Policy Analysis

Despite U.S. efforts to forge a multinational coalition aimed at curbing the Iranian nuclear program, questions have arisen about the effectiveness of this approach. For example, has Iran converted discussions on the issue into a stalling tactic while it continues to make progress in its nuclear program? Can any international

Rumors of a newly formed Palestinian unity government have been ubiquitous in recent weeks, yet Hamas and Fatah appear to be closer than ever to reaching an agreement. Their unity talks survived even the tragic killing of twenty Palestinian civilians on November 8 in Beit Hanun, an incident that would

The first annual International Media Forum on the Golan Heights, held November 5-7, 2006, in the city of Quneitra on the Syria-Israel border, highlighted Syria's stated desire for the return of the entire Golan. The forum's backdrop was a litany of controversial statements made by Syrian president Bashar al-Asad about

On November 7, 2006, Dvorah Chen, Christopher Hamilton, and Michael Taxay addressed The Washington Institute’s Special Policy Forum. Ms. Chen, a visiting Ira Weiner fellow at the Institute, was director of security matters and special affairs in the Israeli state attorney’s office from 1996 to 2004, where she led the

The second Lebanon war has put wind in the sails of the rejectionists across our borders, increasing numbers of whom believe that finally, they have hit upon an effective plan of action against Israel. Predictably, declarations about the inevitable demise of the Jewish state are back in fashion. More than

Hezbollah rockets stopped raining on Israel nearly two months ago, but the Shiite organization’s onslaught continues. Today, instead of directly attacking Israel, the Party of God is targeting Lebanese intellectuals and politicians who have the temerity to question Hezbollah’s hegemony over local Shiite politics. There’s no debating that Hezbollah is

Israeli prime minister Ehud Olmert will be the first foreign leader to meet President George W. Bush after the U.S. midterm elections. Olmert’s trip to Washington is part of a prescheduled visit to address the United Jewish Communities General Assembly in Los Angeles. When the two leaders meet at the

Yesterday, President George W. Bush announced that he was nominating former CIA director Robert Gates as secretary of defense following the resignation of Donald Rumsfeld. Gates, currently the president of Texas A&M University, served as director of central intelligence from 1991 to 1993. In all, he spent twenty-seven years as

American public diplomacy in the Middle East did not have a good week. An Arabic-speaking State Department official named Alberto Fernandez made news on October 21 when he spoke too candidly about U.S. missteps in Iraq on Al Jazeera, the Arabic satellite television channel based in Qatar. Not only was

Since the September 11 attacks, promoting democracy has been a cornerstone of the Bush administration's Middle East policy, viewed as the best antidote to radicalism. Washington has allocated hundreds of millions of dollars to advancing Middle Eastern civil society, and the region has witnessed an unprecedented array of elections. In

The United States is sounding the alarm about a possible coup in Lebanon, and Hezbollah is threatening to flood the streets with its supporters if it doesn't get more cabinet seats. FP spoke recently with regional expert David Schenker about the country's fragile politics, whether Hezbollah is rearming, and Syria's

On October 16, 2006, Ehud Yaari addressed The Washington Institute’s Special Policy Forum. Mr. Yaari is an Israel-based Lafer international fellow with the Institute and an associate editor of the Jerusalem Report. The following is a contemporaneous article in which Mr. Yaari summarized the content of his remarks. It originally

On October 20, 2006, Robert Satloff, Akbar Ahmed, and Gregg Rickman addressed The Washington Institute’s Special Policy Forum.

Seeking a hopeful response to the plague of Holocaust denial that swept across the Middle East, one author set off on a quest to find an Arab hero whose story could change the way local communities view Jews, themselves, and their own history.

On October 20, 2006, Robert Satloff, Akbar Ahmed, and Gregg Rickman addressed The Washington Institute’s Special Policy Forum. Dr. Satloff is the Institute’s executive director and author of Among the Righteous: Lost Stories from the Holocaust’s Long Reach into Arab Lands. Dr. Ahmed is the Ibn Khaldun chair of Islamic

From October 30 to 31, 2006, U.S. military forces in the Persian Gulf will join the armed forces of several other countries to hold a naval exercise in the interception and search of ships carrying weapons of mass destruction (WMD) and missiles. Though long planned, the exercise has added importance

On October 20, 2006, eighty-three-year-old King Abdullah of Saudi Arabia announced changes to the kingdom's "Basic Law" -- effectively its constitution -- that appear to formalize procedures for the selection of future kings. However, it is difficult to know how much the current system of succession will actually change. For

Even the most optimistic observers have come to see Iraq as a violent place; the level of violence—and resulting death rate—has only increased. Estimates of the numbers killed since the overthrow of Saddam Hussein’s regime continue to rise. Incident levels, another important measure of violence, have also increased over the

Behind the clouds of dust stirred up by the political skirmishing now going on between Hamas and Fatah, some truths have been obscured, truths that will not go away even if and when a government of national unity arises in the Palestinian Authority. Such a government will, in the last

As a longtime negotiator in the Middle East, I learned that the most demanding requirement of peacemaking was just getting each side to adjust to reality. In Iraq today, 3 1/2 years after the United States went to war there, no one seems to be doing that. The Shiites, who