World News Insights: Opinion Articles

It was barely a month ago when TV watchers across the globe saw a show in which new US president Donald Trump treated visiting Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy as one of those voodoo dolls made for pushing needles into thus dodging a curse. After the show TV talking heads speculated that…

The moment Naim Qassem publicly and explicitly approved the ceasefire agreement, before Amos Hochstein even landed in Tel Aviv, he was, in effect, admitting to the collapse of Hezbollah’s project. The party’s insistence on securing a binding ceasefire agreement, even while Israeli forces remained…

Since October 7, 2023, and in the aftermath of war in Gaza and Lebanon, Iranian-Israeli skirmishes, and the much-touted but ultimately hollow talk of "unified fronts", a new dynamic has emerged. One I would call "converging tracks". Anyone observing the region today will detect a new common…

We often read two histories in history books, though one could, for a brief time, eclipse the other. One is the history of wars, which is studded with events like the conquests of Hannibal and Alexander, the Babylonian captivity, the Hundred Years' War, the Napoleonic Wars, the American Civil War,…

It is an absurdity of Middle Eastern politics that many politicians and analysts are still betting on the complete elimination of Iran’s role in the region. Even more absurd is the expectation that Israel will drag Washington into this "war of elimination." True, this is the most right-wing US…

Twelve years ago, former US President Barack Obama’s team and Iran began secret negotiations that lasted two years and led to what became known as the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA). It was implemented for three years before President Donald Trump came into office and courageously tore…

The Houthi youth cannot believe what he is reading. Positive messages have emerged from the Iranian-American meeting in Muscat. He had never expected that the supreme leader would allow Foreign Minister Abbas Araqchi to meet with Steve Witkoff – the envoy of the man who ordered the killing of…

As the United States and Arabs are trying to convince Lebanon on the importance of state - and not Hezbollah – control over weapons and without imposing sanctions, the party continues to procrastinate with flimsy excuses, despite the ceasefire agreement between Lebanon and Israel. In contrast, the…

Two years into the war, Sudan remains the world’s largest humanitarian crisis, with 25 million people struggling to get enough to eat and over 12 million displaced. Nearly everyone has a tale of horror to tell, whether suffered themselves or experienced by a family member or friend. But horror…

Despite the great deal of sound and fury that it has generated, it is perhaps too early to assess the lasting impact of President Donald Trump’s latest fireworks on tariffs. Some things, however, are certain. Contrary to assertions by talking heads on the small screen, we are not heading for a…

A combination of two intertwined tendencies is driving the behavior of Benjamin Netanyahu’s Israel: absolute exceptionalism and pre-emptive-ness that feeds on assumptions of the worst intentions. Exceptionalism, in this sense, amounts to suspending the ordinary, with its laws and norms, and…

The most dangerous impediment to the Lebanese authorities’ current efforts to restore the state is that the country sits atop a dangerous minefield of “zombie” weapons and “zombie” banks. The camp of illegitimate arms intimidates rivals by clinging to narratives that defend its maintenance. Just 90…