Last May, following talks with Palestine Authority President Mahmoud Abbas at the White House, U.S. President Donald Trump pledged to resurrect peace negotiations between Israel and the Palestinians to achieve what he boldly described as the “ultimate deal.” In a sweeping observation, Trump boasted, “It’s something, frankly, maybe not as difficult as people have thought over […]
In a fire-and-brimstone speech to the Palestine Liberation Organization’s Central Council in Ramallah recently, Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas claimed that Zionism and Judaism are unrelated and that Jews imperilled by genocide had no interest in leaving wartime Europe. Abbas, who wrote his PhD on the Holocaust, should have known better than to make such […]
To no one’s surprise, Iranian officials conveniently blamed the latest outburst of anti-government protests in Iran, the most serious since 2009, on outside meddling. Iran’s supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, accused external “enemies” of fomenting the nation-wide disturbances, which broke out on December 28 and have so far claimed the lives of 21 people. Iran’s […]
With the start of a new year, Israel is focused on countering a looming threat developing on the Golan Heights. Iran, which has repeatedly threatened to destroy Israel, is establishing a military presence on Syria’s side of the Golan, which, until very recently, was partially held by rebel forces seeking the removal of Syrian President […]
Israel is haunted by the specter of tunnels. For years now, Israel has been consumed by the fear that Palestinian terrorists from the Gaza Strip will sneak into Israeli territory through tunnels and attack border communities in murderous raids that will cause multiple casualties. Palestinian tunnels have been on Israel’s mind especially since the summer of […]
Recep Tayyip Erdogan has been shooting off his mouth again. Since Donald Trump’s recognition of Jerusalem as Israel’s capital, the Turkish president has been vocal in his denunciations of his move. But while condemning the American president, Erdogan has gone out of his way to demonize Israel, which restored full diplomatic relations with Turkey in […]
It was one of the strangest incidents in the annals of the Middle East. Middle Eastern politics can often be murky, but the Saad Hariri comic opera was unprecedented in terms of its layered opaqueness. Now, more than a month after the Lebanese prime minister tendered his resignation in Saudi Arabia, only to rescind it […]
Fulfilling a solemn presidential campaign promise, Donald Trump has recognized Jerusalem as Israel’s capital and instructed the State Department to begin preparations to move the U.S. embassy in Tel Aviv to Jerusalem. His historic decision, which touched off anti-American and anti-Israel demonstrations in East Jerusalem, the West Bank, the Gaza Strip and a host of […]
The massacre of 311 Muslims in a Sufi mosque in the northern Sinai Peninsula on November 24 underscores an unpalatable reality that Egypt has yet to accept and internalize: the Egyptian armed forces have utterly failed to quell the jihadist insurgency in the Sinai. No group claimed responsibility for the attack in the remote town […]
Despite all his troubles, President Bashar al-Assad of Syria can count his blessings. His steadfast ally, Russia, is fully behind him, no matter what atrocities his armed forces commit in the ongoing civil war in Syria. Russian President Vladimir Putin is assisting Damascus militarily and politically. Without Russia, Assad might already have lost the war […]