middle east

A fragment of an Iranian missile lodged in the ground in the Golan Heights, April 8, 2026. (Ayal Margolin/Flash90)

The beginning of the end of Israel’s ‘permanent security’ doctrine

Israel’s relentless pursuit of ‘total victory’ has entangled it in an unwinnable war with Iran, eroding legitimacy abroad and deepening moral decay within.

By Meron Rapoport and Ameer Fakhoury April 24, 2026

Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia, September 18, 2019. (U.S. Department of State)

How Gaza’s horrors turned Israeli normalization into a Saudi domestic crisis

Before Oct. 7, the kingdom was meticulously reshaping public opinion to support a peace deal. Gaza upended this strategy — forcing MbS to recalibrate.

By Hind Al Ansari April 24, 2025

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu addresses Congress in Washington, DC, July 24, 2024. (Amos Ben Gershom/GPO)

‘This is also America’s war’: Why the U.S. isn’t stopping Israel’s Gaza onslaught

Israelis and Palestinians are making a terrible mistake by looking exclusively to Washington to solve their problems, says former negotiator Daniel Levy.

By Meron Rapoport September 2, 2024

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An Iraqi protester waves a flag at a protest during the October Revolution, November 1, 2019. (Mondalawy/CC BY-SA 4.0)

The dwindling promise of popular uprisings in the Middle East

From Iran to Palestine, protest movements are fighting regimes that have grown stronger and smarter since the Arab Spring. Can this time be different?

By Tariq Kenney-Shawa November 16, 2022

Noam Chomsky at the University of Toronto, April 7, 2011. (Andrew Rusk/Flickr)

Noam Chomsky: Solidarity movements key to changing US Middle East policy

From nuclear disarmament to Palestinian rights, Noam Chomsky discusses the need to disrupt authoritarian alliances and an entrenching 'Greater Israel.'

By Lilach Ben David February 17, 2021

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu looks through binoculars during his visit to the border with Syria, August 18, 2015. (Amos Ben Gershom/GPO)

As Mideast borders open, Israel is more isolated than ever

Over the past decade, Middle Eastern countries have viewed their borders as a physical obstacle. The recent warming of relations between Arab states has led to increase in trade, leaving Israel more regionally isolated than ever before. By Moran Zaga Over the last month, border crossings have opened along both the Jordan-Iraq and Iraq-Saudi Arabia…

By +972 Magazine September 18, 2017

File photo of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu looking out over the Egyptian border. (Ariel Jerozolimski/POOL/FLASH90)

The false story Israel tells itself about the Middle East

According to Israel’s leaders, the Middle East is made up of primitive tribespeople and Islamic radicals who cannot be negotiated with. They’re wrong. By Idan Barir and Ori Goldberg Nearly a month ago, a hearing at the Knesset’s State Control Committee that looked into the State Comptroller’s report on Israel’s handling of Operation Protective Edge,…

By +972 Magazine May 27, 2017

Tariq Al-Bab, Aleppo, 2013. (Basma/Foreign and Commonwealth Office)

Downstairs, from heavenly Aleppo

Aleppo, your stories will come back to my ears, like a child who sits on his grandmother’s knees. By Mati Shemoelof Aleppo, I, Matityaho Ibn Shifra, your old daughter, a grandson of your Arab-Jews, mourn the erasure of your city of poetry, Aleppo, how did they forget to save your libraries? Aleppo, was it not…

By +972 Magazine February 18, 2017

File photo of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu looking out over the Egyptian border. (Ariel Jerozolimski/POOL/FLASH90)

What is Israel’s place in the Middle East?

It’s time for Israel to recognize that it can coexist with its neighbors without fear or feelings of superiority. Academia can lead the way. By Assaf David The perception of Israel as a foreign entity in the Middle East, hence a fortress under threat, is shared by all major purveyors of knowledge and discourse in the…

By +972 Magazine September 6, 2016

Yemenite Jews walking to a ‘reception camp’ near Aden, 1949. (Photo by Kluger Zoltan/Israel National Archive)

It is time to rebuild ties between Mizrahim and the Arab world

Five years after Mizrahi Israelis offered their solidarity to the young men and women of the Arab Spring, it is time to say it loud and clear: real peace will come once we recognize the deep cultural and religious ties between Jews and Muslims of the region. By Almog Behar Five years ago in April…

By Haokets March 1, 2016

The Beirut skyline. (Shutterstock.com)

From Haifa to Beirut: ’48 Palestinians challenge regional isolation

It is difficult to comprehend what it means for Palestinians who have only an Israeli passport to live in the Middle East, isolated from the region around them. An interview with one of a handful of activists challenging that reality by crossing seemingly forbidden borders.

By Michael Schaeffer Omer-Man February 20, 2016

The Beaten Path: Seeking refuge in Eilat (part 9)

Israel was borne of a need to escape a violent Europe. Now Israelis feel a constant need to escape a violent Israel. The deconstructed tourist trail reaches the deepest south, which is where they often go. Part nine of Yuval Ben-Ami’s journey through the Holy Land’s most popular tourist sites. Off the Sinai smuggling routes, there’s…

By Yuval Ben-Ami December 4, 2014

Yarmouk residents gathered to await a food distribution from UNRWA in January 2014. (Photo by UNRWA)

‘Forward’ editor: Compare Israel only to Mideast states

Just because Sisi and Assad are close by doesn’t mean their disgusting policies seep through the border and infiltrate the Israeli system, poisoning our minds. Why not compare ourselves to countries we actually want to be more like? I gotta tell you, I’m really tired of this. I’m tired of Jewish right wingers in Israel and…

By Ami Kaufman June 26, 2014