Whether or not Iran helped plan Hamas’s terrorist attack that killed at least 1,300 Israelis is needlessly distracting analysts and the media from the far more important conclusion that we already know: Iran is culpable for the attack. On Monday, Washington was set abuzz when the Wall Street Journal published a story claiming that Iran
The indefensible violence and destruction that terrorist organizations commit can obscure an important reality: Whatever else they are, terrorist organizations are also organizations. They have to fundraise, justify their existence to supporters and donors, and provide results that move their stated mandate forward. For Hamas and the Palestinian Islamic Jihad (PIJ), attacks and operations that
The terrorist attacks launched by Hamas inside Israeli territory have left more than 1,200 Israelis dead, the most Jewish people murdered in one day since the Holocaust. In response to these heinous terrorist attacks, Israel has launched a major military campaign against Hamas in Gaza. It could be a long campaign, lasting months or more, but
BEIRUT—As Israel prosecutes its offensive against Hamas in Gaza, eyes are nervously turning toward Lebanon, where a series of clashes along the border has raised fears of a second front breaking out, an outcome that could trigger a full regional war. Neither side appears to want an escalation, but the risks are high for a disastrous miscalculation. So far,
“A 9/11 and a Pearl Harbor wrapped into one.” That’s how an Israel Defense Forces (IDF) spokesperson described the events of October 7, when Hamas unleashed a complex surprise attack on Israel, killing hundreds and taking more than one hundred hostages. Israel is responding with an assault on the Gaza Strip, as fears mount of
The recent revelation that Iran-backed militant group Hezbollah in Lebanon has constructed a 3,937-feet (1,200-meter) asphalted runway at one of its military bases is the latest example of the party’s increasingly brazen pattern of behavior, especially in the southern border district where a United Nations (UN) peacekeeping force has been deployed for the past forty-five
The June 23-24 rebellion led by Wagner Group leader Yevgeny Prigozhin—aimed, he claimed, at replacing the Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu and Chief of the General Staff Valery Gerasimov (not Russian President Vladimir Putin)—has ended. However, reverberations from it are likely to continue being felt beyond Russia, such as in the Middle East and North
Here we go again. On March 23, Iran-backed Iraqi militias launched a drone attack that killed an American contractor and wounded another, as well as twenty-four US military personnel. The attack feels very much like a repeat of the one in December 2019, which also killed a US contractor and led to an escalatory cycle,
There is no question that the full-scale invasion of Ukraine has dramatically undermined Russia’s global standing, but it is also true that international responses to the war have been far from uniform. The democratic world has almost universally condemned Russia’s invasion and has united in support of Ukraine, while many in the Global South have
“Operation Shield and Arrow” harkens back to an older form of warfare, but its methods are modern. Early Tuesday, forty Israeli aircraft launched a targeted attack on sites in northern and southern Gaza. The strikes killed three senior commanders of the Palestinian Islamic Jihad (PIJ) militant group and ten others, including children. Israel struck again
