Not a Karine A moment

The Times of Israel, March 5, 2014

On the face of it the Israeli capture of an Iranian ship loaded with intermediate range missiles on its way to Gaza bears a striking similarity to the Karine A affair of January 2002. But while the latter had a profound effect on George W Bush’s view of Yasser Arafat and the Israeli Palestinian conflict, it is hardly likely that the exposure of Iran’s ongoing support of terrorist groups such as Islamic Jihad will have a similar impact on the Obama Administration’s give and take with Iran

Kerry’s revealing comments on Syria

The Times of Israel, February 4, 2014

On n Monday The Daily Beast and The Washington Post published accounts of a striking statement made by Secretary of State John Kerry in an off the record closed session with a group of US congressmen. Confirming the rule discovered by numerous politicians and policy makers that there is no such thing as “off the record,” two of the participants, Senators McCain and Graham, shared some of the Secretary’s more intriguing comments with the media

On Syria, four new worries for Israel

The Times of Israel, September 24, 2013

The recent dramatic turn of events in the Syrian crisis presents Israel with the need to revise its assessment of the Syrian civil war and its ramifications for Israel's national security.

Defusing the Syrian Time Bomb

Project Syndicate, August 12, 2013

TEL AVIV – It is remarkable that a stern warning about the scale of the threat posed to the United States by Syria’s civil war has gone practically unnoticed. Is President Barack Obama’s administration stumbling toward the abyss?

A Middle Eastern Tinderbox

The Hoover Institution - Defining Ideas, June 5, 2013

During the past few weeks, the Syrian crisis entered a third phase in its evolution. The transition to this new phase has, among other things, exacerbated the danger of spillover into neighboring countries and of a breakout of a regional war emanating from the Syrian civil war.