Israel Strikes Hizbullah: What Comes Next for Lebanon

Israeli airstrikes over Beirut’s southern suburbs, September 28, 2024. Photo credit: REUTERS/Mohamed Azakir.

Israel’s recent military actions in Lebanon and Gaza have fundamentally shifted the balance of power in the Middle East to the detriment of the Iranian-led axis and to the benefit of the American-aligned axis of Israel and Arab states, some of which have, with quiet Saudi approval, gambled on relations with the Jewish state to […]

Lebanon: A Country Held Hostage by Hizbullah, in Desperate Need of Liberation

Photo credit: REUTERS/Amr Abdallah Dalsh.

Lebanon today stands paralyzed, held hostage by a terrorist organization that has entrenched itself into the country’s political and social fabric.  The country was not always besieged by extremism and foreign interference. In the 1970s, Beirut was hailed as the “Paris of the Middle East,” a thriving hub of culture, literature, and intellectualism, home to […]

The Wars in Gaza and Ukraine Are the Same War

Photos: Ukrainian Presidential Press Service/Handout via REUTERS, Official State Department photo by Chuck Kennedy via ABACAPRESS.COM.

The deep partisan divisions in the United States affect many public issues, including the ongoing wars in Europe and the Middle East. The Israeli war of self-defense in Gaza commands strong support among Republicans but elicits less enthusiasm among Democrats. By contrast, Democrats generally endorse Ukraine’s war of self-defense against Russia, following the lead of […]

Gaza, Lebanon, and Iran – How Should Israel Prioritize Enemy Arenas?

Israel faces a strategic dilemma regarding prioritization of the multiple arenas of attacks it faces across the region: Can it continue to prioritize Gaza while maintaining the current low tempo of operations in Lebanon and preparing for responses from Iran?  In Gaza, the Israeli Defense Forces (IDF) has made significant progress since the Hamas invasion […]

Assuring Deterrence in the Mediterranean

Navy ships from NATO member nations in sail. Photo credit: ZUMAPRESS.com via Reuters Connect.

It is springtime in the Mediterranean, as cruise ships busily make their way from port to port in some of the popular tourist destinations like Lisbon, Naples, the Adriatic Coast, and the Greek Isles. The Med looks peaceful to the people in the lounge chairs of those ships. However, such tranquility is only guaranteed by […]

‎Offensive Cyber Operations As a Tool of War

Photo credit: Jakub Porzycki via Reuters Connect.

Cyberspace has become a major domain for organized crime as well as for statecraft in the twenty-first century. Israel has become a top global cyber power. But cyber offense is no silver bullet.  What Is a Cyber-Attack?  A senior JPMorgan executive made headlines at the recent Davos gathering: “people are trying to hack into JPMorgan […]

COP28 – A Missed Opportunity for Regional Climate Resilience

Photo credit: Jakub Porzycki via Reuters Connect.

The United Nations Climate Change Conference or COP28 held in Dubai in December was going to be the largest summit in history, with over one hundred thousand participants expected. But that is not how it transpired. The turnout was significant, yet regional events negatively influenced attendance. About eighty-five thousand participants and leaders arrived according to […]

Four Decades of Talks with Arab Diplomats

Jeremy Issacharoff. Photo credit: DPA / Picture Alliance via Reuters Connect / Michael Kappeler

Three months after I came to live in Jerusalem, in November 1977, I joined my fellow Israelis standing on the side of the road to welcome President Anwar Sadat of Egypt. I had decided to immigrate to Israel from Britain in the aftermath of the Yom Kippur War of 1973. Four years later, watching the […]

The Lessons We Should Have Learned from the First Lebanon War

Israeli troops in Lebanon, 1982. Photo credit: Michael Zarfati / IDF Spokesperson's Unit. This file is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 Unported license.

Three former US military officers recently reflected in these pages on the “The Lessons We Should have Learned from Vietnam,” based on their experiences in that war. Here are three former Israeli officers who similarly reflect on the formative war of their careers – the 1982 invasion of Lebanon.   Doron Almog on a Misguided Strategy […]