Who are the Taliban who Conquered Afghanistan?

Having taken control, the Taliban want the world to believe that they have become more pragmatic and inclusive in the twenty years since they brutally ruled Afghanistan. Whether this pretense is genuine will be determined by the group’s attitudes towards jihadists and other terrorists, ethnic and religious minorities, women, and governance.

Israel: From Tribal Politics to a Territorial Democracy

The State of Israel is in a political crisis that reflects deep social rifts. At the Herzliya Conference in 2015, then-president Reuven Rivlin noted that demographic processes had created a new Israeli order in which four main tribes—secular, religious, ultra-Orthodox, and Arab—are increasingly hostile to one another. The concept of tribalism has long applied to the history of the Jewish people. How can the modern State of Israel emerge from this political chasm?

FM Yair Lapid: A Shepherd Without a Herd

In these early days of the new Israeli government, FM Yair Lapid is already trying to achieve a new turning point in the country’s foreign policy. One wonders whether he conducted any professional staff work before publicly outlining his progressive agenda. The fact that PM Naftali Bennett has been silent on this matter seems to indicate a serious problem in the country’s political culture. Bennett would do well to heed David Ben-Gurion’s credo that “an Israeli prime minister must also be his own foreign minister.”

18-Year-Old Muslim Girl Executed by Family in “Honor Killing”

Young Arab women must toe a very narrow line or risk bringing “shame” on their family—which could result in their being murdered by their own relatives. “Honor killing” is a plague that continues to infect the Arab world, though it is not sanctioned by either religion or state.

MidEast Powers Vie to Shape the Next Generation of Muslims

Education is emerging as a major flashpoint in competing visions of a future Muslim world. Rival concepts being instilled in the next generation are likely to shape what amounts to a battle for the soul of Islam.

Saudi Journalist Who Advocated Peace with Israel Is Released

Abdul Hameed Ghabin took a stand in favor of peace with Israel before it was safe to do so in Saudi Arabia, and he paid a price for his boldness. Sources suggest that he might have been freed under pressure from US President Joe Biden.

Minister Bar-Lev Is Mistaken About the Origins of Violence Among Israeli Arabs

Internal violence within the Israeli Arab community is not the result of socioeconomic deprivation. Quite the reverse, in fact.

The Address for a Response to the Lebanese Attacks on Israel Is Gaza, Not Beirut

Even if Hezbollah is responsible for the latest rocket attack on the Galilee, Hamas is culpable for the security deterioration in southern Lebanon due to its efforts to expand its terrorist activities to the territory of neighboring Arab states. Israel must establish a new equation in which lack of peace in the north is met in kind in the Gaza Strip.

Hezbollah is an Iranian Strategic Tool

Hezbollah and its leader, Sheikh Hassan Nasrallah, do not have the authority to independently unleash their vast rocket/missile arsenal against Israel. That is because this arsenal is an integral part of the Iranian-Israeli balance of power, and is designed first and foremost to deter Israel from attacking Iran’s nuclear facilities.

Russia, China, and the Prospect of US Military Bases in Central Asia

Following the withdrawal of the US from Afghanistan, Washington is allegedly trying to reestablish a military presence in Central Asia, similar to what it did in the early 2000s. Though some level of cooperation is possible with Russia within the framework of great power relations (and much still depends on Moscow’s goodwill), China opposes any American military or security expansion near its restive Xinjiang province.

Perspectives Papers