World | Middle East
- With eye on Gaza, Palestinian Authority tackles West Bank militantsPopular support for the Palestinian Authority in the West Bank has been in steady decline. Now, to burnish its credentials, the authority is taking on a militant stronghold in Jenin. The high-risk move is further dividing Palestinian society.
- In Israel’s democracy battle, an added front: Politicized policeHow central is an independent police force to democracy? In Israel, the politicization of the national police is seen as part of the hard-line government’s revived judicial overhaul.
- First LookLebanon army commander Joseph Aoun is sworn in as president, filling two-year voidFollowing 13 attempts to elect a president, Lebanon’s parliament has sworn in army commander Joseph Aoun as the head of state. Mr. Aoun is the preferred candidate of the United States and Saudi Arabia.
- ‘Cold is death.’ For Gazans in flimsy tents, a winter of sorrow and loss.For Palestinian families forced from their homes by 15 months of war, the temporary shelters they have constructed are no match for Gaza’s winter. Infants are especially vulnerable.
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- Israel has a Houthi missile problem. It’s stuck finding a solution.For more than a year, Yemen’s Houthi rebels have launched long-distance missile and drone attacks on Israel and Red Sea shipping. After Israel largely subdued its Iran-allied enemies closer at hand, it is struggling to deter the Houthis on its own.
- First LookIn Syria, small Jewish community can again visit synagogue built 720 years before ChristIn a Damascus suburb, remaining Jews can again visit one of the world’s oldest synagogues where people throughout the region once came to pray.
- Can Syria heal? For many, Step 1 is learning the difficult truth.As Syrians seek to recover from decades of a brutal dictatorship, they want to learn what happened to missing loved ones. For many, the first stop is a notorious prison.
- In Syria, what remains of Iran’s regional ‘Axis’ is rubble and resentmentFirst Hamas, then Hezbollah, now Syria. As key components of Iran’s anti-Israel/anti-U.S. “Axis of Resistance” are sidelined or incapacitated, what is left of Tehran’s regional strategy?
- Is Syrian upheaval the first step to a stabler Middle East?The end of the Assad dictatorship opens the way, perhaps, to a more peaceful and stable Middle East. Will regional leaders take that opportunity?
- With Iran on the decline, a new axis rises in Mideast. Syria is still key.For years Turkey and Qatar backed what had been written off as the losing side in Syria’s civil war. With the Assad regime’s fall, they are geopolitical winners. The Mideast axis of power is shifting, but it still runs through Syria.
- As a post-Assad Syria reopens, Syrians ask: Can we go home?As the barriers to movement into and inside Syria have come down, Syrians are racing to reunite with loved ones and visit their former homes, or what is left of them. It is an emotional time, and the destruction they are finding is often vast.
- Waves of joy flood Damascus. But an undercurrent of distrust lingers.The magnitude of the emotions sweeping Damascus cannot be overstated, as our correspondents are witnessing. Unbridled joy is replacing years of terror and unspeakable loss. But the task of restoring order, and faith in a peaceful future, is enormous.
- First LookIran is having rolling blackouts. Some electric companies blame bitcoin mining.Bitcoin mining could be behind rolling blackouts in Iran’s capital and nearby areas. Iranian media reports daily police raids of these illegal operations, which are often set up in apartments and use virtual private networks to evade authorities.
- Assad’s fall has rewards for Israel. It’s focused on the risks.Invoking its security, Israel moved quickly to seize border positions and smash Syrian military equipment after the fall of the Assad regime. But can it translate its strategic advantage into diplomatic achievements?
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