Ghassan Charbel

Benjamin Netanyahu certainly wanted to see a different scene. He had hoped to eventually announce an end to the war with the surrender of Israel’s enemies from Jerusalem. That has not happened. In these kinds of protracted conflicts, knockout blows are extremely scarce. Today, he will make his way…

Benjamin Netanyahu is rubbing his eyes. He cannot believe what he is seeing. He cannot believe what he is hearing. It is as though the world is launching shells that cannot be repelled his way- bombarding his unhinged, murderous rampage. His reckless dreams. And his delusions imported from the…

The Middle East has never been short in delivering strongmen, but it has outdone itself this time. It has delivered the most dangerous man we have ever encountered and whom we can no longer tolerate. No one from his own country and beyond can compete with him. He has amassed records: no one has…

Returning to Beirut from a trip to Damascus, I recalled what I once heard, “Damascus and Baghdad paid in recent decades the price of reckless decisions, while Beirut paid the price of a lack of ability to take decisions.” It has been 15 years since I last took this road, and I remember the…

As I entered the Syrian presidential palace, I observed a young man called Ahmed al-Sharaa seated at the two Assads' seat. My realization grew stronger that what had happened in Syria was immense and will leave its mark on the country and perhaps beyond. Sharaa's tempest did not only uproot an…

Its name is Eritrea. The grave is closer than bread. Death swifter than aid. The grave nearer than the homeland. The sky is stingy, the earth stingy. Its war is wars. Drought left rivers as corpses cracked with thirst. Trees had to die, birds had to migrate. Eritreans had to choose between dying…

Vladimir Putin has the right to celebrate. Donald Trump treated him with the utmost respect. Were it not for his sound reasoning, he would have believed that the Soviet Union was still standing and that his real title was Secretary General of the Communist Party. Trump not only repeatedly…

Can a map, no matter how large, contain two armies, two authorities and two “states”? Is obligatory coexistence just a form of truce until one army succeeds in defeating the other? Is a clash inevitable between the two armies, two authorities and two “states” because the factions are impeding…

Can Lebanon become a normal state again, one that can make its decisions through its state institutions and that respects its commitments in line with international laws? Can Hezbollah acknowledge that the “Axis of Resistance” is no more and that it has no choice but to return to Lebanon and close…

The first component of wisdom is a precise assessment of the balance of power. It is indispensable in war, revolution, or a coup d’état. The balance of power is an almost inescapable consideration that cannot easily be written out of the equation. Ignoring it usually leads to catastrophic…