Israel

Israel’s Election: It Is Bibi All the Way

Michael Stephens

Binyamin Netanyahu has won the Israeli election, setting the scene for a right-wing administration which may well be tempted to formally annex the occupied territories and set Israel on a dangerous gambit.

Ministers Meet to Discuss Middle East in Warsaw Conference Beset by Divisions in the West

Wojciech Pawlus

Poland has improved its bilateral strategic links with the US by hosting an American-inspired conference on the future of the Middle East. But the conference did nothing to improve Western coherence.

"“Israel is building a wall of countries [with] which it has interests that it can use as leverage to get Iran to start backing down,” said Michael Stephens, research fellow for Middle East studies at the Royal United Services Institute think-tank. “The idea is to surround Iran from all sides — it’s the diplomatic equivalent of putting missiles in Cuba.” "

Netanyahu seeks to bolster Israeli ties with Gulf nations

"Listen: Kamal Alam on Israel and Syria. "

Golan Heights: Israel shoots down Syrian fighter

""I think [Moscow] has much less influence over Iran than the Russians would like us to believe," he said. "So I believe this deal that this touted is much more in theory than in practice." "

Israeli official flies to Russia amid reports of deal on Iran's role in Syria

"The very genuine and real problem of a lack of Palestinian leadership and the appalling conduct of the Hamas organisation were taken as clubs with which to beat Palestinians en masse over the head. Such critiques forget that it is Palestinians themselves who already suffer from the lack of genuine leadership and it is Palestinians themselves who suffer from Hamas more than anyone else. "

Gaza: the choice of life in an open-air prison or being shot is no choice