Jared Kushner: Unsung Hero of the “New Middle East”

Jared Kushner, son-in-law and Middle east envoy of outgoing US president Donald Trump, was instrumental in ushering in the peace agreements between Israel and the UAE, Bahrain, Morocco, and Sudan, and recently mediated an end to the three-year conflict between Saudi Arabia and Qatar.

What Will Happen When Khamenei Dies?

The Supreme Leader of the Islamic Republic of Iran, Ali Khamenei, is 81 years old and reportedly in declining health. The question of the succession will be decided by the regime’s Assembly of Experts, who will choose the new Supreme Leader following Khamenei’s death. Six individuals have emerged as possible successors.

Are There Now Memory Communities in Holocaust Discourse?

The controversy around the identity of Yad Vashem’s directorate chairman seems to suggest that Holocaust discourse is now deteriorating into polemical argument. For decades, the Israeli collective memory in the military and security domain has been fraught with disagreement over language, narrative, and interpretation of the past. It is to be hoped that the State of Israel, which is supposed to play a key role in preventing the politicization of the memory of the Holocaust, will not instead participate in that trend.

Biden’s Approach to the Indo-Pacific

While the new US president is likely to reverse many of Donald Trump’s foreign policy decisions, one area likely to remain untouched is the US approach to the Indo-Pacific region. Joe Biden will push for a reinvigorated set of alliances and building of confidence in US power among China’s neighbors. The nascent Trumpian Indo-Pacific strategy will take final shape under Biden.

How Israel Is Adapting to the Growing Threat of Terror Armies

The Israeli defense establishment is playing a central role in the country’s response to the coronavirus pandemic while also carrying out its many daily security missions. Yet at the same time, it is in the middle of an intense race against time. The goal of this race is to adapt to the growing threats posed to the country’s home front, and to strategic targets such as ports and power plants, from the terror armies located on Israel’s doorstep—threats that will remain long after Israel is able to place the pandemic behind it.

Israel Is Facing a Domestic Existential Threat

The Israeli government is living in denial about the growing violent anarchy in the Negev, the Galilee, and in certain cities. Putting a stop to this phenomenon, which is developing into an existential threat, requires an all-out effort to enhance the power of the military and the police alongside appropriate preparations by the State Attorney’s Office and the legal system to restore sovereignty and governance.

Science and Politics in the COVID Age

The COVID-19 pandemic has revealed the limits of international cooperation despite the vast potential of available technological means. The debate about the relationship between science and politics is not new, but is now placed in the context of unprecedented international challenges and growing uncertainty about the direction of the world. The Western democracies have to set the tone and persuade the public of the advantages of international cooperation on the scientific front.

Iran’s Global Terror Network Lurks Behind Its Threats of Vengeance

Iran’s repeated threats to avenge the reported assassination of its chief nuclear scientist, Mohsen Fakhrizadeh, who was shot dead outside Tehran in November, raise the likelihood of Iranian armed action against Israeli targets. The threats also serve as a reminder that Iran has a long history of both sponsoring terrorism and actively engaging in it with its own personnel, and that it has spent decades building a global, highly active Shiite terror network.

Why Hasn’t Anyone Attacked Iran’s Nuclear Sites?

The recent killing of Mohsen Fakrizadeh, the “father of Iran’s nuclear program,” is another in a long series of attempts to disrupt Tehran’s dogged drive for nuclear weapons. These strikes, which have ranged over decades, have included the killings of Iranian nuclear scientists, cyberattacks on the Iranian nuclear program, and mysterious explosions at the regime’s nuclear sites. Yet no one, including the US, has conventionally attacked Iran’s nuclear sites despite the clear and present danger posed by a nuclear Iran to American national interests and general international security. Why not?

Germany’s Battles Between Light and the Darkness of Antisemitism

Reports of antisemitic incidents continue to rise in Germany. Problems concerning Jews, Israel, the perception of the Holocaust, and other related issues still plague the culture 75 years after the end of the attempted destruction of the Jews. One way to analyze this phenomenon is to view it as a clash of viewpoints within the generation of Germans whose grandparents participated in the Holocaust: those descendants who look toward the light, and those who continue to live in the darkness of antisemitism.

Perspectives Papers