It was another case of deja vu all over again. Just hours after Egypt and the United Nations hammered out the latest ceasefire between Israel and Hamas on February 13, a new round of violence erupted. Palestinians in the Gaza Strip fired two rockets into southern Israel and the Israeli Air Force struck back, leaving […]
Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas met Ehud Olmert, the former Israeli prime minister, in New York City a few days ago, and predictably enough, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu vociferously condemned their meeting as “shameful” and “disgraceful.” For Netanyahu, Olmert and Abbas were convenient targets. Twelve years ago, they came tantalizingly close to reaching a peace […]
Last week, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu met the leaders of Uganda and Sudan, two African countries embedded in the lore of the Zionist movement for better or worse. Visiting Kampala, the capital of Uganda, Netanyahu said that Israel is intent on upgrading its mercurial relationship with the countries of the African continent. “Israel is coming […]
Before Donald Trump finally released his much-vaunted and anticipated peace plan on January 28, he reportedly told Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu that Arab states would support it and play a helpful role in implementing it. Trump’s sanguine calculation was misguided, a case of wishful thinking, as was his assumption that the Palestinians would climb […]
President Donald Trump has repeatedly said he wants to withdraw American forces from the “endless wars” in the Middle East, yet he resists calls by Iraqi nationalists demanding a pullout of U.S. troops from Iraq. Trump’s position is not exactly contradictory. Although he has drastically reduced the size of the U.S. force in Syria, he […]
It was the understatement of the new year. Benjamin Netanyahu described U.S. President Donald Trump’s long-awaited peace proposal, unveiled in Washington, D.C. on January 28, as a “great plan for Israel.” As he sang its praises, he called Trump “the greatest friend that Israel has ever had in the White House.” Netanyahu, the caretaker Israeli […]
The much-maligned 2015 Iran nuclear agreement may be imperilled, but this does not necessarily mean that the Iranian government intends to withdraw from it any time soon. Last July, about a year after the United States unilaterally pulled out of the deal and reimposed economic sanctions on Iran, Tehran began to scale back its observance […]
On the eve of his impeachment trial in the U.S. Senate, President Donald Trump has come under fire for having claimed that the assassination of Quds Force commander Qassem Soleimani was necessary because Iran posed an “imminent threat” to U.S. interests in the Middle East. Trump, in particular, claimed that Iran had targeted four U.S. […]
Major General Qassem Soleimani lived and died by the sword. Killed by a U.S. drone strike in the early hours of January 3, shortly after landing at Baghdad International Airport, he was head of the Quds Force, the offensive arm of the Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps, which aggressively advances Iran’s military and political objectives in […]
The prime minister of Israel, Benjamin (Bibi) Netanyahu, appears to think he’s above the law. On January 1, as widely expected, he shamelessly asked the Knesset to grant him immunity from prosecution. Netanyahu dropped this bombshell about five weeks after Attorney-General Avichai Mandelblit indicted him on criminal charges of fraud, bribery and breach of trust. […]