Let’s be realistic. The American-brokered Middle East peace talks, revived late last July by U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry amid an aura of cautious optimism, are as good as dead, having crumbled more than three weeks before the April 29 expiry date. The talks had been faltering long before they broke down at […]
Moshe Yaalon, Israel’s hawkish defence minister, needs a lesson or two in diplomacy, if not common sense. In the past few weeks, Yaalon, one of the most senior officials in the Israeli government, has made disparaging comments about Israel’s chief ally and benefactor, the United States. Yaalon fired off his first fusillade recently when he […]
Concerned by the serious strains clouding its strategic relationship with Saudi Arabia, the United States is striving to patch up yawning differences with its oil-rich Arab ally over key regional issues. Late last week, U.S. President Barack Obama visited Riyadh, the Saudi capital, in an attempt to improve relations. It was his second trip to […]
On March 26, Field Marshal Abdul-Fattah el-Sisi, Egypt’s minister of defence and strongman, announced his resignation from the army and his decision to run for the presidency. No one was surprised by the announcement. It had been widely expected. Sisi’s ascendancy in Egyptian politics has been nothing short of meteoric. Hosni Mubarak appointed him head […]
The latest round of nuclear talks between Iran and the world’s six major powers — the United States, Russia, China, France, Britain and Germany — ended in Vienna on March 19 on an upbeat note. Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif said he evinced “signs” that last November’s interim agreement could be turned into a […]
Bashar Assad, Syria’s embattled but defiant president, will stop at nothing to ensure his survival and that of his Baathist regime. A case in point is the popular uprising that broke out in Syria three years ago this month. The revolt, the bloodiest in Syria’s often violent history, has morphed into a civil war that […]
Israel is a complex country that defies simplistic analysis, as Ari Shavit astutely observes in My Promised Land: The Triumph and Tragedy of Israel, published by Random House. It’s neither the Land of Milk and Honey that blinkered supporters like to think it is nor is it the racist colonial state that enemies imagine it to […]
A few days ago, the United Nations released a grim report concerning the escalating sectarian violence in Iraq, an oil-rich Arab state that has know little peace and quiet since the U.S. invasion 11 years ago this month. By its count, 703 Iraqis — 564 civilians and 139 members of the security forces — were […]
Three hundred thousand ultra-Orthodox Jews converged on Jerusalem on March 2 in a massive and arrogant show of force to protest a proposed Israeli government military draft bill that will require more haredim to serve in the armed forces. The legislation, modest in scope, is expected to be passed by the Knesset later this month. […]
German Chancellor Angela Merkel’s two-day visit to Israel this week was intended to demonstrate unwavering friendship with Israel in spite of sharp disagreements over two critical issues — Israeli settlements in the West Bank and Iran’s nuclear program. Upon her arrival in Israel with 15 members of her cabinet in tow, Merkel, eager to defuse tensions […]