middle east news

There has been an alarming spike in anti-Semitic attacks in the UK since Hamas attacked Israel on Oct. 7, killing nearly 1,200 Israeli citizens. Hate crimes monitor Dave Rich and historian Andrew Apostolou unpack the dynamics. 

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As the conflict in Gaza rages on, Palestinian children are dying by the thousands while many others are horribly injured. Hospitals are under unremittingly attacked by Israel forces and doctors struggle to treat the wounded.

Seema Jilani, a rare American doctor to make it into the Gaza Strip, has been telling the world about what she has seen and is facing a backlash for doing so.

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Turkey blocked Sweden's NATO membership for nine months saying Stockholm needed to curb anti-Turkish groups it classifies as terrorists. Those demands were widely dismissed as a foil for Ankara's real aim, to get the United States Congress to authorize the sale of F-16 fighter jets to Turkey. Yet, some of Turkey's concerns were legitimate, says Sweden's Former Foreign Minister Ann Linde.

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The Islamic State carried out an attack against a Roman Catholic Church in Istanbul on Jan. 28, killing one person. In its statement claiming responsibility for the attack the group referred to Turkey as "Wilayat al Turkiya" — or its "Turkish province" — sending a chilling message that it views the country among its prime targets. Any further such attacks would deal a big blow to Turkey's multi-billion dollar tourism industry in the midst of economic turbulence.

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The deaths of three US servicemen Sunday in an attack by an Iran-backed Shiite militia at a base wedged between Syria and Jordan has raised the specter of a direct confrontation between the United States and Iran like never before. But are things as black and white as they seem? Does Iran have full control over the Shiite militias that are part of Iraq's Popular Mobilization Forces created to fight the Islamic State? A US withdrawal from Iraq and Syria would help resuscitate the Islamic State which recently killed hundreds of civilians inside Iran. What is the end game? 

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Syrians for Truth and Justice and the European Center for Constitutional and Human Rights have filed a complaint with German federal prosecutors against Turkish-backed Sunni factions they accuse of war crimes against Kurds in Afrin.

These include ethnic cleansing, rape and looting. German prosecutors have convicted individuals accused of torturing fellow Syrians on behalf of the Assad regime. They hope similar judgements can be handed down to the Turkish-backed militias, some of which are already under sanctions for war crimes by the United States.

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Tensions between the United States and Iran-backed Houthi rebels continue to escalate in the Red Sea, disrupting maritime traffic in a key shipping lane. A barrage of US airstrikes against the Houthis shows little signs of slowing them down. The Shiite rebels insist they won't stop targeting merchant ships and US naval vessels unless Israel ends its war against Palestinians in Gaza. Kuwaiti academic Bader Al-Saif tell Al-Monitor they should be taken at their word. 

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The assassination of Hamas' number two man in Beirut on Tuesday has deepened concerns that the conflict in Gaza will engulf neighboring Lebanon.

However, Esther Solomon, the editor-in-chief of Haaretz English, dismisses the idea that Israel wants to provoke a war with Iran that would drag in the United States.

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Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has openly sided with Hamas in its ongoing conflict with Israel in Gaza, making him a hero on the Arab street. However, his vocal support for the group that is designated as terrorists by the United States will likely further strain relations between Ankara and Washington. It will also make it harder for Turkey to normalize relations with Israel in the future, according to Alan Makovsky, a leading analyst of Turkish affairs in Washington.

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As Israel’s war to unseat Hamas in the Gaza Strip grinds into its second month, the former top US military commander in the Middle East, Gen. Joseph Votel (ret.), says the hardest fighting is yet to come. While the IDF appears to be implementing some of Washington’s advice by allowing for the flow of humanitarian aid and civilian evacuation corridors, there remains real risk that Iran-backed militias throughout the region may escalate reckless attacks that could draw the United States into another war. Ultimately, there must be a postwar political solution for Gaza and a re-calibration of US military presence in the Middle East to deter Iran, Votel argues.

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Iran is doing its best to avoid getting dragged into the conflict in Gaza. Its strategy of deterrence through its proxies appears to have backfired and the United States is more present than ever in the region, says Iran analyst Hamidreza Azizi.

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In another special edition of the podcast, we have the audio from the fourth edition of our live Q&A webinar series on the Israel-Hamas war, where Al-Monitor's Columnist Ali Hashem, Senior News Editor Joyce Karam, and Palestine Columnist Daoud Kuttab discussed the conflict's latest developments, including Hezbollah Secretary General Hassan Nasrallah's big speech and calls by US President Joe Biden for a humanitarian pause in the fighting, as well as answered guest questions.

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On Oct. 29 Turkey will mark its 100th year as a republic, with an overtly Islamist leader in power for the past 20 years. President Recep Tayyip Erdogan is seeking to unravel the legacy of the secularizing founder of modern Turkey Kemal Ataturk. He may have succeeded in several ways, but Turkish scholar Selim Koru argues that under Erdogan Islam has become more of a transactional rather than a spiritual force. 

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In this special edition of the podcast, we have the audio from the second part of our live Q&A webinar series on the Israel-Hamas war, where Al-Monitor Israel Columnist Ben Caspit, reporting from Tel Aviv, and Al Arabiya Washington Bureau Chief Nadia Bilbassy-Charters discussed the latest developments in the war, including President Biden’s visit to Israel, as well as answered guest questions.

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Rashid Khalidi, the Edward Said Professor of Modern Arab Studies at Columbia University, argues that Israel’s persistent repression of the Palestinians and denial of their right to statehood are the underlying cause of Hamas' brutal Oct. 7 attack on the Jewish state. Successive US governments, including the Biden Administration, with their unfettered support for Israel are complicit, he adds, paving the way for the current cycle of violence — one that could escalate into a regional war.

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Israel's Ambassador to Bahrain Eitan Na'eh says that Iran was the driving force behind Hamas' October 7 attack on his country and that the Abraham Accords were the main target. The envoy insists that the accords are aimed at developing economic prosperity and trust in the Middle East and nobody will invest in Gaza until it is rid of Hamas. 

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Emma Tsurkov, a scholar at Stanford University, says all she knows about her sister Elizabeth Tsurkov, who was kidnapped by the Iraqi Shiite militant group Kataib Hezbollah in March, is that she is still alive and in Baghdad. The conflict in Gaza triggered by Hamas' attack on Israel will have further complicated her plight, though.

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Yerevan-based analyst Benjamin Poghosyan says that Azerbaijan's actions in Nagorno-Karabakh presage further land grabs and broader conflict.

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At least four Kurdish demonstrators were shot dead last weekend in the oil-rich province of Kirkuk, raising the specter of Arab-Kurdish conflict. The bloodshed was triggered by an Iraqi federal court rejecting Prime Minister Mohamed Shia al-Sudani's decision to let a Kurdish group reclaim its headquarters that are currently occupied by Iraqi security forces. 

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Hundreds of Ethiopian migrants and asylum seekers have been shot by Saudi border guards as they tried to cross in from Yemen, according to a chilling new report from Human Rights Watch.

The allegations were substantiated by international media outlets, including the Reuters news agency. Saudi Arabia denies the claims and Western governments have said little as they encourage the oil rich kingdom to establish formal ties with Israel.

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