Saudi Arabia’s reluctance to normalize relations with Israel is hardly surprising. Anti-Israel and antisemitic tropes and stereotypes are so deeply embedded in Saudi society that it is hard for the government to justify a rapprochement with the Jewish state. Certainly, the festering Palestinian problem, plus the absence of a a two-state solution, also inhibit the […]
Shortly before outgoing President Donald Trump tweeted that the United States had brokered a normalization of relations agreement between Israel and Morocco, the Moroccan Education Ministry issued a precedent-shattering announcement that was a fully in keeping with the spirit of Morocco’s historic rapprochement with Israel. The director of the ministry’s academic programs department, Fouad Chafiqi, […]
Israel cannot achieve genuine security unless the Palestinians can acquire statehood, says Ami Ayalon, the former director of the Shin Bet, Israel’s secret service. Drawing a direct connection between these imperatives, he said, “We have to create hope for the Palestinians so that Israel can attain security.” He made these comments in a webinar on […]
Israel is on a diplomatic roll in the Arab world. In an unprecedented sequence of events since August, four Arab countries have agreed to normalize relations with Israel. On December 10, Morocco became the fourth Arab state after the United Arab Emirates (August 13), Bahrain (September 11) and Sudan (October 23) to break the Arab boycott of […]
Russia’s ambassador to Israel, Anatoly Viktorov, made some very strange comments the other day that cast doubt on his grasp of current affairs in the Middle East. In an interview with The Jerusalem Post, he accused Israel of aggressive behavior toward Hezbollah, claimed that the cross-border tunnels the Israeli army discovered last year in southern […]
Israel has launched an ambitious infrastructure program to expand existing settlements, construct new ones and build more roads in the occupied West Bank, says Hagit Ofran, the head of Peace Now’s Settlement Watch Project. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s broad objective is to consolidate Israel’s control of the West Bank and block the emergence of a […]
After signing historic normalization agreements with the United Arab Emirates, Bahrain and Sudan this past summer, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu may have assumed that Saudi Arabia would be next in line to establish diplomatic relations with Israel. U.S. President Donald Trump, who was instrumental in facilitating these path-breaking accords, buoyed Netanyahu’s confidence by boldly […]
A tempest with far-reaching ramifications is brewing in Carmiel, a picturesque town of 46,000 in northern Israel. Carmiel was built in 1964 as part of an Israeli government plan to increase the Jewish population in the Galilee, which is inhabited by a slight majority of Muslim and Christian Arabs, the descendants of Palestinians who did […]
Iran is reeling following the assassination of Mohsen Fakhrizadeh, one of the architects of its covert nuclear program. The audacious strike was a humiliating assault on Iran’s national pride, but not necessarily a crushing blow to its nuclear ambitions. Fakhrizadeh, a physicist and brigadier general in the Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps, was gunned down in […]
Israeli and Lebanese negotiators have met three times since October in a bid to demarcate their maritime border in the Mediterranean Sea, which is rich in gas deposits, among other natural resources. The negotiations, which have unfolded in the southern Lebanese town of Ras Naqoura under U.S. and United Nations auspices, have been blandly described […]