Reports of Ambassador Zvi Mazel
See all →
A rocky start for “the deal of the century”
The unveiling of the $50 billion U.S. investment plan to secure peace in the Middle East by improving conditions in the West Bank and Gaza met international skepticism, and virulent opposition from the Palestinian authorities. But for President Donald Trump, solving the conflict none of his predecessors could would gain ...
Syria’s relentless war
Though the regime of President Bashar al-Assad now governs most of the country and ISIS has lost the territory it once held, there is still no end in sight for the Syrian Civil War. Opposition groups control several provinces, where violence simmers, and the complicated web of foreign interests has ...
Israeli view: Hezbollah puts Lebanon at risk
Since 1982, the Shia Hezbollah movement has turned the Lebanese-Israeli border into one of the most volatile in the region. With help from Iran, it has also consolidated political power in Lebanon and expanded its involvement in the Syrian civil war. After its stunning success in last year’s elections, Hezbollah ...
A new wave of unrest in North Africa
Street demonstrations have forced Algeria’s president to resign and Sudan’s to declare a year-long state of emergency. In both countries, these popular revolts are challenging entrenched regimes that successfully weathered the Arab Spring protests of 2011. Can this unexpected coda to the revolutions that opened an unhappy decade in the ...
President El-Sisi’s Egypt: Quietly rebuilding economic strength
Following his 2013 coup d’etat that was sternly criticized in Washington and European capitals, Egypt’s former defense minister, Abdel-Fattah El-Sisi, was elected the country’s president by an overwhelming margin. After five years in charge of the most populous Arab country, Mr. El-Sisi has accumulated a predictably shoddy record on human ...
Opinion: The Iran-Sunni feud and prospects for Israeli-Palestinian peace
An unspoken rapprochement is settling in between Israel and a Saudi-led group of Sunni Arab states as they work together to counteract Iran’s growing influence in the Middle East. The Israeli-Palestinian conflict, however, is holding back even closer cooperation. Could the Saudis pressure the Palestinians to become more flexible and ...
Gaza and the Hamas problem
Cut off by their neighbors, the people of the Hamas-governed Gaza Strip suffer from high unemployment, low investment and only sporadic electricity. With Hamas having proven itself dangerous to Egypt, Israel and the Ramallah-based Palestinian government, it is not difficult to see why the sanctions continue. Qatari aid may give ...
Iran and Israel’s proxy war in Syria escalates
The accidental downing of a Russian military plane by Syrian anti-missile defense, which coincided with Israeli air force jets’ presence in the area, highlights the danger of the increasingly open proxy warfare between Israel and Iran. The number of parties involved – Israel, Russia, Syria, Iran and Hezbollah – points ...
