The 47 Republican Ronin Take on Iran

by John Feffer In traditional Japanese culture, a samurai without a master is known as a ronin. The most popular tale featuring these leaderless samurai is the 18th-century Chusingura. It tells of a feudal lord who must commit ritual suicide… Continue Reading

How Does Israel Assess the Threat Posed by ISIS?

by Derek Davison A former senior analyst for Mossad, Yossi Alpher, told an audience in Washington Thursday that Israel sees the Islamic State (ISIS or IS) as an “urgent” national security concern, but the context of his talk at the… Continue Reading

Israel: The Silent Stakeholder in Northern Iraq

by Marsha B. Cohen One of the more remarkable aspects of the recent news coverage of Iraq — the Maliki government’s loss of control over the northern region of the country, the deadly confrontations taking place between Iraqi Shia and Sunnis, and the… Continue Reading

Is Matthew Levitt’s Hezbollah Convincing?

by Aurélie M. Daher In Hezbollah: The Global Footprint of Lebanon’s Party of God, Matthew Levitt, senior fellow at the Washington Institute for Near East Policy (WINEP) and a former senior U.S. counter-terrorism official, attempts to illustrate the threat posed… Continue Reading

Israeli Leaders Place More Obstacles in Kerry’s Path

by Mitchell Plitnick US Secretary of State John Kerry was shuttling between Jordan and Saudi Arabia on Sunday, shoring up support for his efforts to find some kind of framework for negotiations that Israel and the Palestinian Authority could both… Continue Reading