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…
Netanyahu won’t hand Hamas an easy victory
The latest information seeping out from the negotiations for an end to the war in Gaza suggest that agreement between…
What will Iran do next?
Following the killings of Hezbollah’s Fuad Shukr and Hamas’s Ismail Haniyeh, Israel and the Middle East are poised and waiting…
Can Israel hold back from all-out war with Hezbollah?
On 27 July, 12 children from the Druze community of the Golan Heights were slaughtered when an Iranian Falaq 1…
Here’s how Israel can win
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu was photographed on his flight to the US earlier this week next to a hat…
Will Hezbollah declare war on Israel?
In Israel currently, people are waiting for a possible escalation in the north. The United States, Canada, Germany, Ireland, Russia…
Benjamin Netanyahu must decide what to do about Hezbollah
Tensions on Israel’s northern border are currently at their highest point since the outbreak of hostilities in October last year.…
Will Netanyahu declare war on Hezbollah?
The war in Gaza is perceived internationally as a limited affair, pitting Israel against the Islamist Hamas organisation within the…
