Levant

Read MEI’s weekly briefing featuring expert analysis of key regional developments for the week ahead.

The only long-term way of building security and stability, and reducing violence for Palestinians and Israelis alike, is to create hope and establish a political pathway for both sides

The intensity of the Oct. 7 terrorist attacks by Gaza and the ensuing crisis have already had a significant and dramatic impact on relations between the United States and Israel. The resolute American backing reflects the purest expression of the strategic partnership that has existed between Israel and the U.S. for more than five decades.

On the military implications of Israel’s impending ground invasion in Gaza. Featuring Bilal Y. Saab (Senior Fellow and Founding Director of the Defense and Security Program) and Joseph L. Votel (Distinguished Senior Fellow on National Security).

What further diplomatic steps should the U.S. take to respond to the Israel-Hamas war and its broadening regional reverberations? MEI has asked a group of former U.S. ambassadors and senior government officials specializing in the region to weigh in.

For the better part of a decade, Turkey and the U.S. have been locked in what might be considered an unhappy marriage, marked by bitter misunderstandings and growing distrust. Some optimists had hoped that something of a reset might be possible, but recent events, both in Turkey’s ongoing conflict with the PKK and because of the ripple effects from Israel’s war with Hamas, likely mean that U.S.-Turkish relations, far from improving, will get colder yet in the months to come.

Read MEI’s weekly briefing featuring expert analysis of key regional developments for the week ahead.

Did the IDF rely too heavily on advanced technologies in its effort to secure and fortify Israel’s border with Gaza? That is one of many questions that have arisen in the days since Hamas’ Oct. 7 incursion into Israel and attacks on Israeli forces and civilians. The absence of early warnings from data collected via sensors, cameras, and surveillance drones along the border’s “smart fence,” as well as the penetration of the Iron Dome missile defense system, has led to a sense that Israel experienced a tragic “high-tech failure.”

The Israeli lack of preparedness for, and weak initial response to, the Hamas attack on Oct. 7 encompassed four key failures. But its consequences may bring far-reaching political changes and internal reforms.

Russia, historically viewed as a major stakeholder and player in the Middle East since the Cold War, is seeing its leverage eroding as the Hamas-Israel war enters its third week, and the Kremlin is absent despite attempts to mediate the conflict. 

Increasing deployment of large-scale grid-integrated Energy Storage Systems (EES) in Gulf Arab states is being driven by the implementation of renewable energy systems. More and more, variable renewable energies are being integrated into the grid as upgrades to transmission and distribution networks are being deferred. As a result, demand for ESS is likely to grow.

There is political logic behind the Israeli government’s declaration that it will ‘wipe Hamas off the Earth’.

The Israeli public want to see Hamas destroyed once and for all, given the unprecedented mass murder it just committed.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his colleagues, already under intense pressure for allowing the attack to take place (and for putting Israel in a vulnerable position by pursuing anti-democratic policies) were compelled to make big promises. Their maximalist goals reflect the stakes in their fight for political survival.