Middle Orient

The United States, attempting to contain the spread of Israel’s war in Gaza, is pitching allies on expanding a multinational naval task force to address an alarming rise in attacks on commercial vessels traveling near Yemen that have posed a significant threat to global shipping. The White House says it’s …

Ramallah is a dusty city built, you soon realise, around a fort. This is the Mukataa, or the “headquarters”, separated from the streets by walls and watchtowers. Mandate officials, Jordanian officers and the IDF have all been based here — running prisons, courts and successive occupations. Today, it is the …

The origin and meaning of Nakba The Nakba, which means “catastrophe” or “disaster” in Arabic, refers to the exodus of Palestinians following the 1948 war between Israel, which had just proclaimed its independence after the end of the British mandate over Palestine, and a coalition of Arab countries. The concept …

The recent announcement of an assassination of the commander of the Security Belt forces (in South Yemen), Brigadier General Abdul Latif Al-Sayed, by Al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula is yet another reminder that not only have the security and terrorism concerns in South Yemen have not been put to …

Over the past 80 years, there have been costly intelligence failures in the United States and Israel despite sufficient intelligence collection and the presence of classic warning signals. For the United States, the attacks on Pearl Harbor in December 1941 could have been prevented or ameliorated because we had deciphered …

Who will govern Gaza when Israel’s military offensive against Hamas ends? After five weeks of fighting, the answer remains shrouded in confusion. Hamas, a Palestinian Islamist group with an armed wing, has governed the coastal territory of about 2.4 million people since 2007 after which Israel placed Gaza under a …

In the wake of the Hamas attack, Netanyahu and his allies tried to convince the world that Israel had faced its own 9/11. They used this analogy to portray Israel as a victim of terrorism and a defender of democracy, while ignoring the fact that Hamas is an elected organization …

Al-Araby TV, a Qatari channeled aired on December 3, 2023 a report from onboard the hijacked Galaxy Leader, a commercial ship seized by the Yemeni Houthi Ansar Allah, who claimed that it was an Israeli ship. Houthi governor of Hodeidah Muhammad Ayash Qahim said that any Israeli ship or ships …

Lebanese researcher Sheikh Nazir Al-Jichi responded in a November 30, 2023 show on Spot Shot Online (Lebanon) to speculations that Iran would negotiate over reining in Hizbullah. He said that this would be just like Iran negotiating over the role of the IRGC. Al-Jichi said that Hizbullah answers directly to …

Les États-Unis, une justice «à la carte», la France, une suspicion légitime. La justice pénale internationale, dont l’avènement avait été salué comme annonciateur d’une ère nouvelle est, ainsi, d’emblée, obérée par sa sélectivité et ses immunités, en un mot par sa partialité. Les États-Unis, un des tortionnaires majeurs de l’époque …