As the new year approaches, two-thirds of those interviewed described the public mood in Israel as pessimistic and a fourth as optimistic. There is skepticism about the country’s collective mood but personally the public is optimistic about the future. Two-third of Israelis think that there is a high or very high chance that there will be new elections in four months. (Published with Courtesy of the Guttman Center for Public Opinion and Policy Research at the Israel Democracy Institute, 2020).

The Coronavirus pandemic is dramatically disrupting the politics and economies of Middle Eastern states. A second spike in cases is staggering the region’s population. Provided here is a curated reading list of analyses and assessments from online sources.

On August 13, 2020, when the United Arab Emirates agreed to pursue full normal relations with Israel, without any Israeli withdrawal from lands it won in the June 1967 war, the sacred negotiating formula, “Land for Peace” that had dominated Arab-Israeli talks for half a century abruptly ended.