Open Dialogue Research Journal
Israelis voted last Tuesday in their first national election since Hamas’s attack of 7 October 2023. Polling stations opened at 7 a.m. and closed at 10 p.m. local time. For Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who has been in office for 19 years and is Israel’s longest-serving leader, it was a […]
Israel’s defense minister stood before a map of southern Lebanon this week and described a fait accompli. More than 60 villages erased. Twenty-three thousand homes reduced to rubble. A 700-square-kilometer “security zone” carved into Lebanese territory, emptied of 200,000 Shiite residents, declared permanent until Hezbollah disarms. “We will not withdraw,” […]
Israel votes on Tuesday in its first national election since Hamas’s surprise attack of 7 October 2023, an event that shook the country, triggered war in Gaza and with Hamas’s allies in Lebanon and Iran, and plunged the region into turmoil. Opinion polls have predicted for months that Prime Minister […]
The central problem confronting Donald Trump after more than seven months of war with Iran is no longer simply whether the United States can inflict additional damage on Tehran. It is whether Washington can define what political outcome would constitute success, explain how military operations are supposed to produce that […]
For years, a normalization deal between Saudi Arabia and Israel has been described as the ultimate prize in “Middle Eastern Diplomacy” — the keystone that would complete the Abraham Accords and reshape the region’s geopolitical architecture. Washington has pushed hard. Riyadh has signaled openness. Jerusalem has expressed eager anticipation. Yet […]
This incisive article by CRG Research Associate Robert J. Burrowes was first published in July 2025. On about 20 September 2001, just ten days after the destruction of the World Trade Centre buildings on 9/11, recently retired U.S. Army General Wesley Clark was visiting the Pentagon for meetings with Secretary Rumsfeld and […]
Things are looking bleaker by the day for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, most notably for his standing as a competent leader in full mastery of his office. After allegations were made that he had received warnings from the United Arab Emirates leader President Mohamed bin Zayed (MBZ) that the […]
For decades, the idea of Israeli forces advancing toward Damascus belonged mainly to the history books. Syria and Israel remained formally at war, but after 1974 their confrontation was largely contained. Israel bombed Iranian and Hezbollah targets inside Syria, sometimes very close to Damascus, yet occupying Syrian territory beyond the […]
Whatever awaits him this coming November, few politicians could claim to have the endurance, bloody mindedness and sense of granite staying power than Israel’s Benjamin Netanyahu. With some prowess, he has wooed, deceived, and lied his way to power, and, for the most part, stayed the course for the best […]
Once again, the White House is facing a crisis of genre. Trump is repeating himself. Not long ago he promised to completely destroy Iran’s centuries-old civilization. Now the master of the White House is threatening to launch against Iran “the most destructive economic operation ever undertaken against any country.” Iran, […]
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