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On April 6, three days before the Israeli elections, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu was interviewed on Israeli TV Channel 12. When asked about his policy regarding the West Bank (Judea and Samaria) he replied:
Editor’s Note: This article originally appeared on Order from Chaos.
On Thursday, March 21, President Trump introduced yet another sea change to U.S. policy towards the Arab-Israeli conflict—this time by tweet. “After 52 years,” Trump wrote, “it is time for the United States to fully recognize Israel’s [s]overeignty over the Golan Heights.”
Editor’s Note: This article originally appeared on Order from Chaos.
Following Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s surprise call for early elections in April, U.S. Ambassador to Israel David Friedman indicated that the release of the Trump administration’s much ballyhooed “deal of the century” would be postponed several months. After working on this peace plan for close to two years, President Trump’s team is probably disappointed by yet another delay, but Israel’s early elections may prove a blessing in disguise.
On Dec. 19, 2018, President Trump unexpectedly announced that U.S. would withdraw its troops from Syria. To date, the U.S. has deployed around 2,000 troops to Syria, many of them Special Forces members and trainers, for the sake of combating the Islamic State.
The 1979 Islamic Revolution in Iran has proved one of the most consequential events in the history of modern terrorism. The revolution led to a surge in Iranian-backed terrorism that continues, albeit in quite different forms, to this day. Less noticed, but equally significant, the revolution provoked a response by Saudi Arabia and various Sunni militant groups that set the stage for the rise in Sunni jihadism. Finally, the revolution sparked fundamental changes in American counterterrorism institutions and attitudes.
Pressure is mounting on Saudi Arabia to pull out of Yemen. The Pentagon announced on Nov. 9 that it would stop aerial refueling of Saudi planes conducting operations in Yemen, ending assistance that began under President Obama in 2015, when Riyadh first began its bombing campaign.
For counterterrorism officials, one of the most difficult counterterrorism challenges is identifying the next global struggle that, like the Syrian civil war, will energize the world’s Muslims and lead tens of thousands of foreigners to join the fray.
From Oct. 2 to Oct. 18, Lara Alqasem, a student accepted to a human rights program at Hebrew University of Jerusalem, was detained at Ben-Gurion airport in Israel. Why? Because she was a member and president of the University of Florida branch of the Students for Justice for Palestine, which supports the boycott, divestment and sanctions (BDS) campaign against Israel.