U.S. President Joe Biden is in Israel to lend support to the country in the midst of an already bloody war between the Israelis and Hamas, including the bombing of a Gaza City hospital that has left hundreds dead. Following Biden’s meeting with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in Tel …
Read More »Classic Layout
How Israel underestimated Hamas’s intelligence capabilities – an expert reviews the evidence
Israel has a cutting-edge security technology industry and was (and still should be) considered to be the leading nation for national security. The controversial electronic intelligence platform Pegasus was developed in Israel, and the border between Israel and Gaza was considered – before the October 7 attack – to be …
Read More »Vucic has ‘friendly’ meeting with Putin in China
Serbian President Aleksandar Vučić had a brief conversation with Russian President Vladimir Putin in Beijing, although there was no formal bilateral meeting between them, the Serbian leader said on Tuesday. Instead of attending the Berlin Process Summit in Tirana, Vučić travelled to China to sign a series of trade deals, …
Read More »Kosovo wants KFOR support on Serbian border
Kosovo’s Prime Minister Albin Kurti has called for the additional KFOR forces deployed to Kosovo to ‘prioritise border security between Kosovo and Serbia, he said during a meeting with NATO’s peacekeeping mission commander in Kosovo, Özkan Ulutaş. The discussions between Kurti and Ulutaş revolved around the security situation in Kosovo, …
Read More »Bulgaria ready to negotiate on Russian gas tax, angers Hungary and Serbia
The Bulgarian government will soon hold talks with its European partners about imposing a new tax on Russian gas transiting its territory, it was announced on Wednesday, a move that predictably angered Serbia and Hungary. At the end of last week, Bulgaria imposed a special ‘energy tax’ of €10/MWh on …
Read More »The Iron Swords –
The war in the south of Israel
Updated to 1 p.m., October 16, 2023
The southern sector: Israeli Air Force attacks on Gaza City continued after at leastsome of the residents of the northern Gaza Strip had responded to the IDF’s calls to evacuate;during the past day there were more than 250 air strikes. The Palestinians reported the nightof October 15, 2023, had been …
Read More »Gaza Has Created a Dilemma for Hezbollah
The party has spent almost two decades building up a deterrence capacity, and now may be its prisoner. Since Hamas’ attack against Israeli towns on October 7, and the ensuing Israeli bombardment and military operations in and around Gaza, Hezbollah’s response in southern Lebanon has been mostly restrained. The party …
Read More »A Second Nakba?
In an interview, Nur Arafeh discusses the ramifications of the conflict in Gaza and what it means for Palestinians. Nur Arafeh is a fellow at the Malcolm H. Kerr Carnegie Middle East Center, where her work focuses on the political economy of the Middle East and North Africa, business-state relations, …
Read More »ISIS Redux: The Central Syria Insurgency in September 2023
Following is the September 2023 installment of “ISIS Redux: The Central Syria Insurgency,” a monthly chronicle of attacks by the terrorist group ISIS in central Syria. A review of developments throughout 2022 and 2021 can be found here and here. The January 2023 edition can be found here, February’s here, …
Read More »What Israel Can Learn From America’s Counterterrorism Missteps
The Strategic Case for Adhering to the Laws of War When Hamas-led Palestinian fighters launched their deadly assault in Israel on October 7, many foreign governments rushed to support Israel. The United States was particularly fervent in declaring that Israel had a right to self-defense, and it expedited military assistance …
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