Is Israel a Liberal Democracy?

By Raphael Cohen-Almagor / Fall 2024

Israel’s democratic principles are under threat both internally and externally. Its long-term survival is to integrate fully into the Middle East, and the key to that integration is to peacefully resolve the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.

Israel Accelerates Mass Arrest and Torture Campaigns

By Kellie Kuenzle /

The Israeli government has capitalized on public anger and fear following Hamas’ October 7, 2023 attacks to justify arbitrary mass arrests of Palestinians, the systemic use of torture, and inhumane prison conditions

A Reading on the Future of Hamas

By Omar Shaban / Summer 2024

The aftermath of October 7, and assassination of senior commanders, has forced an existential rethink within Hamas

Hamas “From the Heart of Battle”: Analyzing Abu Obaida’s Discourse

By Erwin van Veen and Sophia Agathocleous / Summer 2024

The frames and focus of the speeches of Hamas spokesperson Abu Obaida reveal the group’s strategic goals and the psychological warfare used to achieve them.

The Court Rules: Occupation Illegal

By Abigail Flynn /

What does the advisory opinion from the International Court of Justice tell us and why is it important?

It’s Been a Year

It’s time to end this war

Is Israel’s Star Fading in Latin America?

By Jodor Jalit / Summer 2024

The Latin American response to Israel’s war on Gaza could help strengthen the rich but neglected cultural ties with Arab states

Don’t Forget About the Red Sea

By Burak Şakir Şeker / Summer 2024

A widening of Israel’s War on Gaza could threaten the vital Red Sea waterway and lead to a global economic crisis

China Tests the Water in Palestinian Diplomacy

By Ramzy Baroud / Summer 2024

While the ramifications of the recent unity agreement signed in Beijing by multiple Palestinian factions remain to be seen, it is evident that China has stepped up as a leader in the region

The Olympics: Arenas of Contention

By Jung Woo Lee / Summer 2024

Political tensions simmered under the facade of international communion at the Paris 2024 Games as countries competed both on and off the stage

Iranians Don’t Want a War With Israel

By Kourosh Ziabari / Summer 2024

Most believe that Tehran’s engagement in the battle for Palestinian emancipation is intrusive and uncalled for

Why Hamas Cannot Be Destroyed

By Grace Wermenbol / Summer 2024

Israel’s strategy to eradicate Hamas by killing off its leadership has proven ineffective for decades; the current war demonstrates the myopic nature of this approach

Politics of Apathy and All-Out War in the Post-Gaza New World

By Abdalhadi Alijla / Summer 2024

The genocidal campaign against the Gaza Strip threatens widening of the conflict into a regional war, creating new realities that may endure for decades

Less Than a State

By Sean Lee / Summer 2024

Without a new framework that ensures true sovereignty and security for a future Palestinian state, the two-state solution will remain a farce

The World Fears Wider War After Hamas Leader’s Assassination

The international community races to reduce tension after a series of targeted killings carried out by Israel

Prioritizing Palestinian Self-Determination is Long Overdue

By Omar Auf / Summer 2024

The discussion about a one-state or two-state solution must be preceded by efforts to facilitate exercise of the right to self-determination by the Palestinian people. Only then can a realistic solution be genuinely pursued.

Egypt’s Balancing Act

By Karim Haggag /

Jon Alterman: Karim Haggag, welcome to Babel.
Karim Haggag: Thank you Jon, thank you for having me. It’s great to be with you.
Jon Alterman: Egypt has had a security focus on the Israeli border since the creation of Israel in 1948. Help us understand the context. How does the current Egyptian concern over Gaza rank among the various crises that Egypt has felt on its border with Israel over the last 75 years?
Karim Haggag: This is a fundamentally different challenge than the large-scale armed conflicts that Egypt fought with Israel over the years, » Read more about: Egypt’s Balancing Act »

War on Palestine Underscores the Supremacy of Geopolitics

By Omar Auf / Spring 2024

Why do states ignore violations of international law in Gaza?

In Targeting UNRWA, Israel Aims to Destroy the Right of Return

By Daoud Kuttab / Spring 2024

Hoping to capitalize on world sympathy after October 7, Israel tried to use its allies to defund and dismantle the UN relief agency.

Children’s “Right to Play” In Gaza

By Ana Davis / Spring 2024

Like children everywhere, Gaza’s boys and girls should be playing and enjoying their childhoods, but the actions of the Israeli government and military make that impossible

Showing Palestine Refugees that Americans Care

By Omar Auf / Spring 2024

The Cairo Review asks the UNRWA USA National Committee questions about its purpose, processes, and operations amid the existential crisis UNRWA is facing.

Time to Renew an Old Promise? A Brief History of Global South Solidarity with Palestine

By Bidisha Biswas / Spring 2024

Anti-colonial and post-colonial politics have shaped global understandings of the Israel-Palestine conflict for decades, beyond the narrow vision of many Western countries

Death or Detention: Israel’s Attacks on Journalism Follow a Lethal Pattern

By Jodie Ginsberg / Spring 2024

Israel’s campaign of targeting and silencing the media has hidden its crimes under a dark shadow

Bridging Local and Global Assistance for Palestinian Refugees in Egypt

By Maysa Ayoub / Spring 2024

What happens to those who are beyond UNHCR and UNRWA’s scope of operation?

Navigating the Politics of Humanitarian Aid in Gaza

By Shatha Abdulsamad / Spring 2024

Despite Israeli efforts to destroy it, UNRWA remains an embodiment of international responsibility for the question of Palestinian refugees, and a reminder of their inalienable right of return.

UNRWA After October 7: Building a Comprehensive Response Framework for Palestinian Refugees

By Lex Takkenberg / Spring 2024

UNRWA’s future cannot be considered in isolation—a comprehensive, multi-stakeholder approach, with displacement issues at its center, is now necessary.

Scrolling Social Media Sentiments on the Gaza War

By Ayusha Chalise /

Despite efforts of platforms like Meta to curb political content generally, frustration and sympathy for both sides of Israel’s War on Gaza continues to run deep among users

UNRWA Funding is Burdened with Conditionality

By Anne Irfan / Spring 2024

The UN agency’s essential humanitarian role lies in the balance thanks to the political contingencies of its donors.

The Implementation Crisis—with Richard Falk

By Omar Auf /

International law scholar Richard Falk discusses international law and politics as they pertain to the ongoing genocide committed by Israel in Gaza and the wider Palestinian plight, in addition to UN reform.

A World that Ended Apartheid can do the Same for Israel’s Occupation

By Abderahman Salaheldin /

Ending the Israeli occupation and forging a Palestinian state requires a unified effort that parallels the process which ended racial segregation in South Africa.

In Darkness All is Black: Exploring the Realities of Violence by the Israeli State and Hamas

By Erwin van Veen / Winter 2024

The events of October 7 and beyond raise a major ethical question: by what standard is the violence that Hamas uses against Israel different from the violence that the Israeli state uses against Hamas?

Radicalization and Regional Instability: Effects of the Gaza War

By Mamoun Fandy / Winter 2024

As Israel attempts to reestablish its identity as a regional deterrent by destroying Gaza, the effects of its campaign cascade through the region, shifting political alignments, and generating new concerns over radicalization and conflict spillover

U.S. Position on Gaza Risks Wider War in the Middle East

By Karim Haggag /

Just days before the Oct. 7 Hamas attack on Israel, U.S. National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan proclaimed a “quieter” Middle East, and, with faintly concealed satisfaction, declared how little attention he – and thus the nation – needs to devote to the region’s myriad geopolitical headaches.
But now, Israel’s war on Gaza has dragged the United States back to the Middle East, and the Biden administration finds itself sucked into the vortex of multiple regional flashpoints revolving around Gaza. » Read more about: U.S. Position on Gaza Risks Wider War in the Middle East »

Genocide on the Docket at the Hague

By Omar Auf / Winter 2024

International law is a tool for both oppression and emancipation, says AUC law professor Thomas Skouteris in this Q&A as he breaks down the intricacies of the ICJ’s January 26 order for provisional measures in South Africa v. Israel, and elucidates the present and future of international law.

Gaza: Israel’s Unwinnable War

By Richard Silverstein / Winter 2024

Even if, for argument’s sake, it achieved its war goals, Palestinian resistance will exist wherever there are Palestinians—whether in Sinai, Beirut, Ankara, Tehran or Amman

Hamas, ISIL, and Israel: An Exercise in Comparison

By Ayman Zaineldine / Winter 2024

One of Israel’s main responses to the October 7 attacks was to declare that “Hamas is ISIL,” and that the world should thus unite in support for Israel to eliminate it. But others are not sure, and ask whether Israel’s occupation of Palestinian territories, and its practices as an occupying power, is even more worthy of global sanction

A Revived Arab Peace Initiative from Saudi Arabia Could Save the Middle East

By Aziz Alghashian / Winter 2024

Understanding Saudi pragmatism toward Israel, and its historical balancing act, is crucial for reviving the 2002 Arab Peace Initiative and countering the Abraham Accords’ erasure of Palestinian rights

Covering the Palestinian–Israeli Conflict: Between Exasperation and Empathy

By Lawrence Pintak / Winter 2024

A personal reflection of American involvement in the region’s wars through the eyes of a correspondent

Security and Peace After the War in Gaza

By Ibrahim Awad / Winter 2024

Is the two-state solution feasible? In order to pursue such a policy, the international community must be able to overcome three main points of contention: Israeli occupation, the creation of a Palestinian state, and the role of Hamas

Israel’s Ever-Existing Plan to Depopulate the Gaza Strip

By Nadia Naser-Najjab / Winter 2024

The recent violence in Gaza may be unprecedented in its intensity, but the Zionist rhetoric underlying Israel’s current brutal strategy has roots going back much earlier than October 7

A Palestinian Gandhi or an Israeli de Gaulle? Why the Context of Violence Matters

By Sharif Elmusa / Winter 2024

Questioning why there hasn’t been a Palestinian Gandhi or Mandela ignores the history and context in which Palestinian resistance occurs, especially the abiding violence visited on the Palestinians since 1917

How American Public Opinion on Palestine Shifted

By Geneive Abdo / Winter 2024

Overlapping connections among young activists struggling for the rights of women, 2SLGBTQIA+, Black Lives Matter, indigenous Indians, Latinos, and all people of color have produced a dramatic shift in how the Palestinian–Israeli conflict is being perceived in the United States

The EU’s Response to the Gaza War Is a Tale of Contradiction and Division

By Martin Konečný / Winter 2024

In the face of worst-ever Israeli–Palestinian violence, Europe’s selective moralism has also led to strategic blindness

Is There Hope for Gaza Under International Law?

By Abigail Flynn / Winter 2024

Why has international law failed to hold Israel responsible for its destruction of Gaza? It was built to enable the colonizer, not to protect the colonized, explains legal expert Jason Beckett.

South Africa vs. Israel – with Jason Beckett

By Nadeen Shaker /

As the world awaits a much-anticipated provisional measures ruling by the International Court of Justice on the South Africa vs Israel case, we dive into what possible implications would a positive judgement in favor of South Africa have in terms of influencing the set ways of international law and politics, and the actual course of the war in Gaza.

Today’s episode is with Jason Beckett, associate professor of law at the American University in Cairo.

Voices for Peace – with Lara Friedman

By Nadeen Shaker /

Young progressive Jews calling for a ceasefire in Gaza spent weeks since October 7 shutting down U.S. train stations, highways, and government buildings. But can their messages of solidarity reverberate beyond these demonstrations to cause change within government and Congress, especially as criticism of Israel is being increasingly shut down and classified as anti-semitism by US officials.

Today’s episode is with Lara Friedman, president of the Foundation for Middle East Peace (FMEP), a nonprofit organization working to promote peace between Israel and Palestine/peaceful future for Palestinians and Israelis.

Expelling Palestinians From Gaza Is Playing With Fire

By Karim Haggag and Omar Auf /

A mass population transfer of Palestinian refugees in Gaza to Egypt would not only entail significant security risks for Egypt, but also make Egypt complicit in Israel’s policy of bringing about a second Nakba

From Gaza to Regional War? – with Abdalhadi Alijla

By Nadeen Shaker /

What is the next step in the Gaza War now that an Israeli drone has killed a Hamas leader in Beirut? A spillover in Lebanon? The entire region? Europe? The United States has a role to play in preventing the war from escalating, but what if it does not intervene? Today’s episode is with Abdalhadi Alijla, Palestinian political scientist and rebel governance expert, who tells us more about the worst-case scenarios of the war on Gaza, and how the war’s objectives are slightly shifting.

Nakba 2.0 – with Sharif ElMusa

By Nadeen Shaker /

For almost all Palestinians, the current war on Gaza strongly evokes the Nakba, when Palestinians were forced to flee their homeland in 1948 following the creation of the state of Israel. As 1.9 million people are currently displaced in Gaza, many believe they are reliving the Nakba in its worst forms. In today’s episode, we hear from Sharif ElMusa, professor emeritus at the American University in Cairo, Palestinian poet, and Nakba survivor.

“We Lost Our Dignity in this War” – with Nour Swirki

By Nadeen Shaker /

Some analysts have called Gaza a “news grave” because of the killing of journalists and their families, and the destruction of media outlets and communication infrastructure. For journalists on the ground in Gaza, the barriers are insurmountable, especially when they are fighting to survive themselves. On today’s episode, we hear from Nour Swirki, one of the few last standing journalists in Gaza about her own story of displacement, and about how she is able to continue doing her job during what she calls “a war against anything Palestinian…against our existence.”