By Aidan New and Michael Jacobs (updated April 9) President Donald Trump’s second administration had an impact in the Middle East even before his inauguration Jan. 20, 2025: Special Middle East envoy Steven Witkoff was…
The details of the three-stage Hamas-Israel cease-fire that went into effect January 19, 2025, along with unanswered questions, insightful analyses and the relevant U.N. resolution from June 2024.
Compiled by Aidan New Iran, a Shia- and Persian-majority theocracy, frequently clashes with its Sunni Arab neighbors, including Bahrain, Egypt, Saudi Arabia, and the United Arab Emirates. These tensions are rooted in religious and ethnic…
Netanyahu’s speech reflected on the needed elimination of Hezbollah as an enemy of Israel, a powerful militia fighting in Lebanon against Israel for four decades. On the day of Netanyahu’s speech, the Israeli Air Force killed Hassan Nasrallah, the Hezbollah leader in his Beirut offices along with other Hezbollah officials.
Hezbollah emerged in Lebanon in the 1980s, rooted in the historical marginalization of the country’s Shiite community. Today, Hezbollah is a major player in Lebanese social and political life, wielding significant influence over both the government and the military situation.
In a 52 minute speech, Netanyahu explained Israel’s absolute need for total victory in the Gaza war because Hamas and Iran were both enemies of the United States and Israel. With bi-partisan emphasis, he thanked Presidents Biden and Trump for their unwavering current and past support. Dozens of congressional members did not attend his speech, noting disagreements with the Prime Minister’s policies.
Unfold six Arab states’ embrace of Israel since 1973 out of national interests and U.S. mediation, sidelining the Palestinian movement, and explore Hamas’ Oct. 7, 2023, attack and its implications for the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and Israeli diplomacy.
Israeli Prime minister provides minimal detail for the Gaza Strip’s post war civilian restructuring, focusing entirely on immediate and long term Israeli security needs with no imposed Palestinian state nor international negotiating intervention acceptable.
Addressing Israel’s fear of Iran’s access to nuclear weapons, the same point made by his predecessor Yair Lapid stressed in 2022 at the UN, Netanyahu like Lapid praised the Abraham Accords, noting in a quite unrestrained fashion that Israel was on the ‘cusp of a historic peace with Saudi Arabia.” The Prime Minister did mention support for a two-state solution with the Palestinians as Lapid had done previously.
In just under an hour, Herzog emphasized the special US-Israeli relationship, citing common values between the two democracies, noting, “when the US is strong, Israel is stronger. And when Israel is strong, the US is more secure.” He cited Israel’s domestic and foreign policy challenges in its 75th year.
In December President Herzog visited Manama, Bahrain, his fourth visit to a Middle Eastern country in 2022, (Abu Dhabi in January, Istanbul in March, Amman in June, and Sharm El-Sheikh in November), all aimed at bolstering Israel’s economic, cultural and bi-lateral relations with Arab states. Talks on this trip focused on expanding trade and sharing among others, Israel’s solar and desalinazation technologies.
Bin Zayed, known as MBZ, is the president of the United Arab Emirates and the ruler of Abu Dhabi. In August 2020 he signed the Abraham Accords to normalize relations between the UAE and Israel….
The focus of Prime Minister Yair Lapid’s first speech at the UN was a political weather report of Israel’s relations with Arab neighbors. He lauded Arab states for embracing Israel, hoped that Israel could move toward a two-state solution with the Palestinians, and blistered the hate spewing from Hamas and Iran; Israel he said, would not tolerate Iran obtaining a nuclear weapon.
On President Joe Biden’s trip to Israel, he and Prime Minister Yair Lapid affirmed the long-term U.S.-Israel strategic relationship.
Bennett makes remarks about a new self-defense system, fears about Iran, managing the pandemic, economic growth, and Israel’s growing relationship with Middle Eastern Arab countries.
June 16, 2021 Two Israeli Middle East experts, Professor Asher Susser of Tel Aviv University and Dr. Sarah Feuer of the Institute for National Security Studies and the Washington Institute for Near East Policy, address…
Nine pre-conditions that enabled Arab-Israeli negotiations to unfold successfully in the 1970s and 1990s are not present today. Egyptian-Israeli and Jordanian-Israeli agreements occurred because the respective sides wanted them and needed them.
CIE asked friends and experts in the field of Israel Studies to discuss the challenges and successes of the State of Israel in this past year, and to reflect on the coming year. Below, we…
A week after Antony Blinken’s confirmation as Secretary of State, the Acting US Ambassador to the UN outlined with considerable detail the administration’s objective to an agreed, not imposed two-state resolution to the Palestinian-Israeli Conflict.
November 25, 2020 By Ken Stein Leadership is about knowing your objectives and adjusting and implementing the tactics to accomplish them. Leadership is also about choices and consequences. It is about making political trade-offs. November…
UAE and Bahraini ambassadors to the U.S. provide incisively sharp assessments about why their peace accords unfolded with Israel in September 2020: to halt West Bank annexation, strengthen ties with the United States, enhance national security, and stimulate, if possible, Palestinian-Israeli negotiations.
CIE Founding President, Professor Ken Stein and Visiting Israeli Scholar, Dr. Nachman Shai, who served in the Israeli Parliament for 10 years, explain the context and implications of the Abraham Accords for Israel and the Middle East.
After the August 15, 2020, announcement that the UAE would recognize Israel in return for not annexing any of the West Bank area, the PLO and the PA reacted with anger, calling the UAE action a ‘stab in the back of the Palestinians.’ Subsequently, the Arabic written media and analysts in the Middle East and elsewhere poured out their thoughts about what this action meant to the future of the Palestinian community worldwide and to the Palestinian issue in general. One of the many responses was presented in a webinar by the Brookings Institution on August 27, 2020.
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.
