Creating new perspectives since 2009
Items by Jasim Al-Azzawi
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The triad of war crimes, BDS, and global condemnation haunting Israel’s future
The three ghosts—war crimes, BDS, and global condemnation—will torment Israel for the next few decades, troubling its conscience and eroding its legitimacy. They are not transient criticisms, but eternal indictments that cut across borders and generations. Charges of war crimes bear moral stains that no diplomatic smokescreen can gloss over.…
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Hello Britain, are you happy now with the misery you inflicted on the Palestinians?
Allow me to respond. The world accuses you of eighty years of suffering, dispossession, exile, and death — of creating a catastrophe that spread cancer-like across generations. Gaza, Jenin, Deir Yassin. These are not single atrocities, but stepping stones to a century of calamity hatched in Whitehall salons. You lit…
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Swiss cheese diplomacy: Trump’s hollow peace parade in Jerusalem
Donald Trump’s speech to the Israeli Knesset was less a diplomatic address than a narcissistic spectacle—a pageant of self-congratulation masquerading as statesmanship. He strutted through Jerusalem like a messianic salesman, peddling peace while barely uttering the word “Palestinian.” Twice, in passing. That’s all the people of Gaza got from the…
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Hail to the chief: Trump lands in Egypt to reap the glory, rescue Netanyahu, and rewrite the ending of the Gaza story
In a move dense with symbolism and political calculation, President Donald Trump is in Egypt to celebrate the handover of Israeli hostages by Hamas. What is cast as a diplomatic triumph is, in reality, a performance piece designed to salvage reputations rather than achieve peace. For two brutal years, Israel—with…
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The delusional ceasefire and the inevitable resumption of fighting
The world has greeted the new ceasefire agreement between Israel and the Palestinians with cautious optimism. However, beneath the diplomatic courtesy and carefully selected words lies an unpleasant fact: this agreement is built on sand. The ceasefire, hailed by world leaders as a breakthrough, is no more than a temporary…
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Iraq at the crossroads: A vote for change or history repeated?
With parliament scheduled to cast ballots on 11 November 2025, Iraq is at a juncture that extends far beyond the vote. Two fundamental questions underlie the essence of this turning point: Is Baghdad capable of gaining genuine sovereignty over its security apparatus by eliminating the Popular Mobilisation Force and its…
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The price was high, the return is priceless: How the war on Gaza unmasked Israel
Ever since 7 October 2023, a painful question has haunted every soul. Was the immense price paid by Palestinians worth it? For months, this question was a hushed whisper. Today, it has become a deafening scream echoing from every pulpit. And there is only one group of people with the…
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A US general, British PM, Netanyahu, and the paradox of war crimes
In 1945, US General Curtis LeMay offered a rare moment of candor. As his bombers incinerated Japanese cities, he told his crews, “If we lose, we’d all be tried as war criminals.” It was not a confession. It was a calculation. LeMay understood what most prefer to forget: in war,…
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Round two: Why the next Israel-Iran War will shatter the Middle East
Three months after a hastily brokered ceasefire ended 12 days of confrontation between Iran and Israel, a false calm settles over the Middle East. But behind the facades, both armies are studying the unprecedented exchange of fire in June that would make any round two conflict apocalyptically worse than round…
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Mr Netanyahu comes calling to peddle a war
A Desperate Gamble: Netanyahu’s Agony Benjamin Netanyahu comes to Washington not as the triumphant wartime conqueror, but as a politician on the threshold of political and personal ruin. His two-year campaign against Hamas has disintegrated into a strategic debacle. Despite its sheer military superiority, Israel remains mired in an unwinnable…
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Washington’s favorite delusion: Hamas without weapons
For years, a single line has been repeated like a catechism in Washington and Tel Aviv: Hamas must disarm, dissolve itself, and politely exit Gaza. This demand is presented as a non-negotiable precondition for any sustainable peace, an iron law of security. Yet, to anyone who has read a history…
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Pakistan’s nuclear gamble: The new great game in the Middle East
Three capitals —Washington, Tel Aviv, and Tehran —are suddenly recalculating after a development that, on the surface, appeared to be routine defence cooperation. Saudi Arabia and Pakistan’s deepening strategic ties have carried whispers of something larger: a pathway, however tentative, toward Riyadh acquiring nuclear capability should it decide that Iran’s…
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The Palestinian recognition cascade: America’s diplomatic isolation
The series of Palestinian recognition by key Western allies is a seismic shift in the international status quo Washington has spent decades constructing. When Britain joined Canada, Australia, and Portugal in recognising Palestinian statehood, it was not a gesture of goodwill—it was a thunderous strategic shift that threatens to leave…
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Release the Gaza tapes, Mr President
Standing beside Britain’s Prime Minister, Keir Starmer, President Trump declared that he had seen the horrific images of Hamas atrocities — babies butchered, women raped, civilians massacred. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu echoed the same. President Biden once did too, before quietly walking it back. But the question that refuses…
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You can’t see the forest for the trees: How the Oslo Accords became Israel’s greatest strategic victory
They say that hindsight is 20/20. It is more than three decades now since that historic handshake on the White House lawn in September 1993, when Yasser Arafat and Yitzhak Rabin shook hands under President Bill Clinton’s smiling supervision. The Oslo Accords were hailed as a breakthrough in Middle East…
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Algeria reborn: A silent rise from ruin to prominence
From the ashes of Algeria’s “Black Decade,” an agonising period marked by unspeakable violence and national trauma, emerges a country quietly reclaiming its future. The scars remain, but so does the resilience forged in fire. Today, Algeria stands at the threshold of renewal, secure, stable, and increasingly self-assured. This is…
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Netanyahu, you crossed the Rubicon
History is littered with men who mistook hubris for destiny. They stand tall over the destruction they have created, still unbowed, still convinced that one more act of brutality will vindicate them. Benjamin Netanyahu has now added his name to their list. The failed assassination attempt in Doha was more…
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An immigrant, a visionary, and gunboat diplomacy: How three men helped shape three powerhouses
In the annals of history, greatness tends to begin with one individual who thinks differently. Sometimes it is a visionary immigrant, sometimes a leader with unshakeable resolve, and sometimes a gunner whose aggressive mindset sparks a revolution in ideas. What they have in common is not their background or methodology,…
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Whatever happened to Libya?
More than a decade after the butchery of Muammar Gaddafi, Libya lies marooned between the wreckage of revolution and the mirage of reconstruction. What was once trumpeted as the dawn of liberation has disintegrated into a cruel deadlock: dueling governments, hollow parliaments, and a shredded national soul. Beneath the sand…
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Egypt’s silent crisis: A paradox of stability and tension
Egypt has long been an enigma to the world, a bewildering paradox for over a decade. It appears, outwardly, to be a shining example of stability in the post-Arab Spring world. But this imposed quiet holds a nation quietly suffering under compounded economic and institutional strain. In this land of…
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The stalemate behind the smiles: Why Saudi-Israeli normalisation remains a mirage
Despite years of quiet overtures, symbolic gestures, and high-level diplomacy, the prospect of formal normalisation between Saudi Arabia and Israel remains stalled. At the heart of the impasse lies an immovable but straightforward truth: Riyadh’s price for peace is Palestinian statehood. Jerusalem won’t pay it, and Washington keeps moving the…
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The second strike: Why Iran’s preemptive response may come sooner than expected
Eight days ago, President Donald Trump made a move that could push the Middle East toward a second war from which there is no coming back: he sacked Lieutenant General Jeffrey Kruse, head of the Defense Intelligence Agency (DIA), for uttering an inconvenient truth. Kruse’s sin was not insubordination or…
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The Gaza trap: How asymmetric warfare shattered Israel’s illusions
The 7 October 2023 assault on Israel tore through one of the most fortified borders in the world and left its vaunted military humiliated. Hamas, with its ragtag arsenal and tunnels carved through sand, brought a nuclear-armed state to its knees. This was not just a tactical ambush. It was…
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The crisis of disarming Hezbollah: Lebanon on the edge
The Lebanese government’s plan to disarm Hezbollah by year’s end is less a policy than a provocation. If pursued, it risks pushing Lebanon toward the very abyss it claims to avoid: civil war. Prime Minister Nawaf Salam has instructed the Lebanese Armed Forces (LAF) to prepare a timetable for dismantling…