The Israeli Moment
If anyone is going to derail the Islamic Republic’s regional ambitions, Israel is really the only local counterweight that counts.
Greater Middle East
COVID-19: Israel and the Palestinians
Though Israel was one of the first countries to impose aggressive measures to counter the COVID-19 crisis, lifting restrictions prematurely has sent the country into a second wave of infection. Meanwhile,...
Policy Briefs
COVID-19 in Morocco
Although Morocco seems to have escaped the worst of the pandemic with a relatively low number of confirmed cases and deaths, the COVID-19 crisis has devastated the country’s economy. Morocco, which has...
Policy Briefs
Tunisia’s ‘war against an invisible enemy’
Tunisia appears to have contained its COVID-19 outbreak despite a weak healthcare system and has begun to ease its anti-virus restrictions. Nine years after the ouster of the Ben Ali regime, successive...
Policy Briefs
COVID-19 in Bahrain
As low oil prices and the pandemic strain Bahrain’s state budget, Manama may seek economic assistance from its Gulf neighbors. Less certain, however, is whether those neighbors will come to the island...
Policy Briefs
COVID-19 in Northeast Syria
The reported number of coronavirus cases in northeast Syria remains in single digits, in part because healthcare workers have so little ability to test for the virus. Local authorities are preparing for...
Policy Briefs
COVID-19 in Qatar
As Qatar’s COVID-19 epidemic worsens, the country’s dismal human rights record has returned to the spotlight. Doha has locked down crowded labor camps that house expatriate workers, leaving them few...
Policy Briefs
Gaza’s Militant Groups Battle COVID-19
With local authorities in Gaza woefully unprepared to deal with the COVID-19 crisis, Hamas has turned to its familiar strategy of leveraging violence and international pressure to extort Israel into providing...
Policy Briefs
COVID-19 in Libya
The coronavirus has barely affected Libya, according to official statistics, but the true number of cases is likely underreported. An ongoing civil war, a large refugee and migrant population, and a deficient...
Policy Briefs
Lebanon, Hezbollah, and COVID-19
In response to the pandemic, the Iran-backed terror group Hezbollah has waged an aggressive public relations campaign aimed at displaying its primacy within Lebanon. This campaign has also demonstrated...
Policy Briefs
Algeria’s ‘Revolution of Smiles’ Democracy Movement Hit Hard by COVID-19
The coronavirus outbreak has provided Algeria’s regime a pretext to consolidate its political control by repressing independent media and activists affiliated with the Hirak democratic protest movement....
Policy Briefs
COVID-19 and the Economy in Regime-Held Syria
The pandemic has worsened the currency crisis and inflation that have afflicted Syria since the economy in next-door Lebanon began to collapse last September. The cash-strapped regime of Bashar-al Assad...
Policy Briefs
COVID-19 in Yemen
Yemen registered its first confirmed case of the novel coronavirus last week, threatening to add a COVID-19 epidemic to what the United Nations already calls the world’s worst humanitarian crisis. While...
Policy Briefs
COVID-19 in Regime-Held Syria
The regime of Bashar al-Assad continues to report implausibly low numbers of COVID-19 cases, while evidence mounts of deliberate deception. The presence of tens of thousands of Iranian-backed militia fighters...
Policy Briefs
COVID-19 in Iran
Iran’s coronavirus epidemic is the worst in the Middle East. Yet the Islamic Republic has downplayed the epidemic, substantially boosted funding for the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) and state...
Policy Briefs
COVID-19 in the Gulf
The coronavirus pandemic and Russian-Saudi oil price war have triggered an historic drop in oil prices, shaking the economic and fiscal foundations of the oil-dependent Arab Gulf states and stretching their...
Policy Briefs
COVID-19 in Iraq
The timing of the COVID-19 outbreak in Iraq has been particularly unfortunate, arriving concurrently with several other major crises, including a collapse in world oil prices, the absence of a functioning...
Policy Briefs
COVID-19 in Turkey
Turkey’s coronavirus epidemic is one of the most serious in the world; it has the second-largest number of confirmed cases in the Middle East, behind only Iran. With the country’s public health crisis...
Policy Briefs
The Israeli–Palestinian Struggle, Continued.
Whenever the Israeli–Palestinian question arises in Washington, an assumption inevitably precedes it: the United States has an important and unique role to play in advancing peace between these two...
Op-eds
Muslims in America
One of the most striking features of the British cemetery at Gallipoli is the attention given to honoring the diversity of the dead. Final farewells from loved ones carved upon stone plaques line...