December, 2025

• 4 December

  Not Serving by Faith: How Israel is Trying to Force Ultra-Orthodox Jews to Serve in the Army Like Everyone Else

  

  On November 19, Israel’s Supreme Court gave the government 45 days to develop effective measures to combat the evasion of military service by ultra-Orthodox Jews. Ultra-Orthodox Jews make up 14% of Israel’s population, yet they serve almost exclusively in the army. This practice had been legal for the past 70 …

  Read More »
• 4 December

  A failure on all counts. How Dmitriev and Ushakov tried to pass off their plan as American.

  

  On November 20, some American media outlets, citing an anonymous source, leaked a 28-point plan to end the war in Ukraine, passing it off as an American peace plan, supposedly formulated as a result of lengthy US negotiations with the Russian and Ukrainian sides. In reality, the document represented proposals …

  Read More »
• 2 December

  ISIS Suspects Held in Syria: Repatriation Reset under New US, Syrian Leaders?

  

  Six years after the collapse of the so-called Islamic State caliphate in March 2019, dramatic leadership changes in Washington, DC and Damascus open a rare window of opportunity to end the continuing, unlawful detentions of some 26,000 foreign ISIS suspects and family members in northeast Syria. The detainees, who come …

  Read More »
• 2 December

  After ISIS: Insights into Post-war Gaza Humanitarian Camps

  

  As Gaza faces one of the most severe post-war humanitarian crises in modern history, a crucial policy debate emerges: will displacement camps emerge to serve as a temporary humanitarian necessity, or become long-term internment sites potentially fuelling future radicalisation and conflict? Over twenty months into the Israel-Hamas war, the Gaza …

  Read More »
• 2 December

  The Threat of ISIS in a Fragmentated Syria

  

  It has now been nearly three months since Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS) came to power in Syria. After the joy over the end of the Assad era, all eyes are on HTS to see whether they can govern in a highly fragmented Syria and prevent a potential resurgence of the …

  Read More »
• 2 December

  A fractured front: Autonomy or integration for Syria’s Kurds?

  

  As Damascus enters the US-led coalition against ISIS, its relationship with Syria’s Kurds, America’s longstanding ally, remains fraught with distrust Syria became the 90th country to join the US-led multinational coalition against the Islamic State (IS) following interim president Ahmed Al-Sharaa’s cordial meeting with US President Donald Trump in the …

  Read More »
• 2 December

  Gaza’s secret flights: Inside Israel’s new push for forced transfer

  

  As Gaza’s misery deepens, secret flights approved by Israel offer a way out. But many fear they are laying the groundwork for a silent population transfer A bombshell report exposing a shadowy organisation’s secret charter flights transporting Palestinians out of Gaza has raised growing fears of an expanding policy of …

  Read More »
• 2 December

  Occupation and opportunity: Israel’s strategy in post-Assad Syria

  

  As Syria struggles to rebuild, Israel is using the chaos to entrench military dominance and prevent any new regional order from restraining its power It has been nearly a year since the fall of Bashar Al-Assad’s government in Syria. For the past nearly 12 months, Israel has continued its aggression, …

  Read More »
• 2 December

  Yellow lines and green zones: The de facto partition of Gaza

  

  Last week, the UN Security Council endorsed President Donald Trump’s plan for Gaza, effectively installing American supervision over the Palestinian territory’s postwar future. The resolution, which mandated a transitional administration and an international stabilisation force, faced sharp rejection from several Palestinian factions, who warned that it would undermine the national …

  Read More »
• 2 December

  Russian Offensive Campaign Assessment, November 29, 2025

  

  Toplines Russian state media is leveraging Russian President Vladimir Putin’s recent statements to intensify the false narrative that the frontline in Ukraine will imminently collapse, likely in an effort to coerce the West and Ukraine into capitulating to Russian demands that Russia cannot secure itself militarily. ISW continues to assess …

  Read More »