On March 1, 2009, a select body called the STL – the Special Tribunal for Lebanon was established. Its mission was to investigate the assassination of former Lebanese Prime Minister Rafik al-Hariri, who – along with twenty-two other people – was killed on February 14, 2005. The STL, headquartered near The Hague with an office in Beirut, was established by…

I am writing this article the day after a huge explosion that took place in the port of Beirut, the capital of Lebanon, on August 4, 2020. In this article, I am not focusing on speculations. Instead, I am just concentrating on several initial diagnoses related to the incident. Basic information that can be assessed at this stage to be…

This is the second in a three-part series analyzing the current status between Hezbollah and Israel on the Israeli Lebanese border and assessing how things might evolve and why… This is a segment I filmed yesterday morning – given the events in Beirut, I will not for the meantime, be uploading the third in the series. I am, however, working…

This is the first in a three-part video series analyzing the current status between Hezbollah and Israel on the Israeli Lebanese border and assessing how things might evolve and why… If you have not seen my video from July 23rd – Iran’s Deteriorating Deterrence & Teheran’s Possible Reactions – it might help augment the background. Here is the link to…

  Recent events throughout the region – including the killing of an Iranian General and a Senior Hezbollah militant outside of Damascus earlier this week – erode Iran’s deterrent posture. In this filmed webinar, I give an overview of Iran’s regional goals, the current challenge it is facing in achieving its ambitions. And I outline a possible – even counterintuitive…

Every year, on the last Friday of the Muslim month of Ramadan, worshipers around the world mark “Al-Quds Day.” This year. Ramadan began on April 23rd and ended on May 23rd. Al Quds Day this year was on May 22nd. Al-Quds is the name in Arabic for Jerusalem. The word is taken from the Hebrew word for holy which is…

This article is being written just hours after Iran launched a missile attack (January 8) against two military bases in Iraq. The targets were the Ein al-Assad base in western Iraq and the Harir base located some 70 miles west of the Iran-Iraq border. These bases host United States Forces, as well as International Coalition Forces that are fighting ISIS…

The Middle East is a chain of links. Everything is connected. Understanding the links is critical to developing an accurate picture of reality. I wanted to take the opportunity to provide a contextualized snapshot of the region along with my predictions of what we can expect in the short term. I hope you find this brief overview helpful.   Lebanon…

October 21, 2019 The screams and mass protests – unprecedented in volume and intensity – which erupted in Lebanon on Thursday, October 17th are screams of despair and demand for a profound change. The precise, straightforward, and exhaustive way to describe the background to the protests is that the Lebanese – young, old, Sunni, Christian, Shi’ite, Druze – are just…

In Part 1 of my three-part analysis, “Alarms on the Lebanese – Israel Border might be Last Wake-up Call for Western Leaders” (September 11, 2019), I explained and contextualized the events of September 1, 2019, on the Israeli Lebanese border. In Part 2,  “Alarms on the Lebanese – Israeli Border (Part 2) Iran’s Hegemonic Modus Operandi” (September 13, 2019) I…

Over the past week, mass protests and riots have spread throughout Iraq’s major cities. Reportedly, more than 100 protestors have been killed, and more than 6,000 have been injured.  This is not the first time such protests have broken out in Iraq – particularly in Baghdad and southern Iraq. And like before, most of the protesters are Shi’ites. However, there…

In Part 1 of this Article, I explained and contextualized the events of September 1 on the Israeli Lebanese border. I ended the article by saying the following: "It is likely that yesterday’s short round between Israel and Hezbollah might be the last wake-up call for Western leaders. It should be clear that the potential for a severe, rapid escalation…

In Part 1 of this Article, I explained and contextualized the events of September 1 on the Israeli Lebanese border. I ended the article by saying the following: "It is likely that yesterday’s short round between Israel and Hezbollah might be the last wake-up call for Western leaders. It should be clear that the potential for a severe, rapid escalation…