Policy Analysis

The United States has made it clear that it is providing Israel with the requisite political breathing space to obtain its military objectives in Lebanon. U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice has delayed her mediation mission, and President Bush has not pressed Israel to end its military operations at this

On July 19, 2006, Brig. Gen. (ret.) Moshe Yaalon, David Schenker, and Dennis Ross addressed The Washington Institute’s Special Policy Forum. General Yaalon, a distinguished military fellow at the Institute, is the former Israel Defense Forces (IDF) chief of staff. Mr. Schenker, a senior fellow in Arab politics at the

Having come into existence by virtue of Iranian military and financial patronage, Hizballah has used massive Iranian support to transform itself from a purely military group into an armed political party that has had an enduring impact on Lebanese political life and served as an outpost of Islamic fundamentalism in

As someone who helped to negotiate an end to the Israeli-Hezbollah battles in 1993 and ‘96, when Katyusha rockets forced the public in northern Israel into bomb shelters and the Israeli military destroyed Lebanese infrastructure and forced Lebanese to flee the south, I can say that the Lebanese crisis is

The outbreak of hostilities after Hizballah’s July 12 raid into Israel, in which it captured two Israeli soldiers and killed eight others, has elicited a variety of responses from government officials and other prominent figures throughout the Middle East. Though it is not surprising to see harsh statements about Israel

In 1975, Lebanese President Suleiman Franjieh warned Palestinian Liberation Organization leader Yasser Arafat that failure to discipline Palestinian radicals in the southern outskirts of Beirut would exploit Lebanon’s hospitality and plunge the country into civil war. These were famous last words. Within months, a civil war broke out that engulfed

The capture yesterday of two Israeli soldiers (eight more were killed) in a crossborder raid by the Lebanese group Hizballah, as Israeli forces in Gaza continued to search for an Israeli soldier kidnapped last week by Hamas and to clear Qassam rocket launch sites, marked the opening of a second

Instead of focusing on what Arab publics say, this study argues, U.S. policy would be better informed by paying close attention to what Arab publics do.

Earlier today, Hamas politburo chief Khaled Mashal held a press conference in Damascus broadcast live on al-Jazeera, al-Arabiya, and Syrian state television. During the broadcast, Mashal described kidnapped Israeli soldier Cpl. Gilad Shalit as a “prisoner of war,” said that prisoner exchange was the only solution to the crisis, and

Even while Israelis and Palestinians are locked in deepening conflict over the kidnapping of a young Israeli soldier and the future of the Hamas government, political life on the East Bank of the Jordan River is increasingly focused on internal Jordanian concerns. Comeuppance for the Islamists The death of Abu

Last year I gave a speech in Gaza and told my audience that the upcoming Israeli withdrawal from Gaza was both a challenge and an opportunity for the Palestinian people. A challenge because they would have to be able to govern themselves and bring order to Gaza once Israel had

On June 21, 2006, Nicholas Blanford and David Schenker addressed The Washington Institute’s Special Policy Forum. Nicholas Blanford, Beirut-based correspondent for the Christian Science Monitor and Time, is the author of the forthcoming Killing Mr. Lebanon: The Assassination of Rafik Hariri and Its Impact on the Middle East. David Schenker

The June 29 parliamentary elections in Kuwait achieved international media coverage because women were allowed to stand for office and vote for the first time in the sheikhdom. Less well reported were the local political divisions that had brought about elections a year earlier than expected. The results of the

The raid into Israel conducted early on June 25 by Hamas’s military command demonstrated without a doubt that the responsibilities of governance have not moderated the terrorist group. Although Hamas now has a nationally elected political leadership, its government clearly does not call the shots, or rockets, when it comes

Israel faces a crisis with a Palestinian Authority that lacks a clear address. Who can be held accountable? The internal Hamas, which makes up the cabinet and the legislative council? Ismail Haniyeh, the prime minister, tells Mahmoud Abbas that he knows nothing and was blindsided by the attack at Kerem

In the July/August issue of Foreign Policy, Institute counselor Dennis Ross joined a roundtable of Middle East experts to discuss the controversy over John Mearsheimer and Stephen Walt’s The Israel Lobby. Read the full text of Ambassador Ross’s article in PDF format. John Mearsheimer and Stephen Walt are troubled by

Institute senior fellow Michael Eisenstadt contributed an essay to the book, Iraq and America: Choices and Consequences (Stimson Center, 2006), edited by Ellen Laipson and Maureen S. Steinbruner. The following is an excerpt from Mr. Eisenstadt’s essay. Download the full text in PDF format. Much of the current public debate

While the international community debates options for halting a defiant Iran's nuclear program, most observers assume that the Iranian people support the regime's nuclear efforts, and that any dissent centers on tactics rather than substance. By this view, nuclear progress is an expression of the country's national pride and its

Recent events suggest that seismic forces may be developing within HAmas that may have a decisive impact on the course of Israeli-Palestinian relations.

On May 13, 2006, Mohsen Sazegara wrote an open letter to Iranian president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad in response to Ahmadinejad’s letter to President Bush earlier that month. Mohsen Sazegara is a visiting associate professor at Yale University’s Center for International and Area Studies, having previously served as a visiting fellow at