The Future of the Israel-Azerbaijan Partnership: Will it Survive Iran Regime Change?
Today Jerusalem is all-in on Baku. The Israeli media repeatedly publish fawning accounts by analysts who participate in Azerbaijani junkets and partake in caviar diplomacy. But what happens to Israel-Azerbaijan bilateral relations if the partnership actually succeeds in ending Iran’s Islamic Republic? The 30-year partnership is based on a swap of arms for energy, paying […]
Israel’s New Friend in Europe
On December 15, 2024, Israel announced it would temporarily close its embassy in Dublin, owing to “the extreme anti-Israel policies of the Irish government,” and open an embassy in Chișinău, Moldova. What is most noteworthy in this Israeli move, suspending relations with one small country on the margins of Europe and investing in another, is the […]
Make Hamas Face a Choice
There are no easy answers to the question of what Israel should do in the Gaza Strip. Hamas is demanding a complete Israeli surrender in exchange for releasing the remaining hostages, whom it has bandied about in horrific videos. The only option is to cope intelligently and soberly with a situation that is borderline impossible. […]
A US-Led Multinational Mechanism for Syria
Optimism about Syria abounds. The regime, despite its Islamist orientation, has adopted a generally moderate and pragmatic approach (though there are legitimate concerns about its security forces’ actions in the predominantly Druze area of al-Suwayda). Israel’s decimation of Hizbullah and weakening of Iran – the former Asad regime’s primary pillars of support – created this […]
Sanctioning One of Lebanon’s Largest Banks
Hizbullah has long treated Lebanon’s financial system as its personal bank vault — laundering funds, moving money through shell companies, and using quasi-banks like Al-Qard al-Hasan, a US-sanctioned entity, to keep its financial empire humming. But on July 15, something remarkable happened: Lebanon finally pushed back. The country’s central bank banned financial institutions from dealing with Al-Qard […]
Israel has No Genocidal Intent and is not Committing Genocide in Gaza
In Gaza, a brutal war is being fought against a still-active enemy whose sole purpose (as demonstrated on October 7, 2023) remains the elimination of Israel. At the same time, an information war is being waged in the West, using accusations of “genocide” against Israel as a tool, including by scholars who should know better. […]
Iran Must Relearn the Lessons from Its Eight-Year War with Iraq
The Islamic Republic of Iran, in the 12 Day War with Israel, witnessed the dramatic end of a strategy Iran spent thirty years perfecting and what it worked so hard to avoid: international isolation and direct military strikes on its own territory. Learning from Trauma Iran’s “proxy strategy” was born from trauma. The eight-year war […]
Hamas at a Crossroads
Today’s Hamas is a very different organization from the one we knew from its formal establishment in December 1987 through its surprise attack on Israel on October 7, 2023. Yet many politicians, members of the intelligence community and media commentators still insist on viewing the Palestinian “Islamic Resistance Movement” [the translation of the Arabic acronym […]
Australia’s Not So Quiet Crisis
Australia, for decades a global example of peaceful multicultural coexistence, now finds itself confronting a deeply uncomfortable truth. Beneath the sun-soaked optimism of our cities lies a rising tide of tension and disharmony, triggered not by homegrown animosity, but by foreign agendas exploiting the freedoms of a Western liberal democracy. At the center of this […]
In Israel, A Public Diplomacy Pivot
Israel has begun a little-noticed foreign policy transformation. Against the backdrop of its ongoing war against Hamas in the Gaza Strip, Jerusalem has launched a new initiative in strategic communications. The shift was borne of necessity. Historically, Israel’s international outreach has been based on the concept of hasbara [means “explanation”] – if the country were […]
