional state lurching from one crisis to the next. Almost a year ago after a massive and mysterious explosion in the port of Beirut killed more than […]
Two months after Jordanian parliamentarians unanimously passed a motion demanding the expulsion of Israel’s ambassador in Amman and the recall of Jordan’s envoy in Tel Aviv, Israel and Jordan have begun to take the first steps toward improving their contentious relationship. The resolution was passed on May 17 in protest over Israeli “crimes” against Palestinians in […]
Mustafa al-Kadhimi, the prime minister of Iraq, is due to arrive in Washington next month to discuss the future of the U.S. military presence in his country. His discussions with President Joe Biden could well be testy in light of recent events. Since Biden’s inauguration in January, pro-Iranian militias have increased the frequency of their […]
Israeli Prime Minister Naftali Bennett is preparing for a crucial conversation with U.S. President Joe Biden in Washington, D.C. It will probably take place in August, after the newly-elected president of Iran, Ebrahim Raisi, assumes office. Late last month, Biden said he hopes to meet Bennett at the White House “very soon.” His press secretary, […]
There has been a “paradigm shift” in Palestinian public opinion since the fourth Gaza border war between Israel and Hamas this past May, says prominent Palestinian pollster and political analyst Khalil Shikaki. Judging by his most recent surveys, Hamas has supplanted the Palestinian Authority as the defender of the Palestinian cause, while Palestinians are now more […]
Benjamin Netanyahu, Israel’s former prime minister, is proving to be an irresponsible and reckless opposition leader who cares only for his own political interests. On July 6, Netanyahu’s Likud Party and its ultra-Orthodox allies voted against a Knesset motion to renew the citizenship law, which they have consistently supported for the past 17 years. Enacted during […]
The new Israeli government of Prime Minister Naftali Bennett has flunked its first major test. Just days after alternate prime minister and Foreign Minister Yair Lapid said that the illegal West Bank outpost of Evyatar would be torn down in compliance with a direct and unambiguous army order, the Samaria Regional Council, a pro-settler organization, […]
Seventy three Democrats in the House of Representatives recently sent U.S. President Joe Biden a letter asking him to reverse his predecessor’s policy on Israel’s conflict with the Palestinians. Contending that Donald Trump’s Republican administration had abandoned the United States’ “longstanding, bipartisan” approach, the legislators affirmed their support for a two-state solution and urged Biden […]
President Joe Biden has been saying for months now that the United States’ return to the 2015 Iran nuclear agreement will be no simple matter. He is correct, of course. Biden’s predecessor, Donald Trump, rashly withdrew from the agreement in 2018 and then proceeded to impose almost 2,000 sanctions on Iran and launch a campaign […]
After nearly six months in office, President Joe Biden is tweaking rather than altering U.S. policy in the Middle East vis-a-vis Israel, Egypt, Saudi Arabia, Turkey, Iraq and Syria. Apart from concerted efforts by the United States to normalize relations with the Palestinians and return to the 2015 Iran nuclear agreement, Biden is more or less […]