Progress in US-Europe Ballistic Missile Defense

US Marines fire missile during Formidable Shield exercise in Norway, May 2025. Photo credit: ZUMA Press Wire via Reuters Connect.

The proliferation of drones, cruise missiles and ballistic missiles contributes to a dangerous threat environment today. These threats are not concentrated in any one area but range from the Russia-Ukraine conflict to the Middle East and the Asia Pacific.  In the past two decades, expensive but effective integrated air and missile defense systems like Patriot, […]

The Twilight of Palestinian “Armed Struggle”?

Photo credit: REUTERS/Ammar Awad.

“Armed Struggle” was the main pillar, the tallest banner, the essence of the ethos of the Palestinian national movement since the last years of the 19th century. The conviction that the Zionist movement can be confronted only on the battlefield gave rise over the decades to many Palestinian military groupings. It became the ultimate narrative […]

Egypt-Israel Military Ties: Washington Must Pay More Attention

Rafah border crossing between Egypt and the Gaza Strip. Photo credit: REUTERS/Mohamed Abd El Ghany.

The Hamas attacks of October 7, 2023 marked a critical test of Israel’s quiet military partnership with Egypt. For more than a decade, Egypt and Israel maintained robust security coordination focused on ISIS cells in the Sinai peninsula. That cooperation, mostly kept out of the media, now faces its most serious challenge. Since the conflict in […]

Where is the Military-Industrial Complex Now That We Really Need It?

In his long and distinguished public career – including as Supreme Commander of Allied Forces in Europe in World War II and two terms as president of the United States – a single phrase of Dwight D. Eisenhower’s has entered and remained in the language: the military-industrial complex. He spoke those words on January 17, […]

Gideon’s Chariots – Israel’s Renewed Offensive in Gaza

IDF tanks near the Gaza border, May 2025. Photo credit: REUTERS/Amir Cohen.

On May 4, Israel’s security cabinet unanimously approved a comprehensive plan to dismantle Hamas’s remaining capabilities, both military and governmental, while offering Hamas a pause in exchange for a hostage release. The plan involves a large-scale call-up of reserves, a “clear and hold” strategy in parts of Gaza, and civilian evacuation as part of a […]

To Lock in Middle East Security, Up the Game

AIR FORCE ONE ILLUSTRATION

President Trump will be traveling to the Middle East at a time of great progress, given the terrible defeat Iran has suffered over the past eighteen months at the hands of exactly the regional alliance Trump is seeking now to further strengthen. Nevertheless, more work is needed on the three most pressing remaining Iran-related issues, […]

Israel Applying Lessons Learned from October 7

Aftermath of the October 7 Hamas attack in Kibbutz Beeri, southern Israel. Photo credit: REUTERS/Violeta Santos Moura.

Israel’s defense and security establishment has completed a series of internal investigations into the intelligence, strategic, and tactical failures of October 7, 2023. The findings are beginning to reshape the Israel Defense Force (IDF) approach to dealing with the terrorist armies on its borders. Among the findings: the concept of deterrence (originating in Cold War […]

Beware Trump’s Wrath Over a Failed Ceasefire Agreement in Gaza

Hamas hands over Doron Steinbrecher, a hostage who had been held in Gaza since the October 7 2023 attack, to members of the Red Cross, January 19, 2025. Photo credit: REUTERS.

This week’s release of three Israeli female hostages and 900 Palestinian prisoners and detainees, primarily women and children, is the first step in what is expected to be a long process of bringing home Israel’s hostages and ending the war with Hamas. The agreement provides for three phases, the first two of which involve more […]

After the Gaza Ceasefire, Watch the West Bank

Palestinian gunman in Nablus, January 2025. Photo credit: Nasser Ishtayeh / SOPA Images via Reuters Connect.

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 […]