In a bold move, the Trump administration has designated the Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) as a Foreign Terrorist Organization (FTO). This is historical justice, since the IRGC has sponsored various terrorist militias and organizations, Shiite and Sunni alike, which have committed many attacks against Western, Israeli and Sunni targets.
Odds are that China and Russia will prove to be long-term US rivals. However, it may just as well be that their alliance will prove to be more tactical than strategic, with the China-Russia relationship resembling US-Chinese ties: cooperation in an environment of divergence rather than convergence.
On March 25th 2019, President Trump signed an order for the United States’ official recognition of Israeli sovereignty over the Golan Heights. This article surveys Israeli public opinion regarding this issue, and its reactions to this announcement. Surveys have shown a consistently high level of support among Jewish Israelis for keeping the Golan Heights, and while there is some disagreement – Jews across the political spectrum support President Trump’s decision.
March 25, 2019 Kenneth Stein, the founding president of the Center for Israel Education, has taught Middle Eastern history and politics at Emory for 43 years. He spent more than half that time serving as…
In January 2019, about two weeks before India’s Republic Day, Israel’s national security adviser, Meir Ben-Shabbat, flew to New Delhi and met Prime Minister Narendra Modi. While such consultations have been routine for the past two decades, the Israeli official chose the direct Air India flight from Tel Aviv, a new flight connection that could only be established because of an unprecedented permit for Israel-bound flights to fly over Saudi airspace. The small incident highlights the distance that India and Israel have traveled since the normalization of diplomatic relations in 1992.
In the coming years, Syria will focus on tending to its war wounds while continuing to serve as a springboard for strategic threats posed by Iran and its proxies against Israel. It is in Israel’s interest that Syria rebuild its infrastructure, experience economic recovery, and benefit from a stable central government. However, there is inherent tension in Israel’s position.
In the past few years, Israel has begun to tilt toward the East. While Israel’s growing relationship with China, in particular, has gained widespread attention in recent years, little attention has been paid to Israel’s relationship with the other Asian economic superpower—Japan.
The relationship between Israel and Europe is something even deeper than friendship, dearer than the affinity between Israelis and Europeans. It goes beyond economic, scientific, medical, technological, and security interests. It is also a relationship that involves a shared interest in the history of humankind itself, intertwined with historical, moral issues based on the fact that many Israelis are also of German, Italian, French, or British origin.
Over recent weeks, a serious debate has taken place on the pages of Mosaic Magazine on Israeli-Chinese relations. First came a detailed study by Arthur Herman, a respected scholar on aspects of Israeli foreign policy. Then came stern warnings from one of America’s best “China hands,” Dan Blumenthal, that “Israel’s Embrace of China is Sorely Misguided,” and from a strong and steady friend, Elliott Abrams, who wrote that “Israel mustn’t let its economic relationship with China threaten its political relationship with America.”
In the past decade, relations between Israel and China have become closer, following a decision in Jerusalem to diversify and expand Israel’s ties with emerging powers and countries that do not belong to the European Union and are less identified with the American coalition. The visit to Israel by China’s vice president is evidence of the warming of relations between the two countries.
Looking back on a June 10, 2018, article by the Jewish Telegraph Agency, we can see polling data reflect a divide between Israeli and American Jews when it comes to approval of President Trump’s policies.
How might we have to imagine the Middle East if there were a political thaw between Iran and Saudi Arabia? Could Turkey leave NATO in the near future? What would happen if security-related EU databases were successfully hacked; if South Korea were to arm itself with nuclear weapons; or if an American woman were to head the United Nations? Of course, these situations, as explored in the SWP’s latest Foresight research paper, are only hypothetical. Why address them?
The US can and should develop a coherent region-wide strategy, involving US allies including Israel, to impede Iran’s ability to continue developing in ways detrimental to the region’s security. However, Iran is proficient in the practice of using proxies and paramilitary methods, as well as in the combination of paramilitary and political struggle. Its response to a US-led strategy to contain and roll back their influence is likely to focus on these areas.
Israel’s opposition to Iranian entrenchment in Syria and Lebanon is twofold: To prevent Iran from building a beachhead against Israel through its proxies on Israel’s borders, and to impede development of Iran’s nuclear and long-range missile capabilities. Israel is absolutely determined and prepared to act forcefully against Iran, which could lead to a full-scale war. Israel must win this struggle against Iran, one way or another.
There has been a significant revitalization of Jewish life among the Jewish communities of Latin America although they are shrinking, mostly due to emigration processes. Over the course of two generations, Latin American Jewry has transformed from mostly immigrants and immigrant communities to rooted communities of locally-born citizens and, simultaneously, of emigrants and expatriates.
Forty years ago this month, President Jimmy Carter convened the Camp David summit between Israeli and Egyptian leaders to push Arab-Israeli negotiations forward in an unprecedented and intensive manner.
The European Union in Turbulent Times maps, reviews, and analyzes the urgent issues on the European agenda. The essays in this collection review the political, social, and economic consequences of these issues and assess their significance, both for Europe and for Israel.
On July 6, 2018, the first tariffs imposed by the United States and China on one another following the American initiative to reduce its trade deficit with China took effect. Prior to that, the US imposed tariffs on steel and aluminum from the European Union, Mexico, and Canada, which responded with their own tariffs.
Ambassador David Friedman nearly changed U.S. policy with a request to use “Judaea and Samaria.”
By Bernard Wasserstein Included as a 15-page chapter in the 2019 book Serendipitous Adventures With Britannia: Personalities, Politics and Culture in Britain, edited by Wm. Roger Louis and used with permission, this overview of the…
French President Emmanuel Macron and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu are in a unique place to enhance bilateral ties, more so than some other EU countries. Margaux Nijkerk is an Emory undergraduate and ISMI intern.
The aftermath of the “Arab Spring” and waning of great power influence has seen Turkey and Iran, both with imperials pasts to assert themselves regionally. Another Shia-Sunni rivalry unfolds. Look for local proxies to join sides.
In the aftermath of UNSC Resolution 2334 condemning Israeli settlement construction, Secretary of State John Kerry publicly blamed Israeli settlement construction in the West Bank for being the major barrier to a two-state solution to resolution of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.
Lewis Carroll’s Through the Looking-Glass and What Alice Found are a great way to understand the Palestinian narrative and in particular, advocates of the Palestinian cause like former President Jimmy Carter.
