Published by the Atlantic Until last week, Syria’s civil war was a classic example of a “frozen conflict”: A cease-fire in 2020 had stanched the fighting, but the sides had reached no permanent political settlement. Little happened that rose to the level of active warfare—and yet the country could not really have been said to …
Published by the National Iran’s President, Masoud Pezeshkian, has been in office for less than four months, a time dominated by Israel’s war in the region, including its direct exchange of fire with Iran. But last week his government put the focus on an evergreen domestic issue: the changing of Iran’s capital city. Every single Iranian …
Published by the Atlantic Passing judgment on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict was never going to be simple for the International Criminal Court. Even harder than acting fairly and impartially would be appearing to have done so, in a conflict that stirs fierce passions the world over. On top of that, equality before the law is a basic principle of …
Published in the Atlantic When you hear that thousands of writers have signed a petition, you can already guess what they are calling for: What other than boycotting Israel could generate such enthusiasm among the literati? A staggering 6,000 writers and publishing professionals have signed a letter to address “the most profound moral, political and cultural …
Published by the National An old song about the city of Tehran praises it for being “always full of light”. But this isn’t how most Tehranis are experiencing their city this week. Like other parts of Iran, the city is going through government-organised electricity cuts. Its long highways have gone dark and every home has received a …
Published by the Atlantic Waking up to the election results on Wednesday, many Americans who opposed Donald Trump may have felt inclined to resent their neighbors. How could more than 70 million of them vote for a convicted felon who had hobnobbed with a fascist, showed little respect for the country’s institutions or alliances, and couldn’t …
Published by Majalla The year 2024 was dubbed the ‘Year of Elections’ due to hundreds of millions of people voting in polls around the globe—from Turkey and Iraqi Kurdistan to the UK and Iran. But there is no doubt which elections matter the most: the presidential polls in the United States. One could even argue …
Published in the Atlantic It took 25 days, but in the early hours today, Israel responded to Iran’s salvo of missiles earlier this month. The operation, named “Days of Repentance,” was the most significant attack on Iran by any country since the 1980s. The Iranian regime’s years of waging a shadow war on Israel have …
Published by the Atlantic There is something ironic about the fact that, of all the countries in the Middle East, Iran is the one that now finds itself on the brink of war with Israel. Iran is not one of the 22 Arab states party to the decades-long Arab-Israeli conflict. Its population, unlike those of many …
Published in the Liberties A friend of mine once asked me why I get so worked up about Jewish Currents, a left-wing American magazine known for airing anti-Zionist views. Of all the actors large and small that help shape the narrative about the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, why care about a magazine based in Long Island with a few …