Worldcrunch
Arab Americans’ outrage over the Biden-Harris administration’s politics is understandable. But boycotting the election — or voting for a third-party candidate — would benefit Donald Trump, who has played up his relationship with Benjamin Netanyahu. What choice does that leave?
The Philadelphi Corridor has again become a sticking point in the ceasefire talks between Hamas and Israel. It’s all premeditated as Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu pursues his undeclared goal: keep fighting in order to occupy Gaza.
Since Oct. 7, the Israel-Hamas conflict has continued to spread, deepening divisions within Israeli society and radicalizing a section of public opinion. Radicals both in Israel and Hamas are taking advantage of the chaos of war to prevent peace — just as they did in the 1990s. For how long will the world allow them to do so?
Almost 10 months after the Oct. 7 attack, the Middle East appears to be on the verge of a second act of tragedy. This new escalation of the conflict could result in regional war on a massive scale.
Some Palestinians believe the Israel-Hamas in Gaza war has turned into a war of attrition. But it is, in reality, one of extermination. And the people of Gaza are no longer hiding their criticism with the international community that for nine months has failed to stop the war.
The concept of “resistance” adopted by militants in the Middle East has a close relationship with oppression and “divine victory,” which Hamas and Hezbollah both embrace in a false interpretation of the Koran, despite the heavy human and material losses inflicted.
The October 7 attack and Israel’s brutal response have left a trail of devastation, which materializes in very different tragedies for Palestine and Israel, a story of missed opportunity for Turkey — and a tragicomedy of U.S. leadership.
For three decades, negotiations to solve the Palestinian cause focused on giving Israel guarantees and reassurances out of fear for its security and continued existence, not to end the occupation and the suffering of the Palestinians.
The Israeli army’s spokesman said that those talking about eradicating Hamas are “throwing sand in the eyes” of the Israeli public. It was a clear challenge to Benjamin Netanyahu, who counterattacked even as he remains under fire from all sides.
Israel’s special forces rescued four hostages on Saturday, an apparent major success of the war in Gaza. Yet, paradoxically, the operation has created a political crisis for Benjamin Netanyahu, leading to protests and the resignation of several war cabinet ministers.
The U.S. president’s plan has been approved in principle by Hamas and the Israeli prime minister, but significant contradictions remain. In Israel, opposition voices are increasing, and the survival of Netanyahu’s government is at stake.
The Israeli Prime Minister appeared on French television to try to convince European audiences of his war aims. But his main weakness is his lack of vision for the “aftermath”: he has nothing to offer the Palestinians.
The efforts of chief prosecutor Karim Khan to try Israel’s Prime Minister and Defense Minister over the Gaza war could be a starting point to hold Israeli political and military officials accountable for crimes have committed over many years against Palestinians.
Benjamin Netanyahu spoke of a “tragic accident” after the deadly bombing of a camp for displaced Palestinians near Rafah; but this rare act of contrition does not mean the Israeli leader has changed his strategy, despite the indignation of the rest of the world at the number of civilians killed.
The “day after” the war in Gaza increasingly becomes hard to even imagine, as Israel’s prime minister sticks to his guns despite all evidence that says Hamas cannot be eradicated. The humanitarian toll, including Sunday’s airstrike on a displacement camp in Rafah, makes negotiations look increasingly impossible.
The announcement of the International Criminal Court’s prosecutor that he would seek arrest warrants for Israel’s prime minister and defense minister, as well as three Hamas leaders, provoked indignant reactions in Israel and the U.S. and revealed the rifts between the West and the global South.
The Israeli prime minister has foreign and domestic pressure to accept a ceasefire deal, but he may be set to make the bloodiest decision of the war to date in the southern Gaza city of Rafah.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Hamas leaders both have deeply cynical reasons to prolong hostilities. Meanwhile, it’s in the self-interest of both the U.S. and Arab regimes to try all avenues to broker a ceasefire to ease the suffering of those caught in the crossfire.
Washington has vetoed Palestine’s full membership to the United Nations and is using talk of the “two-state solution” to distract from Israel’s war crimes in Gaza. Pushed by the U.S. to normalize ties with Israel, what will Arab states do?
Israel’s recent strike on central Iran was a warning shot for Tehran, tempered by a desire to close the recent spate of tit-for-tat attacks and by pressure from the U.S. Yet this may have only ended round one of the Iran-Israeli showdown.
The Israeli Army Unit operating in the West Bank has been sanctioned by the Biden administration, accusing it of human rights violations. It’s the first time this has happened and it embodies a highly symbolic gesture that puts a stop to the excuse of “holy mission” that turn into crimes.
By helping to intercept Iran’s counter attack against Israel, the U.S. and Western allies, along with Jordan, have deprived Benjamin Netanyahu of a pretext to expand the war and to divert attention from his actions in Gaza.
The world watches as Netanyahu walks that fine line between deterrence and escalation.
The Israeli drone strike that killed seven aid workers in Gaza has set off an international outcry. And Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s reaction was a reminder that cutting off humanitarian aid has been part of the strategy from the start of the war in Gaza.
By abstaining from a UN resolution demanding an immediate ceasefire in Gaza, Washington has not only angered Benjamin Netanyahu — it has potentially altered the dynamics of the whole Israel-Hamas war.
As Western leaders criticize Netanyahu and his war in Gaza, the Israeli Prime Minister apparently remains fully confident in forging ahead with a hardline that leaves a brutal human toll.
The Israeli prime minister appears dead set against a ceasefire, with the leak of a new 10-year plan for “occupation from afar” for Gaza. All of this to avoid the fate that awaits him if he leaves office.
U.S. President Joe Biden said this weekend that “Netanyahu is doing Israel more harm than good”: a phrase that speaks volumes about the lack of trust between the two men, especially still without a ceasefire, and humanitarian aid blocked from entering an increasingly desperate Gaza Strip.
Rafah has become the new focus of Israel’s war. It is pressing to invade the city on the border with Egypt, where 1.4 million people — more than half of Gaza’s population — are now sheltering.
When Arab countries started normalizing relations with Israel, they did so disregarding the fate of Palestinians. It was a terrible error of judgment, and worse. Yet while the Palestinian cause remains a cornerstone of political legitimacy in the Arab world, few reasonable solutions are being brought forward, and radicalization continues to gain ground among the masses.
Desperate Gaza residents now wait for a word on the success of ceasefire deal, which could allow them to return home. Even if They don’t know what will come next. But they definitely want an end to the war, and so their significant suffering. They want to return to their homes, even if they are demolished.
Benjamin Netanyahu has firmly rejected Hamas’ latest counter-proposal to Israel’s offer for a ceasefire. Still, a new round of negotiations has begun in Cairo — and it’s ever more clear that the first question that must be resolved is the if, how, when and who of the 140 Israeli hostages will be released. Hamas knows they are its best bargaining chip.
After suffering its heaviest losses in a single day, the Israeli army continues its hunt for Hamas leaders and troops in Khan Younis, an overcrowded refugee camp in southern Gaza. Even heavier Palestinian civilian casualties are feared, as the war appears to be reaching a moment of truth.
The rising tensions between U.S. President Joe Biden and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu are about different visions of the geopolitics of the Middle East — but the stakes are also personal for each leader.
Ahead of Secretary of State Antony Blinken’s arrival, Israeli officials declared that the army will shift to a more targeted campaign in Gaza. Benjamin Netanyahu may just be bidding his time.
For almost two years, since Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, the West has been trying to salvage its relationship with the countries of the so-called Global South, unconvinced by the sincerity of its discourse on international law.
By eliminating Saleh al-Arouri, an important Hamas leader, with a drone strike in Beirut, Israel has taken a risky gamble: that Lebanon’s Hezbollah and its Iranian allies will not go to war over the death on Lebanese territory of a top Hamas figure.
Pressure is rising from allies for Israel to change its tactics, which may only harden the position of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu — which may only raise the stakes with regional adversary Iran. Here are three questions that are both crucial and connected.
U.S. President Joe Biden’s tough words for Benjamin Netanyahu cannot really be reconciled, and point to a paradox: Netanyahu may be the warlord whom the army obeys, but he is also a politician whom the vast majority of his fellow citizens would like to see leave.
Heated debate in Israel and abroad over the increase in the budget for settlements in the occupied West Bank is a reminder that wartime national unity will not outlast a deep ideological divide.