Middle East
News Desk
The Fate of Israel’s Hostages After Iran’s Rocket Attack
As Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu oversees an increasingly fraught regional confrontation, the families of Hamas captives work to free their loved ones.
Daily Comment
The U.S. Confronts Middle Eastern Militias but Not Iran’s Long Game
Strikes against weapons depots and operations centers in Iraq and Syria will not diminish Iran’s determination to expel the U.S. from the Middle East.
Daily Comment
The Risks in Attacking the Houthis in Yemen
They started out as a family enterprise but have burgeoned into a movement with tens of thousands of fighters and become a formidable geopolitical force.
Daily Comment
How Ten Middle East Conflicts Are Converging Into One Big War
The U.S. is enmeshed in wars among disparate players in Israel, Iraq, Lebanon, Syria, and Yemen.
Daily Comment
Hostage-Taking and the Use of Children and the Vulnerable in War
The war in Gaza has the feel of history sliding backward.
Dispatch
The Escalating Violence Between Israel and Lebanon
There’s a sense of history repeating itself along the border, where tens of thousands have been displaced and the civilian death toll is climbing.
Q. & A.
The Gaza-ification of the West Bank
As the war in Gaza escalates, so, too, has the forcible displacement of Palestinians in the West Bank. Is Israel’s approach to the two regions linked?
Daily Comment
Biden’s Middle East Burden
Visiting Israel, the President will express support for a traumatized nation, but he must also try to steer it from the blindness of rage.
Daily Comment
Can White House Diplomacy Help Prevent Escalation in Gaza and Beyond?
It is not a simple matter for the Biden Administration to be, on the one hand, the backstop for Israel’s looming actions in Gaza and, on the other, a voice for strategic caution and the initiator of a diplomatic track.
News Desk
Saudi Arabia’s Vanished Princesses
King Abdullah allegedly imprisoned four of his daughters. After his death, the princesses’ supporters say, they disappeared.
Personal History
Remembering My Hijacking
As children, my sister and I were held hostage for six days in the desert. Why couldn’t I recall what happened?
Q. & A.
The Future of Palestinian Politics
Will mounting frustration with the status quo—and with Israel’s new extremist government—be the end of Hamas and the Palestinian Authority?
News Desk
An Abandoned American Hostage Finally Makes It Home
After more than two years of neglect by the Trump and Biden Administrations, Mark Frerichs describes how he survived Taliban captivity in Afghanistan.
Daily Comment
Turkey’s Earthquake Response Is as Political as the Conditions That Increased The Devastation
The ethnic minorities and refugees leading the community response in Turkey already knew not to rely on the government.
Profiles
The Defiance of Salman Rushdie
After a near-fatal stabbing—and decades of threats—the novelist speaks about writing as a death-defying act.
Daily Comment
Israel’s Anti-Democratic Practices Against Palestinians Are Infecting Its Political System
Rising violence is drawing new attention to the alliance that Benjamin Netanyahu struck with the far right to return to power.
Daily Comment
The Aftermath of Israel’s Gevalt Election
Benjamin Netanyahu’s orchestration of a union between two ultranationalist groups will likely return him to power and may allow him to escape prosecution.
Daily Comment
Can the Israeli Election Solve Anything?
Either side could win. But, to govern, the centrist bloc may be pushed right, and the rightist bloc to the extreme right.