Sam Menassa

The Ceilings of a Hypothetical Dialogue with Hezbollah

In light of the current impasse in Lebanon, there has been a lot of talk about dialogue. However, there are differences around the nature of this dialogue: Is it a dialogue or consultation? Between groups or a duo? The country will be back in the labyrinth of futile debates. Meanwhile, the…

The Implications of the Gaza War Ending for Lebanon

A ceasefire agreement between Benjamin Netanyahu and Hamas hangs in the balance. The two men principally concerned know that it would spell the end of the war, and that ending the war means the beginning of their political end. The war will end one day, whether through a negotiated ceasefire that…

Peace Amid Mutual Deterrence and the Impotence of Extremists

The World Economic Forum held in Riyadh last week strengthened the momentum of the ongoing negotiations. Its speakers could be heard over the sounds of the weapons fired in Gaza, and the white smoke rising from Riyadh overshadowed the black smoke over Tel Aviv. A ceasefire that leads to the release…

Israel Embraced, Israel Encircled

The Iranian drone and missile attack on Israel, as well as the response of the US and its Western allies in defense of Israel on the night of the attack, have brought to light many revelations that go beyond the exceptional nature of the attack itself. Firstly, they showed that the US and Western…

The Banner of Gaza and Iran’s Unruly Defiance

Per the Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps, Israel’s airstrike on an Iranian consulate building in the Iranian embassy compound in Damascus killed seven military advisors. Among them was Mohammad Reza Zahedi, a prominent leader in its foreign arm, the Quds Force, who became the third to be killed by…

Lebanon Is Its Own Enemy

The threat of the fires in Gaza engulfing Lebanon is growing, and there is now a real possibility of the mini war Hezbollah launched in support of Hamas turning into a border conflict that encompasses the entire country as the escalation continues and the target zone spreads from the south to the…

Sinwar, Netanyahu and the Al-Aqsa Flood 

The Ramadan truce between Hamas and Israel that we had been promised does not seem forthcoming. In fact, Benjamin Netanyahu and Yahya al-Sinwar could be dragging the region in general, and their countries in particular, to a dangerous place, as they are accounting only for their own personal fates…

Saving Peace from the Machinations of Extremists

Last week’s “bread massacre” in Gaza was a bloody incarnation of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s plan for the "day after" his war. In essence, the plan is for Israel to maintain freedom of action in the Gaza Strip indefinitely and establish a security zone along the Gazan side of the border. …

Will Biden Dare to Recognize a Palestinian State

Both Iran and Israel have managed, in record time, to mobilize the largest number of adversaries or lose the largest number of friends. Iran has Europe’s overt or covert sympathy, pushing the Europeans to adopt a position more aligned with their US ally because they have concluded that Iran has…

The Obstacles to Hindering the Israeli War Machine

It is now reasonable, after the thousands of civilian casualties and indescribable destruction we have seen, to ask how effectively the United States could pressure Israel, which is determined to continue its hysterical war against Hamas in the Gaza Strip. Almost every country and international…