The Sunni jihadist organization Islamic State appears to have lost some of its momentum. It has not made any meaningful territorial gains in Iraq since last year, when it threatened Baghdad, the capital, and captured Mosul, Iraq’s second largest city, in a lightning offensive that reverberated across the Middle East. More to the point, Islamic […]
Turkey’s Islamist leadership, led by President Recep Tayyip Erdogan and Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoglu, seems intent on burning its bridges with Israel, once a valued ally. In recent months, the pair have stepped up their diatribes against Israel so as to burnish their anti-Israel credentials and consolidate Turkey’s standing and status in the Muslim world. […]
Israeli Defence Minister Moshe Yaalon warned recently that Israel will not tolerate attempts by its enemies to destabilize its northern border. But that’s exactly what Hezbollah and its ally, Iran, claim they will do following an upsurge of violence on the Golan Heights, where the borders of Israel, Lebanon and Syria converge. With Syria embroiled […]
John Boehner, the Speaker of the U.S. House of Representatives, disengenuously claims he did not commit a grave breach of protocol by inviting Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to address a joint meeting of Congress without first gaining advance White House clearance. “I don’t believe I’m poking anyone in the eye,” he said recently. If […]
It’s not necessarily true that the West is engaged in a “clash of civilizations” with the Islamic world, but it’s certainly true that radical Islam is at war with the West. As Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper said in the wake of the terrorist attack on the editorial offices of the satirical magazine Charlie Hebdo in […]
Saudi Arabia is a schizophrenic state oscillating between pragmatism and extremism. Supposedly “moderate,” Saudi Arabia helps keep oil prices in check and expresses a readiness to sign a peace accord with Israel if the Israeli government fully accepts the Arab League peace plan, which was unveiled in 2002 and again in 2007. As the price […]
For decades, Israel has yearned for recognition and acceptance from the Arab world and Palestinian Arabs. Until quite recently, this was not possible because Arab states and the Palestinian diaspora remained on a war footing and were obdurately opposed to recognizing and accepting the Jewish state. In accordance with this mindset, the Arab League, at […]
By a margin of 170-6, with three abstentions, the United Nations General Assembly recently passed a non-binding resolution awarding Lebanon $856.4 million in damages for a massive oil spill caused by Israel during the Second Lebanon War in the summer of 2006. Apart from Israel, only five countries — the United States, Canada, Australia, Micronesia […]
The expression “lone wolf” was once almost exclusively associated with white supremacists in the United States seeking to overthrow the U.S. government by violent means. Timothy McVeigh, the Oklahoma City bomber who killed 168 civilians in one of the most deadly terrorist acts in American history, was such a creature. Since the Oklahoma City outrage, […]
Hamas has strenuously denied reports that Islamic State — the jihadist organization that has conquered wide swaths of territory in Iraq and Syria — is active in the Gaza Strip. Responding to social media accounts that Islamic State had distributed fliers threatening 18 writers who had breached the “tenets of Islam” and warning women to […]