There are three ways to explain the recent crisis that suddenly erupted in the Sunni Arab world when Saudi Arabia and a group of allies abruptly broke relations with the oil-rich Persian Gulf emirate of Qatar. One explanation is strategic: that the rift is a Saudi-led bid to rein in the maverick Qatar, end Qatar’s…
WASHINGTON (JTA) – Five Arab nations cut ties with Qatar on Monday, escalating a long-simmering competition for preeminence in the region into actions that could set the stage for war. Saudi Arabia, which is leading the charge, has cut off Qatar’s only land crossing – and what one Saudi-friendly estimate says is as much as 40…
This should have been Bibi Netanyahu’s big year at the United Nations. World revulsion toward ISIS was at a peak, putting Islamist terrorism at center stage. President Obama, long derided by Netanyahu and his allies as a naïve peacenik, had suddenly become a wartime president. The Israeli-Palestinian conflict was, at last, the least of the…
Labeled recently by Israel’s ambassador to the United Nations as a “Club Med for terrorists,” the tiny Gulf emirate of Qatar is being widely depicted, to the surprise of many, as a new regional villain in the Middle East, thanks to concerted attacks from Jerusalem and a coalition of Arab states whose interests coincide. Yet…
Israeli lawmakers called for Balad to be expelled from the Knesset after its lawmakers visited Qatar and perhaps the Arab-Israeli party’s founder, Azmi Bishara. Bishara lives in exile after resigning from the parliament in 2007 and fleeing Israel amid accusations that he provided information to Hezbollah during the Second Lebanon War. “Members of Balad, the…
Indications are mounting that the indirect Israeli-Palestinian cease-fire talks in Cairo could be heading for failure, possibly resulting in renewed fighting when the current 5-day truce expires Monday night. Early reports were that the two sides were close to agreement on an Egyptian compromise proposal for a long-term cease-fire. On Friday and Saturday, however, declarations…
Nahum Barnea, commonly described as Israel’s most respected political journalist, has spent much of the past two weeks with the troops in Gaza and talking to general command in Tel Aviv. His weekly column in today’s Yediot Ahronot weekend supplement, which I have translated below, happens to say some of the things I’ve been writing…
Mark your calendars: It was on Sunday, July 20, that the momentum turned against Israel. Sometime around noon the wind shifted and the tide began to roll out, and Israel started to lose international sympathy for its Operation Protective Edge in Gaza. Up until Sunday morning Israel had a pretty clear field, owing to a…
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