No one should be surprised about the Syrian massacres
Shock and outrage are appropriate, but no one really has an excuse for being surprised at the dreadful scenes that…
What is Israel’s plan for Syria?
Israeli leaders recently made clear that the IDF’s current military deployment into south-west Syria is not intended as a stop-gap…
Isis is filling the vacuum in Syria
‘Isis is taking huge advantage of the current situation in Syria,’ Ilham Ahmed told me, when we met in the…
The case for ending the Israel-Hamas ceasefire
The question now facing Israel is this: will the war in Gaza recommence? The ceasefire agreement was signed less than a…
Trump has exposed the hypocrisy of Gaza’s allies
US President Donald Trump has reiterated his call for Egypt and Jordan to accept residents of Gaza into their territory,…
Syria feels close to a zone of anarchy
Travelling from Syria’s Highway 42, which runs from Tabqa to the city of Homs, you can see the corpse of…
Hamas has exploited Israel’s weaknesses
When Hamas launched its war on Israel in October, 2023, it did so on the basis of a clear analysis…
We all knew Syria was hell
The liberation of Syria’s notorious Sednaya jail close to Damascus a week ago has resulted in a wave of belated…
What al-Jolani’s past can reveal about Syria’s future
In late February 2012 I was travelling through Syria’s Idleb province. I stayed for a few days in a town…
How Assad fell
The astonishing and abrupt fall of Bashar al-Assad’s regime in Damascus is a moment of historic importance for the Middle…
Success for Syria’s rebels is far from guaranteed
Syrian Sunni Islamist fighters are continuing to consolidate their gains in Syria’s Aleppo province. Almost the entirety of Aleppo city,…
A ceasefire deal won’t finish off Hezbollah
Nothing is yet confirmed, but it appears that a ceasefire between Israel and Lebanese Hezbollah is imminent. The fighting, which…
The long roots of Iran’s hatred for the Jewish state
As the dust settles on the latest confrontation between Israel and Iran in the Middle East, the nature of the…
Israel won’t be distracted by ceasefire talks
Two senior US officials are in the Middle East this week, with the joint mission of negotiating an end to…
How Yahya Sinwar rose and fell
The killing of Hamas leader Yahya Sinwar is a key milestone for Israel in its ongoing, grinding effort to destroy…
Where does Lebanon go from here?
Israel’s overt ground intervention into Lebanon is now entering its third week. So far, the Israel Defence Forces (IDF) have…
Was Hamas’s massacre the Middle East’s Franz Ferdinand moment?
Travelling through the Gaza border area on the morning of October 8, 2023, I was struck by a sense of…
Israel is likely to hit back hard against Iran
Iran’s decision to launch 181 ballistic missiles at Israel on Tuesday night followed a similar pattern to the attacks of…
Why Hezbollah miscalculated – and Israel attacked
In the early hours of Tuesday morning, the IDF spokesman’s office issued a laconic statement, according to which Israeli forces…
How will Iran response to Nasrallah’s assassination?
The assassination of Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah transcends the immediate confrontation between Israel and its Islamist enemies. Nasrallah was both…
Can Israel avoid provoking all-out war with Hezbollah?
Israel has carried out its largest-scale operation against Hezbollah targets in Lebanon since the summer war of 2006. Wave after…
Pager bombs won’t stop Hezbollah
The killing of 12 people, including several Hezbollah members, and the wounding of thousands more when 5,000 pagers simultaneously exploded…
Israel is turning its sights on Hezbollah
As its Gaza campaign cools, Israel’s attention is returning northwards. Approximately 60,000 Israelis from northern communities are still refugees. A…
Netanyahu faces an unenviable dilemma on Gaza
The murder of six Israeli hostages by Hamas in Gaza earlier this week led to an outpouring of grief and…
Iran and Hezbollah don’t want a war with Israel
Hezbollah’s response to the killing of senior official Fuad Shukr, when it finally came, was a more minor event than…
