The BDS Campaign Against Israel “De-Localizes” the Palestinian Cause, Focuses on Global Surveillance

BDS supporters have shifted to a new strategy, a “de-localizing” of the Palestinian cause via attacks on Israel’s cybersecurity industry. Their aim is to universalize an image of Israel as a facilitator of global rights abuses. This approach does not require adherents to support the Palestinian cause to gain momentum. In the face of regional geopolitical turmoil, Israel should develop an offensive disruptive response to undo the reputational damage caused by this aggressive form of information warfare.

From Tripoli to Tripoli, Turkey’s Real Aim Is Egypt

The recent explosion at Beirut Port highlights both Turkey's growing defense cooperation with Iran and its strategic interest in Lebanon, which facilitates Ankara’s provocative and worrisome agenda in the Eastern Mediterranean. However, Turkey’s unrestrained aggression in that region may be a diversionary tactic from its slow and patient pursuit of a complex strategy to surround Egypt with hostile forces on multiple fronts and undercut its powerful regional role.

US Isolationism Leads to Globalization of Conflicts and Endless Wars

In recent years, the common refrain that US involvement in Middle Eastern conflicts is costly, counterproductive, and morally and practically indefensible has taken hold in foreign policy circles and reflects the popular mindset that brought Donald Trump to power. However, closer examination of three of the sprawling conflicts plaguing the Middle East region today—Syria, Libya, and Yemen—shows that by abdicating regional responsibilities, the US has contributed to the globalization and perpetuation of “endless wars.”

How Western Institutions Benefit from Corrupt Islamists in Saudi Arabia

The recent revelations about Sa’ad Jabri, an Islamist and corrupt former Saudi intelligence officer, highlight the discrepancy between Western institutions' criticism of Saudi Arabia in the name of human rights and their support for the former officials most responsible for human rights abuses and security threats associated with the Kingdom. A tangled web of relations between pro-Brotherhood Muhammad bin Nayef regime apparatchiks, pro-Qatar members of US law enforcement (like Ali Soufan), and ideologically sympathetic intermediaries (like Jamal Khashoggi) are threatened by Muhammad bin Salman's reforms.

Russia and Iran’s Dangerous Energy Gambit in the Caucasus

There are signs that the current escalation between Armenia and Azerbaijan, far from being incidental to the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict, is driven by Russia’s and Iran’s economic warfare against a competing state and the need to return Europe to dependency on their oil and gas in light of US sanctions. Armenia benefits from the bellicose activity thanks to a sophisticated information warfare campaign in a heated US election year that has been unmatched thus far by Azerbaijan. But Baku can still turn its underdog position around by pursuing an assertive and affirmative policy against aggressors on military, political, media, and legal fronts.

The Israel-UAE Peace Deal Highlights Morocco’s Diplomatic Eclipse

The Israel-UAE peace deal was an unpleasant surprise to the Moroccan diplomatic and intelligence community as it foiled the general expectation that Rabat would be the third regional power to hold the distinction of normalizing relations with Jerusalem. Reliance on past accomplishments in relationship-building, sentimental historical ties, and informal alliances with lobby groups are no longer sufficient if Morocco still wishes to play a leading role in this geopolitical chess game. Rabat can still come out ahead if it adopts an assertive strategic policy reorientation, even if it has lost the advantage of being the first to make a move.

Battleground Africa: The Muslim Brotherhood’s Next Frontier

For the Muslim Brotherhood, the Libyan conflict is an opportunity to flex its muscles in the “weak link” of the Arab Muslim world. Weak African countries have once again become recruiting grounds for Qatar-funded and Turkey-backed Islamist ideologues. For all the criticism of the shortcomings of the governing structure in Sudan, the political alternatives that are emerging thanks to the Brotherhood’s alliance with leftists and Communists may be far worse.

Failure to Resolve the GERD Issue Portends a Global Crisis and Mass Migration

Despite Qatar’s use of information warfare to spread conspiracy theories about Israel’s alleged role in the Egypt-Sudan-Ethiopia crisis over the Great Ethiopian Renaissance Dam, Israel and the US can be of great assistance in devising mutually beneficial solutions for all parties and averting a global crisis and mass migration from Egypt and Sudan.

Amnesty International and Qatari Information Warfare

A recent unsubstantiated Amnesty International report attacking Morocco for its alleged use of Israeli software to surveil a journalist is part of Amnesty’s pattern of defending turncoat intelligence officers, rogue political operatives, and foreign agents against their governments. While Amnesty failed in its bid to have the Israeli government revoke NSO’s license to export this software, it continues to add to the chorus of media and human rights organizations that amplify claims made by anti-Israel, pro-Islamist activists of surveillance, character assassination, and technology manipulation. These charges may be evidence of the depth and breadth of Qatari information warfare.

Will Israel Find Itself Facing Down Iran, Turkey, and the US in Libya?

Israel does not need to be directly engaged in combat to help its allies confront and prevail over mutual adversaries. In Libya, it can play a role in training LNA troops, provide important logistical and intelligence support, and politically influence Washington to cease its backing of the GNA and hostile Islamist militias and state actors.

Search Results for: Irina Tsukerman