The Turbulent World with James M. Dorsey

Five decades ago, Nayef Hawatmeh, an aging left-wing guerrilla leader, created a template for a dialogue between Israel and the Palestinian resistance that has lessons for today’s warring parties.

Qatar, Egypt, and the US have called on Israel and Hamas to resume talks to reach a ceasefire in the Gaza Strip, as Israel’s assault on Gaza continues. James N. Dorsey from Singapore's S. Rajaratnam School of International Studies unpacks whether there will be any breakthrough in these talks.

The killing of Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh is about more than Israel’s targeting of the group’s officials whenever and wherever an opportunity arises. Mr. Haniyeh was known as a ‘pragmatist’ and a ‘moderate’ within Hamas. His killing was as much about achieving Israel’s goal of destroying Hamas militarily and politically as it was about quashing any chance that a post-war Hamas would potentially b...

Intellectual honesty is a rare commodity in the divide between Israelis and Palestinians. It is even rarer with the rise of Jewish ultra-nationalism and a generation of Israelis and Palestinians nurtured on prejudiced, biased, and often supremacist perceptions of the other. The irony is that historically, it was far-right militants, and currently, it is fringe left-wing intellectuals who displayed...

Washington sends more military hardware to the region in anticipation of retaliatory attacks against Israel. Iran's president says the assassination of Ismail Haniyeh in Tehran will not unpunished, with US intelligence suggesting an attack on Israel could happen within 24 to 48 hours. James M. Dorsey, adjunct senior fellow at Singapore's S Rajaratnam School of International Studies, explains on TR...

Behind The Lines with Arthur Snell Season 2, Ep. 28 • Friday, August 2, 2024 James M. Dorsey is a writer and journalist and author of the new book The Battle for the Soul of Islam - Defining the Muslim Faith in the 21st Century, published by Macmillan.

Israeli forces have raided Tulkarem in the occupied West Bank following an airstrike on a car that killed at least five people, including Hamas military leader Haitham Balidi. In response, the US Pentagon announced the deployment of additional jet fighters and warships to the region, anticipating possible Iranian retaliation for the assassination of Hamas political chief Ismail Haniyeh in Tehran....

The session will open with a wrap-up of where developments stand after the assassinations of Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh in Tehran and Hezbollah military commander Fuad Shukur in Beirut and Israel’s confirmation of the killing in mid-July of Hamas military commander Mohammed Deif. The question: is How will Iran, Hezbollah, and other non-state Iranian allies respond, is the Middle East on the brink...

Lost in the Middle Eastern fog of war is a struggle that is as much about geopolitics as it is about shaping future generations in a swath of land that stretches from the Gulf states and the Gaza battlefield to Houthi schools in Yemen and jihadist seminaries in Indonesia. It’s a rivalry of competing worldviews in textbooks designed to shape education in the 21st century in Muslim lands. The player...

Israeli Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu’s government is mulling a proposal for the post-war administration of Gaza that would put the battle to define moderate Islam in the 21st century on the front burner of Middle Eastern politics and allow the United Arab Emirates and Saudi Arabia to export their autocratic notion of ‘moderate’ Islam.

US presidential candidates Kamal Harris and Donald J. Trump are at each other’s throats, but there is one thing they agree on: The Gaza war must end. It’s the one kind of agreement Israeli Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu didn’t want to hear within 24 hours of his address to the US Congress that was choreographed to project unbridled support for the Gaza war.

On this edition of Parallax Views, James M. Dorsey, whose commentaries can be read at his Turbulent World w/ James M. Dorsey Substack, give one of his regular visits to discuss the latest in regard to the Middle East and Israel/Palestine. This time we examine Israeli Prime Minister's visit to Washington D.C. where he gave a speech to Congress that received multiple standing ovations despite the he...

Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Wednesday (Jul 24) addressed a United States Congress divided by the ongoing war in Gaza, as he attempted to drum up continued support for his country’s military campaign. James M. Dorsey, adjunct senior fellow at the S Rajaratnam School of International Studies, gives Radio his assessment of Netanyahu’s speech and policies

Gulf investment in European soccer threatens to become a hot potato.

Israeli Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu’s government is mulling a proposal for the post-war administration of Gaza that would put the battle to define moderate Islam in the 21st century on the front burner of Middle Eastern politics and allow the United Arab Emirates and Saudi Arabia to export their autocratic notion of ‘moderate’ Islam.

This year, Israeli Diaspora Affairs Minister Amichai Chikli hit the road. Not to shore up Diaspora Jewish support for Israel’s war on Gaza or reassure Jews concerned about rising anti-Semitism but to forge closer ties to the global far-right tainted by its anti-Semitic roots.

Israel’s self-declared safe zones trap the Jewish state in the contradictions of its nine-month-long failed campaign to destroy Hamas. It’s one and one is two that Hamas operatives seek cover in such zones.

An Israeli attack on the south of the Gaza Strip on Saturday killed dozens of people according to the health ministry in Gaza, while an Israeli official said the offensive targeted the head of Hamas' military wing Mohammad Daif according to the Israelis.

The coming days and weeks will clarify whether the Biden administration has succeeded in bridging the yawning gap that has dogged the ceasefire efforts for months or whether Mr. Netanyahu and Hamas are going through the motions to ensure that the other gets the blame if renewed talks fail. Subscribe to jamesmdorsey.substack.com for more updates. https://jamesmdorsey.substack.com

The past few decades—since 9/11 in particular—have seen the increasing prominence of ‘moderate Islam’ in the public sphere. But who gets to define what this term means? How are these different definitions projected to wider Muslim, and non-Muslim, audiences? And what are the political implications of these varied versions of ‘moderate Islam,’ whether locally or internationally?

Imagine Gaza if Israel were to agree today to a permanent ceasefire and a complete troop withdrawal from the Strip. One of two things would happen: Hamas would return to power and/or continued anarchy in the absence of a credible post-war administration of the territory.

A one-time revolutionary Egyptian force, the storied Egyptian soccer club Al Ahly FC is today the latest Emirati trophy in regional competition between Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates and a potential symbol of Egyptian crony capitalism.

There’s a silver lining for Egypt in the Gaza war. Egyptian general-turned-president Abdel Fattah Al-Sisi, much like his predecessors, would like the Israeli-Palestinian conflict to be a lightning rod that distracts from mounting frustration and anger at his regime. To be sure, Mr. Al-Sisi has to tread carefully.

For much of the last decade, discussion of soccer among ultra-conservative Muslims faded into the background while Islamic militants appeared to set their sights elsewhere. That could change with the current European football championship and next month’s Paris Olympics. For now, the Gaza war’s mobilizing effect will likely primarily manifest itself in pro-Palestinian protests rather than violent...

Israeli Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu’s refusal to end the Gaza war is about much more than avoiding a reckoning that could end his political life and potentially land him in prison.