October, 2023

• 20 October

  Biden in Israel: How U.S. foreign policy has played a big role in the Israel-Hamas war

  

  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 …

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• 20 October

  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 …

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• 20 October

  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, …

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• 20 October

  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, …

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• 20 October

  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 …

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• 20 October

  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 …

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• 20 October

  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 …

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• 20 October

  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, …

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• 20 October

  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, …

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• 20 October

  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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