Hezbollah’s New Leader Naim Qassem Is No Hassan Nasrallah
Hezbollah is trying to keep its head down and recover its strength. As a result, Naim Qassem is providing a more muted leadership than his predecessor.
Lebanese Civil War
Two Years After Nasrallah’s Death, Hezbollah Is Outsourcing its Survival and Revival
Two years after Israel assassinated Hassan Nasrallah, Hezbollah finds itself commemorating its dead leader from a weaker position. Israel has killed thousands of Hezbollah...
Policy Briefs
Lebanon Seeks Turkey’s Help To Avoid Acting Against Hezbollah
Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan asserted a strong interest in his neighbors’ affairs last month, declaring that, “Turkey’s security does not begin in Hatay [in southern Turkey], but rather...
Policy Briefs
Hezbollah’s Lebanese Allies Are Ready to Dump It
Speaker Nabih Berri and Druze chief Walid Jumblatt have so far sided with Hezbollah by denouncing the June 26 Trilateral Framework between Lebanon, Israel, and the U.S.
Op-eds
Syria Need Not Enter Lebanon to Help Curb Hezbollah
Syria is not going to undertake a military campaign against Hezbollah that Israel itself has been unable to carry out.
Op-eds
Don’t Invite Syria Back Into Lebanon
Washington is contemplating the one thing that could rally Lebanese around Hezbollah.
Op-eds
Lebanese Parliament Speaker Berri Sabotages President Trump’s Peace Agenda
Lebanon and Israel signed a historic framework deal in Washington last Wednesday that serves as a clear roadmap to disarm Hezbollah, end the war, and put the two countries on the path to peace....
Op-eds
Hezbollah Emerged from Iran’s Revolution, Not “Resistance” to Israel
A false claim, now common in Western media and academia, portrays Hezbollah as having emerged in response to Israel’s 1982 invasion and subsequent occupation of Lebanon. In reality, Hezbollah arose in...
Op-eds
Washington Must Ensure Beirut Acts on Its Promise To Disarm Hezbollah
Hezbollah, despite its assurances to Lebanese officials, launched a barrage of rockets and drones at Israel on the morning of March 2, making Lebanon an unwilling party to the war with Iran. In response,...
Policy Briefs
Lebanon’s prime minister-designate is unlikely to confront Hezbollah
After a two-year vacancy, Lebanon finally has a president. On January 9, Joseph Aoun was swept into office as its fourteenth holder to Lebanese and international acclaim. More importantly, if...
Op-eds
Yasser Arafat’s legacy: The death of Palestinian statehood
In many ways, the failure of the Palestinian cause in the last two decades is a result of the decisions of Arafat during the ten years he presided over the Palestinian Authority.
Op-eds
Hezbollah c’est moi: The Party of God without Hassan Nasrallah
On September 27, the unimaginable happened. At approximately 5:22 p.m. local time, reports emerged of a massive Israeli strike on the predominantly Shia southern suburbs of Beirut, known colloquially as...
Op-eds
How dare these Western pro-Hamas liberals say they speak for me, an Arab who has suffered from Islamic terror
I often ignore conspiracy theories and their peddlers, going by George Bernard Shaw’s advice “Never wrestle with pigs. You both get dirty, and the pig likes it.” That’s why when watching a short...
Op-eds
Missing the Mark
Reassessing U.S. Military Aid to the Lebanese Armed Forces
Monographs
Iran’s Maritime Mirage
Iran is doing enough damage in the Middle East through unconventional methods without requiring a robust navy. That is why an idea floated by a key Iranian military leader to build naval bases in...
Op-eds
New Lebanese president ‘icing on the cake’ of Hezbollah’s consolidation of power
The Lebanese parliament elected Michael Aoun as its president Oct. 31, ending a two-and-half-year vacuum that threatened to destabilize the highly sectarian country. Aoun, 81, a retired...
Op-eds
Understanding Israel’s Humanitarian Efforts in Southern Syria
Israel has so far been able to insulate itself from the devastating effects of the civil war in Syria, which has been raging since 2011. However, there is a growing understanding within the Israe...
Policy Briefs
Strategic Geography and the End of Assad
The latest military developments in Syria are now generally understood as ushering in a new phase in the Syrian conflict. What’s less observed is that the minority Alawite regime’s ma...
Op-eds
Minority Interest
Being Christian in the Middle East has never been easy, but the wave of uprisings that has swept the region over the past year has made the situation for the region’s Christian minority alm...