JUST IN “This is our second war of independence.” On Saturday, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu announced that a “second stage” in Israel’s war against Hamas has begun. Ground operations in Gaza by the Israel Defense Forces have two goals, Netanyahu said: the destruction of Hamas’s military and governing capabilities, and the return of hostages
Is this the endgame or just the beginning? On Friday, Israel announced that it is “expanding” ground operations in Gaza, with the goal of eradicating Hamas, the terror group that attacked Israel on October 7. Since then, Israeli airstrikes have pummeled Gaza, and hundreds of thousands of Israel Defense Forces (IDF) troops have amassed on
With the conflict ignited by the October 7 Hamas attack on Israel still ablaze, it is difficult to predict what decisions the players will make tomorrow—let alone in a week or a month. That makes it challenging for other nations impacted by the conflict to craft their foreign policy. What we can know in these
More than two weeks after Hamas’s brutal October 7 attack, Israel continues to mass troops at the border with Gaza in preparation for a seemingly imminent ground invasion of the enclave. Meanwhile, escalating clashes between the Israel Defense Forces and Hezbollah along the Israeli-Lebanese border, as well as rising violence in the West Bank have
Just a few weeks ago, it finally seemed that Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu had played a winning card after a few difficult months since the inauguration of his sixth government. In the wake of being shunned by the Joe Biden administration and having visits to Arab capitals indefinitely delayed, Netanyahu hoped to secure a grand
Militant group Hamas’s October 7 attack against Israel threatens to disrupt more than normalizing relations with Israel. Before the attack, the Middle East and North Africa were on a slow path to stabilization. Arab states and Israel were beginning to settle their differences, Saudi Arabia and Iran had established relations, and the Yemen conflict was
