Essays

Hamas has plans for the West Bank. Now that there is a ceasefire in Gaza, Hamas wants to use the war it launched against Israel to bring itself more power and influence in the West Bank. It seeks to gain popularity through the prisoner releases secured in exchange for Israeli hostages – between thirty and fifty Palestinian […]

Not since Grover Cleveland won non-consecutive terms in 1884 and 1892 has an American president duplicated this feat. Now Donald Trump, at 78 years old, has come back to win a second term. With it, he has loomed large over American politics for well over a decade.  Will Trump’s second term become a success? Or […]

“Restrain your voice from weeping,Your eyes from shedding tears;For there is a reward for your labor—declares GOD:They shall return from the enemy’s land. And there is hope for your future—declares GOD:Your children shall return to their borders.” Jeremiah 31:16-17 These verses came to mind for many Israelis and their friends around the world watching the release […]

Ten years ago, on January 18, 2015, an Argentinian prosecutor, Alberto Nisman, was murdered for investigating the 1994 terrorist bombing of the AMIA Jewish community center in Buenos Aires. That 1994 attack killed 85 and wounded some 300, the largest single mass murder of Jews between the Holocaust of World War Two and October 7, […]

The 60-day ceasefire in Lebanon will end on January 26, six days after President Trump takes office. While Hizbullah suffered heavy losses during the two months of fighting from late September to late November, it has been slowly, stealthily rebuilding in the Shi’ite villages of southern Lebanon. Meanwhile, Lebanon’s government has new leadership with friends in […]

The Israel Defense Forces (IDF), after 15 months of war in Gaza, are fighting in areas of northern Gaza that didn’t see IDF soldiers for eight months, between March – October 2024. The November 27 ceasefire in Lebanon, if it continues to hold, will free up further forces to re-engage in Gaza. But Hamas also […]

Israeli tourist Yuval Vagdani had to escape for the second time. On October 7, 2023, he survived the Hamas massacre at the Nova music festival near Gaza. Then in the first week of January 2025, he escaped Brazil ahead of a court-ordered investigation into his service as a military reservist in Gaza. He was vacationing […]

The military forces of the People’s Republic are formidable. What are Beijing’s plans for them? What does China want in the world? Surely no question has greater importance for the year — and indeed the decade — ahead. The country’s communist government has used China’s remarkably rapid economic growth over the last four decades to amass […]

When Donald Trump takes the oath of office on January 20, 2025, he will confront a world in turmoil. What are the four biggest foreign policy crises/opportunities that he will likely face over the next year? The first and most obvious is Ukraine. Ever since he invaded on February 24, 2022, Russian president Vladimir Putin […]

There are growing indications – not yet certainties – that the top echelons of the Iranian regime are locked in a fierce debate over a comprehensive reassessment of their regional policies. The Farsi media and public statements by politicians allow only a glimpse of the intensity of the controversy. Still, the ongoing heated discussions have […]

The events that unfolded in Syria over the last weeks surprised not only the United States, but also Russia, Iran, and the Syrian people themselves. As Bashar al-Assad fled Damascus for asylum in Russia, his security forces shed their uniforms and their weapons and disappeared into the countryside. One of the most concerning things still […]

The Middle East that awaits a second Trump administration offers unusual opportunity. The US can double down on two major successes – Israel’s war against Iran’s proxy armies and the Abraham Accords peace deal – to expand its regional alliance. At the end of the first Trump administration, the Abraham Accords expanded the alliance at […]