China’s Dubious Palestinian-Unity Deal
More than a dozen Palestinian factions—including bitter rivals Fatah and Hamas—recently signed a national unity deal…
Soeren Kern
Is Israel Too Dependent on the U.S.?
The Biden administration’s decision to cut off weapons supplies to Israel during the war in Gaza has raised concerns that…
Iran Wants Jordan
Iran is stirring up anti-government sentiment in Jordan, with the goal of toppling King Abdullah II and replacing his regime with one led by Hamas…
The Return of the Two-State Solution
It’s back. Hamas’s October 7 slaughter of more than 1,200 Israelis and Israel’s military response to the slaughter have revived…
Yemen’s Houthis Target Israel
Iran-backed Houthi rebels in Yemen are posing a growing threat to Israel. Since the October 2023 outbreak of the…
Russia is No Friend of Israel
Russian President Vladimir Putin’s robust support for Hamas after its October massacre of more than 1,400 Israelis…
U.S. Release of Iranian Assets Creates Conundrum for Israel
Critics are accusing President Joe Biden’s administration of succumbing to extortion…
Is Israel’s Gaza Policy Working?
The recent round of hostilities between Israel and Palestinian militants in the Gaza Strip has sparked a debate over Israel’s…
Understanding the Iran-Saudi Reconciliation Agreement
Historical archrivals Iran and…
UN Seeks to Brand Israel as Occupier
The United Nations General Assembly recently asked the International Court of Justice (ICJ) to provide a…
Iranian Drones in Ukraine: Warm-up for Israel?
Russia’s use of Iranian-made, unmanned drones in its war against Ukraine is…
The Israel–Lebanon Maritime Agreement
Israel and Lebanon, two long-time adversaries that are technically at war, recently reached an agreement on…
Radical PIJ Is Moving In
Recent clashes between the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) and Palestinian Islamic Jihad (PIJ) have underscored Iran’s…
Israel, EU Sign Gas Deal
The European Union (EU) has signed a memorandum of understanding with Israel that eventually could see…
Can a Leopard Change its Spots?
Israeli President Isaac Herzog recently visited Turkey in a bid to normalize bilateral ties after more than a decade of…
A Win for Turkey and Russia at Israel’s Expense
The Biden administration recently withdrew its support for the…
UN Rewrites Temple-Mount History
The UN General Assembly recently passed a resolution that calls Jerusalem’s Temple Mount by its Muslim name only…
Israel Prepares to Strike
The Israeli government recently allocated 5 billion shekels ($1.5 billion) to prepare the Israel Defense Forces to strike…
Israel and Iran’s ‘Shadow War’
An ongoing shadow war at sea between Israel and Iran recently escalated when the Islamic Republic attacked…
Has Ecoterrorism Hit Israel?
The February 2021 oil spill that polluted nearly half of Israel’s shoreline highlighted the country’s acute vulnerability to…
New Precision Weapon Could Devastate Israel
Iran is continuing to provide high-quality weapons to Hezbollah, including one that could give the terror organization…
Nuclear Iran Looms Large
Israeli Energy Minister Yuval Steinitz recently estimated Iran is a year or two away from building a nuclear bomb…
The Win-Win Infuriating Iran
Morocco recently established full diplomatic relations with Israel as part of the Abraham Accords, an effort by the United States…
Israel, Lebanon Talk Maritime Borders
Israel and Lebanon recently initiated groundbreaking negotiations to resolve a long-standing maritime border dispute…
Erdoğan’s Move Toward an Islamic Caliphate
Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan recently declared that his decision to…
Report Tells Israel, ‘Beware of China’
A Chinese company, Hong Kong-based CK Hutchison Holdings, recently lost a bid to build a $1.5 billion water desalination plant…
Annexation Now Looms Large
The coalition agreement between Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his main rival, Blue and White party leader…
ICC Invents Palestinian State
The chief prosecutor of the International Criminal Court (ICC), Fatou Bensouda, recently announced that…
The Tightening Turkey-Hamas Connection
Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan recently invited Hamas leader Ismail…
EU’s Bias Shines Brightly
The appointment of Spanish Foreign Minister Josep Borrell as high representative of the European Union for Foreign Affairs…
Dispute Over Temple Mount Intensifies
Israeli Public Security Minister Gilad Erdan recently called for changing the status quo on Jerusalem’s Temple Mount…
Innovative Companies Love Israel
More than 500 multinational corporations (MNCs) representing 35 countries are now active in Israel, according to a landmark study of multinational activity…
Understanding the Powerful IRGC
The Trump administration’s recent designation of Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) as a “foreign terrorist organization” is part of a…
Proposed Pipeline Would Bring Israeli Gas to Europe
Israel has reached an agreement with Cyprus, Greece, and Italy to begin work on an underwater pipeline…
The Gaza Problem
The Israeli cabinet’s decision to accept a cease-fire with the Islamist terror group Hamas after Palestinians fired more than 450 rockets and mortar shells from the Gaza Strip into Israel within a two-day period set off a heated debate…
The Plan to Hitch Israel to Saudi Arabia by Rail
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Transportation Minister Israel Katz have announced a historic plan to establish a rail link between Israel and Saudi Arabia…
The Flap Over Israel’s Nation-State Law
The Knesset recently enacted a new law that declares Israel is the historic homeland of the Jewish people and that they have an exclusive right to national self-determination in it…
U.S. Quits UNHRC ‘Cesspool’
After more than a year of warnings, the Trump administration has followed through on a pledge to withdraw the United States from the United Nations Human Rights Council (UNHRC), calling it a “cesspool of political bias…”
The Emerging Realignment
Saudi Arabia recently granted Air India permission to fly over its territory on new routes to and from Israel. The decision to open Saudi airspace to commercial jets bound for the…
Is Iran Forcing Israel Into War?
In a dramatic escalation of tensions along Israel’s northern border, an Iranian attack-drone recently violated Israeli airspace. Israel shot down the drone and then sent warplanes into Syria to take out the command center that launched…
The Saudi-Israeli Connection
In a recent interview with Army Radio, Israeli Energy Minister Yuval Steinitz revealed Israel has been holding covert talks with Saudi Arabia amid mutual concerns over Iran’s…
Preparing for War
As tensions rise along the Lebanese-Israeli border, Israeli Defense Minister Avigdor Lieberman has warned that the next war between Hezbollah and Israel will include Syria. “In anything that transpires, it will be one theater,” he said. Syria and Lebanon together, Hezbollah, the Assad regime and all…
Iranian Threat Grows
As the war in Syria enters its end-game, Iran is closer than ever to achieving its long-term, strategic objective of establishing a land corridor for direct and unimpeded access to the Mediterranean Sea. The so-called Shiite Corridor—which…
The Same Old Same Old?
U.S. President Donald J. Trump has reversed himself on several important promises regarding Israel. On the campaign trail, he pledged to be a stalwart friend of the Jewish state but some of his initial policies actually mirror those of former…
End of the Two-State Solution
U.S. President Donald Trump recently announced he will not insist on a two-state solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. “I thought for a while the two-state looked like it may be the easier of the two. But honestly, if Bibi and if…
Israel Seeks Spot on UN Security Council
Israel is stepping up diplomatic efforts to win a rotating seat on the United Nations Security Council (UNSC) for the 2019–2020 term. The move marks a proactive shift in longstanding Israeli policy: After years of spurning the UN…
UNESCO’s Propaganda War on Israel
The United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) has approved a resolution that denies a Jewish connection to Jerusalem. Advanced by the Palestinian Authority (PA), with the help of Algeria, Egypt…
Eye on the Middle East Nov/Dec 2016
Turkey’s President Recep Tayyip Erdogan and Russia’s President Vladimir Putin are working to repair bilateral relations. Long fraught with tension, ties between the geopolitical rivals reached a new low after…
Eye on the Middle East Sep/Oct 2016
Representatives from 26 countries and international organizations met in Paris recently in an effort to relaunch stalled peace talks between Israelis and Palestinians. But the initiative is doomed to fail…
Eye on the Middle East Jul/Aug 2016
Israel has acquiesced to a plan to transfer sovereignty of two strategically important islands in the Red Sea from Egypt to Saudi Arabia as part of an informal, emerging alliance between…
Eye on the Middle East May/Jun 2016
After nearly six years of discord, Turkey and Israel are working to repair bilateral relations. Reconciliation is said to be imminent. Analysts say Turkey is motivated by a desire to obtain access to Israeli natural gas in order to…