Middle Orient

Dystopian displays of technological prowess serve to distract the Israeli public from the military’s failure to achieve its long-stated war aims. After detonating thousands of pagers carried by Hezbollah members in an attack that caught much of the world by surprise, Israel has now launched a bloody aerial and ground …

Abstract: The Iran-backed Houthi movement has delivered a strong military performance in the year of anti-Israel and anti-shipping warfare since October 2023. They seem to be aiming to be the ‘first in, last out,’ meaning the first to cross key thresholds during the war (for instance, attack Israel’s major cities) …

Abstract: As early as the 1980s, the U.S. intelligence community documented the ways in which Iran deployed chemical weapons for tactical delivery on the battlefield. Nearly 40 years later, U.S. officials formally assessed that Iran was in non-compliance with its Chemical Weapons Convention (CWC) obligations, pointing specifically to Tehran’s development …

At 3:30 p.m. on Sept. 17, someone pushed a “red button,” and a low-simmering conflict blasted open into a full-scale war. For months, Israel and the Lebanese militant group Hezbollah had been locked in a cross-border slugfest, exchanging daily attacks that forced civilians in both countries from their homes but …

A new round of airstrikes hit Beirut suburbs late Sunday as Israel intensified its bombardment of northern Gaza and southern Lebanon in a widening war with Iran-allied militant groups across the region. Palestinian officials said a strike on a mosque killed at least 19 people. A year after Hamas’ Oct. …

An Israeli military correspondent reported that the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) is preparing to expand its ground operations in southern Lebanon.[i] The IDF plans to send more forces, according to the correspondent, which would build upon the two divisions already operating in southern Lebanon. These divisions have primarily operated around …

What Happened? On October 1, 2024, the Islamic Republic of Iran unleashed a large salvo of nearly 200 ballistic missiles against Israel. Iran’s attack came only five days after Israel conducted strikes to eliminate several high-ranking officials of the Iran-backed proxy terror group Hezbollah—most notably late Secretary General Hassan Nasrallah. …

Following the Hamas-led attack on southern Israel on 7 October 2023, Israel launched an intensive military campaign in Gaza, with the stated aims of destroying Hamas’s military and governing capabilities and bringing home 251 hostages taken during the incursion. While many states were quick to affirm Israel’s right to self-defence, …

Nasrallah’s violent end hasn’t just led to Israeli euphoria — it’s also emboldened the prime minister to think in grand terms of recasting a Middle East that’s more favorable to Israel. It was Israel’s Osama bin Laden moment. And much like Americans danced outside the White House after news broke …

[O]ne thing is certain: his [Iranian Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei’s] 30-year-long policy of using costly proxies to keep war away from Iran has failed. Now he may be forced into doing his own fighting. Depending on how far this goes, Khamenei’s latest move could put the very fate of his …