The needle is stuck. Despite concerted efforts by the United States, Egypt and Qatar to end the protracted war in the Gaza Strip and gain the release of the remaining Israeli hostages by means of a new ceasefire, the negotiations have failed and the status quo prevails. Which is another way of saying that Israel […]
Canada’s recent decision to recognize Palestinian statehood was not unexpected, but it hinges on several key commitments that the Palestinian Authority must carry out. Canada has long supported the concept of a Palestinian state, but waited for years to translate principle into reality. On July 30, just days after France and Britain separately announced their […]
Israel is fighting a losing battle to staunch international momentum toward recognition of Palestinian statehood. Yesterday, shortly after France announced its intention to recognize a Palestinian state, which has yet to be formed, Britain declared it would extend recognition to a Palestinian state unless Israel agrees to certain conditions. Canada, Australia and Finland are considering […]
Something is terribly amiss with the food distribution system Israel and the United States created in the Gaza Strip a few months ago to alleviate hunger and starvation among its 2.2 million inhabitants. The Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF), conceived by Israel and managed and financed by the United States, was established to avert endemic food […]
This week’s sectarian violence in the southwestern Syrian province of Suweida, which ended on July 18 with a ceasefire brokered by the United States, has temporarily upended Israel’s plan to improve relations with the new government in Syria. Syrian President Ahmed al-Shara deployed forces to Suweida in mid-July to quell tensions after clashes broke out […]
Israeli Defence Minister Israel Katz has floated a trial balloon that had no business being launched in the first place. Katz told journalists recently that he is promoting a plan to squeeze the 2.2.million Palestinian Arab inhabitants of the Gaza Strip into a “humanitarian city” that will be built on the ruins of Rafah. A […]
Hezbollah, having been degraded by Israel during the low-intensity war of attrition in 2023 and 2024 and the all-out two-month war in 2024, is reeling from its defeat as it attempts to regroup and recover. But the path forward will be exceedingly difficult for Hezbollah, an Iranian proxy which, until last year’s conflict, was Israel’s […]
Benjamin Netanyahu’s fourth face-to-face meeting with Donald Trump since last July appears to have gone reasonably well, certainly better than his previous visit in April. The Israeli prime minister and the U.S. president met at a White House dinner on July 7 to discuss several core topics — the prospects of a ceasefire in the […]
From the moment David Ben-Gurion declared statehood in 1948, Syria, the beating heart of Arab nationalism, has been one of Israel’s most vociferous enemies. But with the sudden fall of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad last December and his replacement by a new government that seems to seek an accommodation with Israel and has distanced itself […]
To no one’s surprise, Russia condemned Israeli and U.S. air strikes targeting Iran’s controversial and potentially ominous nuclear program, which appears to have been on the cusp of being weaponized. Russia’s pro-Iranian stance was expected, since Moscow has a strategic partnership with Iran, one of its closest allies in the Muslim world. Beyond offering Iran […]