Levant

Yeah, Buoy!!!

Yair Lapid trades Mediterranean gas fields claimed by Israel to Hezbollah in exchange for a line of rusting buoys

America’s Regional Integration Scheme Benefits Iran

The Obama-Biden doctrine means that our Mideast allies don’t have to like the Iran deal. They just have to pay for it.

Biden’s Visit Bodes Ill for Israel

Israel’s caretaker government is unequal to the strategic challenges posed by Team Obama’s policy of punishing friends and rewarding enemies

The Israeli Moment

If anyone is going to derail the Islamic Republic’s regional ambitions, Israel is really the only local counterweight that counts.

Hamas as Tehran’s Agent

Since the late 1980s, the Islamic Republic of Iran has been plying the Hamas terrorist group with cash and weapons while also teaching it how to be self-sufficient. With hundreds of millions of dollars...

The Name of the Lebanese Play? The Aristocrats!

The country’s recent election was a masterpiece of counterfactual Kabuki theater—and there wasn’t a dry Western eye in the house

The Challenge of Containing a Nuclear Iran

Barring a great surprise, the Islamic Republic will get its nuke. How will the U.S. respond?

Team Biden Runs the Syria Playbook on Ukraine

The administration’s horror over Putin’s war is not merely performative, but functional—in the service of realigning with Iran

Biden Pays Army Salaries to Iranian Ally

An unprecedented new salary assistance program for the Lebanese military is ‘cleverly’ structured to evade U.S. law

Biden Administration Foreign Policy Tracker: January

Is Israel Facing Up To Reality On Hamas and Hezbollah?

On Dec. 10, a large explosion rocked the Palestinian camp Burj al-Shemali outside the southern Lebanon city of Tyre. The site of the explosion was a center belonging to the Palestinian terror group Hamas...

Washington Underwrites the Hezbollah State

In October, a few weeks after Lebanon’s politicians had formed a new government, the Biden administration sent Under Secretary of State for Political Affairs Victoria Nuland to Lebanon to showcase U.S....

Russia’s Power Games Extend to the Orthodox Church

Pushing back against Russia’s multipronged assault on the Ecumenical Patriarchate, which includes Putin and Erdogan’s coordinated pressure on an institution they see as posing a threat to their respective illiberal projects, requires devising and implementing a concerted transatlantic strategy.

Lebanon’s State Ponzi Scheme Seeks Jewish Investors

The reeling regime in Beirut would like some of that magic Jewish money, please

Lebanon’s New Hezbollah Government

After a year of political bickering among Lebanon’s sectarian chieftains, Hezbollah determined that the time had come for a new government to arise. By now, it should be clear to all observers that...

Why the Coming Iranian Elections Will Challenge the Biden Administration

Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei seems inclined to promote a candidate who will quash dissent over someone who could work with the West.

Who Started the Gaza War?

America did

The Realignment

On Iran, Biden is finishing what Obama started. And his top advisers are all on board.

Biden Administration Foreign Policy Tracker: Late April

Late April Trends

Syria