World News Insights: Opinion Articles

There is an immense moral and political gap between Israel’s blatant unhinged incitement on the life of the symbolic figurehead of the Islamic Republic of Iran (which the Americans eventually sympathized with after their initial opposition) and calm reflection on Iran’s fate after Supreme Leader…

The ongoing exchange of missiles, and the accompanying psychological and intelligence warfare, seems like a foregone conclusion, because all the supposed dividing lines in the Israeli-Iranian conflict have collapsed. These lines collapsed as the possibility of saving the Middle East, alongside the…

Unprecedented scenes in this terrifying region. In the scorching Middle Eastern ring, three great boxers face off over patches of blood and lakes of rubble. The people of the region woke up to the news that US bombers had struck three Iranian nuclear facilities at dawn. The Israelis woke up to…

One question that has dominated the discussions related to the war between Iran and Israel is whether the Jewish state will manage to become a regional "hegemon"- that is, whether it will manage to win the hearts and minds of its neighbors and engage with their interests. As Stephen Walt has argued…

Since the fall of Saddam Hussein’s regime, the region has been constantly criticizing the United States for allegedly having neglected “the day after” in Iraq. It seems the US and the West have become convinced that this neglect had been a mistake, and they now repeat it in the context of the war…

Poland is emblematic of the fate of weak countries surrounded by strong ones, which may pay the price of the wars of the strong as well as their agreement. It has been partitioned three times in its history, and, for years, it disappeared from the map. Mind you, a Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth…

Last week, the idea resurfaced that Israel may target Iran’s Supreme Leader – as if he were just another easy military target in the fierce war between Israel and Iran, which may soon involve the United States. US President Donald Trump made a point of distancing himself from the Israeli plan,…

After a week in purdah, “Supreme Guide” Ali Khamenei broke his silence on Wednesday with a brief and enigmatic message taped in his current secret location. Well, the location may be secret to most of us but not to Israel and its US allies who claim they know where the “Guide” is hiding. This…

In mid-1964, President Fouad Chehab was counting the days till his presidency ended. The coalition of parties that supported him had a majority of nearly two-thirds in Parliament, and these deputies visited him to explain that they intended to amend the Constitution so that he could be re-elected…

Yesterday, this newspaper published a piece by Saudi columnist Dr. Abdulghani Al-Kindi. “Why Did Israel and Iran’s Clash Surprise the Arabs?” is not merely an important column; it is a text that deserves to be shared, explained, and amplified. It’s a remarkable article about the absence of any…

For at least a year now, Iran and Israel have been fighting a direct conflict, after having waged a shadow war for decades. This is more than a regional power struggle; what we are witnessing is an existential war between two regimes as traditional pillars of deterrence erode, creating trajectories…

It might be safe to say that the relationship between states and armed militias might benefit from revisions of a highly consequential episode of modern Arab history: the Jordanian civil war of 1970–1971. Together, the large Palestinian population in East Jordan, the country’s 482-kilometer…