Counter-Terrorism and Immortality
“O my soul, do not aspire to immortal life, but exhaust the limits of the possible.”Pindar, Pythian iii If only jihadists would heed Pindar’s timeless warning. By celebrating only “this life,” the classical Greek poet understood the hazards of seeking meanings beyond the grave. Much later, a similar warning was offered by philosopher Friedrich Nietzsche in […]
On Their Fifth Anniversary, Steps to Expand the Abraham Accords
There is much to celebrate as we mark the fifth anniversary of the Abraham Accords, the historic agreements mediated by the first Trump administration and signed on September 15, 2020 by Israel, the United Arab Emirates and the Kingdom of Bahrain, and later by the Kingdom of Morocco. Long isolated from, and regularly vilified by, […]
The Future of the Israel-Azerbaijan Partnership: Will it Survive Iran Regime Change?
Today Jerusalem is all-in on Baku. The Israeli media repeatedly publish fawning accounts by analysts who participate in Azerbaijani junkets and partake in caviar diplomacy. But what happens to Israel-Azerbaijan bilateral relations if the partnership actually succeeds in ending Iran’s Islamic Republic? The 30-year partnership is based on a swap of arms for energy, paying […]
Why Spain Rejected NATO’s Defense Spending Hike
At the June 25 summit at The Hague, all but one of NATO’s 32 member states agreed to raise defense spending to five percent of gross domestic product (GDP) by 2035. Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez rejected the increase, insisting that his country’s current plans to raise defense spending to two percent of GDP were […]
The War on Soft Power
In the first Trump administration, then director of the Office of Management and Budget Mick Mulvaney said “There’s no question this is a hard-power budget. It is not a soft-power budget. . . [We want] to send a message to our allies and our potential adversaries that this is a strong-power administration. So you have […]
Turkey’s Quiet Relationship with ISIS
On June 29, 2014, Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, the leader of the Islamic State in al-Sham (ISIS), was recorded on video speaking at the al-Nuri Mosque in Mosul, Iraq. (“Al-Sham” is the traditional Arabic name for the Levant.) He declared himself to be the caliph or divinely inspired absolute ruler of an Islamic state. ISIS had risen […]
Disarming Hizbullah in Lebanon
The Lebanese government has taken the unprecedented political step of forming a committee to create a plan for disarming the militia groups in the country, starting with “the low hanging fruit” of collecting weapons from Palestinian armed groups in a Palestinian camp in Beirut. But Israeli assessments indicate the new Lebanese government and its army leadership […]
Disarming Hizbullah: Much Talk, Little Action
The new Lebanese president, General Joseph Aoun, says in closed-door meetings that he has no intention whatsoever of sending his military to clash with Hizbullah. He insists that implementing the Lebanese government’s agreement to disarm Hizbullah must be preceded by dialogue and solid understandings. Aoun, as military chief before becoming president in January, instructed his […]
Turkey’s Push for Regime Change in Syria: The Jihadi Highway
Syria’s civil war broke out in March 2011, in reaction to the brutal crackdown by the regime of Bashar al-Asad of popular protests that were part of the wider Arab Spring. In supporting the Syrian rebels, Turkey’s President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan initially used the language of humanitarian intervention, claiming to protect civilians from the Asad […]
A Strategic Plan to Disarm Hizbullah
Among Lebanese Shi’ites there is a widespread perception that their community must not return to the era of persecution and oppression that lasted hundreds of years under the Ottoman Turks and continued under the French Mandate and modern Lebanese state (until the founding of the first Shi’ite political movement, Amal, in 1975 followed by Hizbullah […]
Turkey’s Neo-Ottoman Moment
Turkey’s Syria policy didn’t materialize in a vacuum. Rather, it was a reaction to the Arab uprisings that began in January 2011, known as the Arab Spring, which Turkish policymakers interpreted as a providential opportunity. The fall of entrenched dictators (in Tunisia, Libya, Egypt, Yemen and, eventually, Syria) would, the Turks believed, open the door […]
Effectively Banning the Muslim Brotherhood
A Jordanian immigrant in the US goes to her bank in order to transfer money to a cousin in Amman. But there is a problem. Her cousin is a senior official in the Islamic Action Front, the political party affiliated with the Jordanian branch of the Muslim Brotherhood. The US has just designated the Muslim […]
