Kicking the can down the road has characterized America’s Ukraine policy for the last two decades. The can is about to stop at the doorstep of incoming President Donald Trump. The assumptions that have guided US policy, crafted under far different geopolitical and geoeconomic circumstances, are simply no longer valid. The new Trump national security […]

Germany is facing unexpected headwinds. As Ukraine struggles to fend off Russia, the Middle East erupts, and China menaces Taiwan, it is struggling to meet a welter of domestic and foreign challenges. The recent collapse of Social Democratic chancellor Olaf Scholz’s three-party coalition has coincided with the election of Donald Trump, creating a sense of […]

The landslide election of Donald Trump’s holds out real promise of encouraging peace in the Middle East. Unlike President Biden, who demanded caution from Israel in exchange for providing arms, Trump seems to be sending a message that he will support Israel’s policy of preventing Iran from developing nuclear weapons, even if that requires military […]

Donald Trump’s resounding victory has potentially tectonic implications for allies, friends and the world. People are drawing conclusions by extrapolating from Trump’s actions in his first term. I think it could be a bit different this time. First, despite Trump’s campaign style as performance art, there was more structure and substance to his campaign this time. He […]

Donald Trump’s victory by an unassailable margin has shocked America’s bicoastal liberal intelligentsia. A majority of media pundits, whether talking heads or press columnists, could not imagine that the former and now future president could do anything more than eke out a narrow electoral victory. They simply could not comprehend how Americans other than Trump’s […]

Two days before the 2024 elections and Americans find themselves in a revel of name-calling. The American media, acting as campaign surrogates, edit and spin the candidates’ remarks to support the epithets.  “Facts are stubborn things,” said our second president John Adams, “and whatever may be our wishes, our inclinations, or the dictates of our […]

It would be hard to think of a starker contrast than that between the two candidates on foreign policy. One refers to America as a “garbage can for the world.” The other says that “the American dream belongs to all of us.” One is calling for a massive increase in tariffs, while the other dismisses them […]

In September 2022, Iranians from all walks of life took to the streets against the ruling clerical regime. The immediate cause was the brutal death of 22-year-old Mahsa Amini at the hands of regime security forces for the crime of improperly wearing her Islamic headscarf or hijab.  The grassroots protests quickly transformed into something else: […]

In late September, an Egyptian naval vessel docked in Mogadishu, the capital of Somalia, to offload a shipment of weaponry including anti-aircraft guns and artillery, many of them outdated and some even World War II-vintage. It was Egypt’s second major delivery. A month before, two Egyptian C-130s landed at Mogadishu’s international airport to deliver a […]

In a world ensnared by armed conflicts and rising tensions, youth today — especially in regions like the Middle East and Africa – face a crisis of purpose. They grapple with feelings of isolation, disillusionment, or the lure of extremism. They need more than just political solutions or economic reforms. We must rekindle a dream—one […]

When Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva returned to Brazil’s presidency in 2023, it was clear that he wished to restore the high international profile which Brazil had enjoyed during his first two terms, 2003-2010. International expectations were high given that his predecessor, Jair Bolsonaro, had been largely uninterested in foreign policy. However, Lula has faced […]

This past September I visited the refurbished Wien Museum which covers Austria’s history from the bronze age until the present. Perhaps the most stimulating exhibition was a new one on the top floor that surveys the Nazi era. It’s called “Laboratory of Cruelty.” In its previous incarnation, the museum did not trouble itself to mention […]

Four months after October 7, 2023 I met an Egyptian acquaintance, and we tried to make sense of the situation. He offered the thought that “the two-state solution was never as relevant as it is now. Everyone understands that the Palestinian issue is back on the global agenda, and it is understood that there is no […]

The United States is focused on three big global challenges. In the Middle East, it struggles to prevent a full regional war while supporting its ally Israel; in Europe, it supplies Ukraine with arms to blunt the Russians; and in the Western Pacific it strengthens a network of alliances to contain Chinese expansionism. Meanwhile, the […]

“Dad, open your WhatsApp and see the [photos of] dead Jews. Your son has killed Jews.” “God bless you.”  “Dad, I’m calling you from the phone of a Jew! I just killed her and her husband, with my own hands.”   – Intercepted cellphone call, October 7, from Hamas elite unit member One unanswered question is […]

Yossi Klein Halevi: In terms of my personal journey, it’s framed by my evolving, understanding of the Holocaust, my relationship to the Holocaust and my generation’s experience as opposed to my father’s experience. My father was a survivor from Hungary.  I grew up in a very charged Holocaust environment in Brooklyn, in the 1960s, which […]

Gadi Taub: I believed in Oslo [the 1990s Palestinian-Israeli peace process] because I imagined the Palestinians to be like us. I imagined their national liberation movement to be a national liberation movement just like ours. Then reality just exploded outside my window. Tel Aviv is small. So from where I lived back then, when a […]

Ksenia Svetlova: You see how time and again people in the West Bank and in Gaza, even more so in the West Bank than in Gaza, say yes, we support Hamas. Samer Sinijlawi: I would not rely on polls very much during these days, not to test the feelings of the Palestinians and not to […]