Tag Archives: Israel

MURTAJA LATEEF/EPA Clive Williams, Australian National University Tensions are running high in the Middle East in the waning days of the Trump administration. Over the weekend, Iran’s foreign minister, Mohammad Javad Zarif, claimed Israeli agents were planning to attack US forces in Iraq to provide US President Donald Trump with a pretext for striking Iran. Just ahead of the one-year …

U.S. President Donald Trump walks to the Abraham Accords signing ceremony at the White House on Sept. 15, 2020, with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, Bahrain Foreign Minister Khalid bin Ahmed Al Khalifa and United Arab Emirates Foreign Minister Abdullah bin Zayed al-Nahyan. (AP Photo/Alex Brandon) Edmund Adam, University of Toronto How will history books judge the so-called Abraham Accords, …

Sporting events and initiatives could help strengthen ties between the Gulf states and Israel. EFKS/Shutterstock Hussa Khalid, Loughborough University Back in 2016, I was excited for the Bahrain Women’s National team to compete in the Aphrodite Cup, an international football tournament held in Cyprus. Bahrain’s team, of which I was in charge, had previously participated in an earlier edition of …

GettyImages Sioux McKenna, Rhodes University International rankings of universities are big business and big news. These systems order universities on the basis of a variety of criteria such as student to staff ratio, income from industry, and reputation as captured through public surveys. Universities around the world use their rankings as marketing material and parents and prospective students make life …

Is it too soon to herald the ‘dawn of a new Middle East’? It all depends what the Saudis do next JIM LO SCALZO/EPA Ben Rich, Curtin University US President Donald Trump heralded nothing short of “the dawn of a new Middle East” as the leaders of the United Arab Emirates and Bahrain signed agreements normalising ties with Israel during …

Julie Trottier, Université de Montpellier On January 28, 2020, US president Donald Trump announced a “peace plan” that would involve the annexation of most of the Jordan Valley by Israel. Most reactions focused on its contradiction with international law – the Israeli occupation of the West Bank has been condemned by several United Nations resolutions. The economic context is also …

The Bedouin poet Muhammad Fanatil al-Hajaya. Author provided William Tamplin, Harvard University Muhammad Fanatil al-Hajaya’s poetry is full of arguments one would hear on the streets of Amman, Riyadh and Cairo, in coffee shops, barber shops and taxis. Laden with animals, conspiracy theories and apocalyptic rhetoric, his verses reflect how many Arabs – educated and uneducated, urban and rural, rich …

Simon Mabon, Lancaster University Israel and the United Arab Emirates (UAE) have signed a historic agreement which makes the Emirates only the third Arab state to recognise Israel after Egypt in 1979 and Jordan in 1994. As part of the deal, dubbed the Abraham Accord, Israel has suspended highly controversial plans to annex the West Bank. But it has been …

Israeli security forces clash with a Palestinian protesting the construction of Jewish settlements and a ‘separation wall,’ village of Ramallah, West Bank, Aug. 7, 2020. Issam Rimawi/Anadolu Agency via Getty Images Dov Waxman, University of California, Los Angeles Editor’s note: In a historic agreement announced by President Trump on Aug. 13, Israel has suspended its plan to formally annex parts …

Andrew Harnik/AP Tony Walker, La Trobe University The normalisation of diplomatic ties between Israel and the United Arab Emirates has variously been described as a “breakthrough” and an important staging moment towards a comprehensive Middle East peace. These conclusions are, at best, premature. Normalisation of relations between Israel and an important Gulf state is a highly significant development whose fallout …