Once bitten, twice shy. Mahmoud Abbas, the 85-year-old president of the Palestinian Authority and the leader of the mainstream Fatah party, was taking no chances. On April 29, he postponed the Palestinian parliamentary election, which was due to be held on May 22. This came as no surprise to observers. Abbas has been wary of […]
Efforts to revive the dormant 2015 Iran nuclear agreement are currently underway, even as Israel and Iran, its arch enemy, clash periodically in a shadow war that has escalated of late. The agreement’s signatories — Iran, the United States, Russia, China, Britain, France and Germany — convened in Vienna on April 6 to breathe new […]
More than ten days have elapsed since the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan was shaken by allegations that King Abdullah II’s estranged half brother, Prince Hamzah bin Hussein, was involved in a plot to undermine the government. In the hours after this news rocked Jordan, a beacon of stability in the Middle East for the past […]
EcoPeace Middle East, a unique regional organization, is trying to create what its Israeli co-founder describes as a “coalition of the willing.” Gidon Bromberg, whose project-oriented, non-governmental organization brings together Israeli, Palestinian and Jordanian environmentalists, seeks to advance sustainable regional development to advance lasting peace between Israel, Jordan and the Palestinian Authority. “We’re using the environment […]
Prince Faisal bin Farhan, the Saudi Arabian foreign minister, recently reminded Israelis that the tantalizing prospect of Arab normalization with Israel has been on the table for nearly two decades now. As he suggested on April 2, Arab states offered Israel full normalization of relations at an Arab League summit in Beirut in March 2002. […]
There was a disturbing disconnect in Jerusalem yesterday. A day after lead prosecutor Liat Ben-Ari opened the evidentiary phase of Benjamin Netanyahu’s trial on charges of bribery, breach of trust and fraud, President Reuven Rivlin asked the sitting prime minister to try to form a new government. With Netanyahu’s right-wing Likud Party having emerged from […]
The United States and one of its key allies in the Middle East, Turkey, remain at odds over an array of contentious issues. The rift between Washington and Ankara may widen during the presidency of Joe Biden, who has yet to make a much-awaited phone call to Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, whom he previously […]
Israel is mired in a state of political paralysis yet again after its fourth election in less than two years. Much to the frustration of Israelis, a fifth election may be looming. Neither Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his right-wing partners, nor his opponents on the right, center or left, won enough seats to cobble together […]
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu reacted indignantly to the recent announcement by Fatou Bensouda, the outgoing chief prosecutor of the International Criminal Court, that a formal investigation would be launched into allegations that Israel — and the Palestinians — committed war crimes in the West Bank and the Gaza Strip. Bensouda, who steps down from her […]
Syria has been in agony for the past ten years, its self-inflicted torment expected to fester indefinitely. A decade ago, on March 15, President Bashar al-Assad’s Baathist regime violently crushed peaceful demonstrations around the country, setting off a civil war in this predominately Sunni Muslim nation. Syrians in large numbers took to the streets to […]