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My colleague at the Naval War College, professor John Schindler, comments on the situation: "Several decades of U.S. policies towards the Middle East are unraveling in real-time, before our eyes." Tunisia's government fell; Egypt's is possibly toppling; and others (like Jordan and Yemen) are attempting...
Read all of "The Situation in the Middle East: A Turkish Model of A Different Sort?" »
With the appointment of Sunni businessman Najib Mikati as prime minister of Lebanon, Hezbollah may have achieved its critical goals: it has a "friendly" government in Lebanon, of which is also a part, which will leave its state-within-a-state alone. I do not expect that Hezbollah,...
By now you have heard of or read the exciting story of Stuxnet as a joint Israeli-US cyberweapon. The first of its kind, setting back Iran's nuclear program for years, Stuxnet ushers in a new and glorious age of cyberwar, the world is forever changed....
Read all of "The Exciting Story of Stuxnet and Received Wisdom" »
Two months ago, I raised the questionwhether, in the absence of concrete moves towards a conclusive settlement of the Israeli-Palestinian question, the Palestinian leadership might unilaterally declare the existence of a Palestinian state in the West Bank and Gaza Strip, even without an agreement with...
Read all of "Kosovo Precedent for Palestine: First Steps?" »
Chalk the excitement over Stuxnet up to the enjoyment some network security experts get from imagining themselves to be experts in everything, which in this case, is Iran's race to the bomb. It's a human thing. One gets attention on a hot story of audacious...
By Ghassan Schbley and Scott Weiner In the wake of the Israel Defense Force raid on the Mavi Marmara ship bound for Gaza, the United States must maintain a delicate regional balance between four influential actors in the Middle East. The first is Israel, an...
I have a vivid memory of the day Israel was born as I both attended a meeting called by Ben-Gurion and joined the fighting that preceded and followed. Few remember that after decades of promises to create a homeland for Jews in Palestine (the Balfour...
Read all of "Israel's Birthday: Are the Stars Misaligned?" »
The White House is hinting broadly that it is considering imposing a peace settlement on Israel and the Palestinians. Three elements of the plan the United States is to push are well known (no refugee return, a divided Jerusalem, and redrawn 1967 borders), but the...
There is no place for 'no-solutionists' cross-posted by Ori Nir Special to WJW 8 January, 2009 Increasingly, you hear them at public events and symposia. You read their analyses in the press and on blogs. They are the "no-solutionists." Ultra-skeptical, hypercynical, often giddy about their...
Cross-postedFollowing the arrest and indictment of Yaakov (Jack) Teitel, who reportedly admitted to a series of murderous terrorist attacks against Israelis and Palestinians over the past twelve years, the settlers and their supporters cried foul. Teitel is an exception, they said, a single case, a...
Read all of "Short History of Israeli Right Wing Terrorism" »
Israel's deputy prime minister, Dan Meridor, spoke over the weekend in Washington about what he sees as the three chief foreign policy challenges that Israel faces today: Iran, the Israeli-Palestinian peace process and the Goldstone report....
Read all of "Peace is the Answer to the Specter of Israel's International Isolation" »
This week, President Obama reneged on a long-standing agreement with America's allies and formally abandoned the "third site" missile defense plan. The U.S. will no longer be deploying 10 missile interceptors in Poland and a radar in the Czech Republic, a plan formerly regarded as...
Read all of "Obama Administration's New Missile Defense Plan Is a Losing Proposition" »
8/12/2009 The 'West-Bankization' of Israel? by Ori Nir Special to WJW Israelis were recently appalled by reports of sadistic hazing in the Israel Defense Forces' tank corps. Israeli newspapers uncovered routine patterns of beating, lashing, severe humiliation and other forms of brutal behavior toward...
Read all of "New Op-Ed in Washington Jewish Week: The 'West-Bankization' of Israel?" »
[this was posted today on the Washington Post - Newsweek PostGlobal] The Speech Netanyahu Won't Give By Ori Nir Here's what Benyamin Netanyahu should - but most likely won't - say in his much-anticipated policy speech on Sunday. Bar Illan University President Moshe Kaveh, distinguished...
By Aram Nerguizian and Ghassan Schbley Lebanon is scheduled to hold elections Sunday [June 7], and the pro-Western political alliance favored by the United States may lose. If it does, the Obama Administration should not consider the result a triumph for Hezbollah, but a challenge....
Read all of "Living with the Outcome: Elections in Lebanon By Aram Nerguizian and Ghassan Schbley" »
Very few people in Israel posses more influence and have a broader global strategic perspective than Major General (res.) Amos Gilad, director of the Defense Ministry's Diplomatic-Security bureau. Gilad enjoys so much clout and influence that last December he was depicted by Israel's leading Haaretz...
Read all of "Israel's Lieberman: Regional fear-factor by Ori Nir" »
With a couple of hours until the polls close across Israel, this is the best analysis I have seen so far of the possible scenarios. The author is Yossi Alpher, the former director of the Jaffee Center for Strategic Studies at Tel Aviv University, and...
