The United States and Saudi Arabia are pushing Israel to revive an old peace plan that would see Saudi Arabia and other Arab oil states recognize Israel in return for concrete moves toward the creation of a Palestinian state. US Secretary of State Antony Blinken and other high-ranking American diplomats have in recent weeks visited […]

The post The hopelessness of Biden’s two-state solution appeared first on Asia Times.

In 1990, fresh from serving over two decades in prison on charges of trying to “overthrow the state,” South African anti-apartheid leader Nelson Mandela delivered harsh remarks likening Israel’s treatment of Palestinians to the oppression of black South Africans under apartheid rule. “If one has to refer to any of the parties as a terrorist […]

The post The roots of South Africa’s Gaza case against Israel appeared first on Asia Times.

US President Joe Biden’s chief diplomat’s latest effort to persuade Israel to change its war tactics in Gaza and its long-range goals for pacifying the Palestinians has failed. Biden and his advisors have apparently underestimated the rage among the Israeli public over the October 7 assault of southern Israel by terrorists affiliated with Hamas, the […]

The post Biden’s diplomacy going nowhere fast in Gaza appeared first on Asia Times.

A parade of high-ranking officials from the United States have visited Israel to persuade Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to endorse a post-Gaza war peace plan that’s to Washington’s liking. Netanyahu has indicated repeatedly that discussion of “day after,” post-war planning must await the crushing of Hamas’ government and military capabilities in the Gaza Strip. Last […]

The post Netanyahu thinks he can wait out Biden in Gaza appeared first on Asia Times.

The United States and Israel are at odds over how the Gaza War should be conducted and what should ultimately define a victory over Hamas, a reflection of the two allies’ and their respective leaders’ divergent short-term needs and longer-term goals. US President Joe Biden, who is campaigning for reelection at what is expected to […]

The post Why Netanyahu is ignoring Biden’s calls and pleas appeared first on Asia Times.

While Israel focuses on hostage rescue in Gaza and, eventually, on destroying Hamas, its main ally, the United States, is working to fashion a post-war peace solution that will support its own broader goals. Washington fears that the Gaza war has placed a significant obstacle to one of President Joe Biden’s major foreign policy projects: […]

The post Gaza war an irritant to Biden’s bigger China plan appeared first on Asia Times.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s decision to bar the Palestine Authority, which now governs parts of the West Bank, from administering the Gaza Strip after the war on Hamas ends is aimed at sinking a revived “two-state solution” peace plan to end the Middle East’s longest-running conflict.  Formulated back in 1991 and favored by Israel’s […]

The post Where Biden and Netanyahu don’t see eye to eye appeared first on Asia Times.

Israel has served notice that it will seek to kill Hamas operatives not only in the Gaza Strip but also beyond the borders of Israel and the West Bank, the latest threat of a coming wider regional conflict. The official comment specified Qatar and Turkey as countries that host Hamas officials. The warning, delivered by […]

The post Failed US diplomacy gives Israel a free vengeful hand appeared first on Asia Times.

Israel’s “second phase” of its war against Hamas consists of small unit attacks just inside the northern Gaza Strip border, accompanied by continual aerial bombing and artillery fire targeting the interior of the enclave. One reason for the air strikes is to make sure Hamas doesn’t emerge from the war intact, a NATO general said. […]

The post Israel launches a surprisingly calibrated invasion appeared first on Asia Times.

When US President Joe Biden, upon arrival in Israel last week, gave Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu what Americans call a “bro hug”, commentators interpreted the gesture as a show of solid support for Israel in its war with Hamas. One commentator on Israeli TV offered a subtler and, it has turned out, reality-based analysis. Besides […]

The post Big strings attached to Biden’s Israel, Ukraine aid appeared first on Asia Times.

US President Joe Biden gave a televised speech Thursday night, providing a verbal tour of his thoughts on both the Hamas-Israel war and Russia’s attack on Ukraine. His speech vividly described the horrors visited on civilian victims of both conflicts when Hamas invaded Israel from the Gaza Strip and Russian President Vladimir Putin made war […]

The post Biden hitches Israel aid to less popular Ukraine war support appeared first on Asia Times.

Israel contested Hamas accusations that an Israeli missile struck the grounds of a hospital in the Gaza Strip, an attack that killed hundreds of Palestinians and undercut US President Joe Biden’s shuttle diplomacy meant to emphasize support for Israel and persuade Arab countries he also aims to help Palestinians. The nighttime explosion in a parking […]

The post Biden leaves Israel in more turmoil than he found it appeared first on Asia Times.

The war between Israel and Hamas has entered a stylized public relations phase in which both sides say that they have neither committed war crimes by wantonly attacking civilians (although they have) nor will they do so in the future (though such assaults are very likely). The efforts of both to defend themselves against accusations […]

The post No winners so far in Hamas-Israel PR war appeared first on Asia Times.

Not long after Islamic Resistance Movement (Hamas) gunmen attacked southern Israel, military analysts and others were quick to compare the surprise assault to the 1973 Yom Kippur War in which the armies of Egypt and Syria invaded the country. But besides the scope of each conflict, there’s a difference Israelis might prefer to forget. In […]

The post Hamas assault on Israel an exercise in self-destruction appeared first on Asia Times.

Vladimir Putin, self-declared protector of ethnic Russian and other allied communities along Russia’s borders, failed last week to defend nominal Armenians allies who live in Azerbaijan from being driven out of the country by the Azeri army. Though distant geographically, the Azerbaijan offensive was a byproduct of Putin’s failure to conquer Ukraine, where the Russian […]

The post Russia leaves Armenia ally to burn in Azerbaijan appeared first on Asia Times.

Last week’s drip of diplomatic leaks from United States officials led to streams of speculation that a grand bargain is in the works that will create the biggest Middle East peace breakthrough since the 1978 Israel-Egypt Camp David accord. Or is this a public relations gambit to shore up the flagging reputations of three protagonists […]

The post Big Mideast peace deal in the air but is it all air? appeared first on Asia Times.

Russian mercenary leader Yevgeny Prigozhin and nine other Wagner Group members are dead and gone, victims of a mysterious air crash with only theories as to what happened. But even if the circumstances of Prigozhin’s death are yet unknown, it is becoming clear that President Vladimir Putin intends to continue the use of non-government military […]

The post Wagner Group’s future is brighter than it seems appeared first on Asia Times.

Major breakthroughs against Russian forces by Ukraine in its ongoing military counteroffensive are unlikely. Close observers of the battlefield foresee an open-ended war moving forward with little significant battlefield progress by either side. Analysts as well as visitors to the Ukrainian front lines offer multiple reasons for the developing stalemate. Russia’s laying of formidable and […]

The post Multiple failures hounding Ukraine’s counteroffensive appeared first on Asia Times.

Italy’s right-wing Prime Minster Giorgia Meloni returned from recent talks with US President Joe Biden that included discussions of how to distance her country from tight economic ties with China. The discussion was part of NATO’s efforts to “de-risk” – that is, reduce – economic activity with Beijing. Meloni let it be known she was […]

The post Italy flirting with NATO Asia-Pacific expansion appeared first on Asia Times.

At the conclusion of the NATO summit last week in Lithuania, everybody involved tried to smooth over a major rift that broke out between  Ukraine, which wanted a clear timetable for joining the alliance, and Western allies who didn’t want to specify a timeline. Maybe after Russia’s war on Ukraine ends, US President Joe Biden […]

The post Zelensky just can’t get what he wants from NATO appeared first on Asia Times.