Israel
War Returns to Lebanon
After Hezbollah launched rockets toward Israel to avenge the killing of Iran's Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei, Israeli airstrikes resumed across Lebanon, killing civilians and displacing some 700,000 people.
Between Iran and Me
An Iranian journalist reflects on the U.S.-Israeli war on Iran, considering decades of failed sanctions, diaspora authoritarianism and the civilizational story that nobody told.
Hind Rajab and the Dying Light
If Hind’s voice is a reproach, then the humanity of her would-be rescuers is redemption, however inadequate. For the hours they spent with her — comforting and reassuring the child on one hand, berating and beseeching her tormentors on the other — they expiate our collective guilt.
Saudi Arabia’s Break With Interventionism
After decades of shifting alliances that failed to deliver stability, Saudi Arabia now has a “zero-conflict” policy toward its neighbors. It is this, rather than a turn to Islamism, that is paradoxically creating tension with the United Arab Emirates and Israel.
Remembering ‘Never Again for Everyone’ at Bergen-Belsen
In April 2025, the author accompanied his mother, a child survivor of Bergen-Belsen concentration camp, to a memorial ceremony marking 80 years since the camp’s liberation. At the time, famine was raging in Gaza. As a pro-Palestinian activist and Israeli citizen, the author was filled with complex emotions.
While Israel’s Construction Industry Falters, Apartments Are Springing up Around Ramallah
Stripped of their permits since Oct. 7, 2023, 160,000 West Bank Palestinian construction workers are desperate to return to work in Israel. Meanwhile, as radical settlers terrorize Palestinians in one part of the West Bank, Palestinian citizens of Israel are finding peace of mind by purchasing apartments in another.
‘The Course of Empire’ Reimagined in Middle Eastern Graffiti
Through graffiti, political expression has slipped out of gilded frames and onto concrete and stone. Modern murals in Cairo, Bethlehem and Amman show how the measure of a civilization lies not in its monuments, but in people insisting on being seen, claiming space and painting themselves back into the landscape.