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Ariel Ben Solomon: Middle East Political Analysis and Commentary | JNS

Ariel Ben Solomon

Explore Ariel Ben Solomon’s analytical pieces on Middle East politics, Israel, and international relations at JNS.org.

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Ongoing protests, the death of Iranian Gen. Qassem Soleimani and crushing U.S.-led sanctions may be pushing Tehran to the tipping point, experts say, but the U.S. administration needs to keep up the pressure.
“Turkey sees that its old adversaries, Greece and Cyprus, and its new adversaries, Israel and Egypt, are forming a maritime axis that is blocking [it],” Soner Cagaptay, director of the Turkish Research Program at the Washington Institute for Near East Policy, told JNS.
Delivering aid to Lebanon now would signal that the Lebanese government can undermine U.S. interests and trample on rights of the Lebanese people with “total immunity,” says Lebanon expert Tony Badran.
The Central Asian country, former Soviet republic and Muslim-majority country has a history of strong connections with Israel and supports its local Jewish population.
The Joint Arab List announced that it will boycott the swearing-in ceremony for the new Knesset as part of a general strike among Israeli Arabs to protest what they say is the government’s failure to address rising levels of violence in their neighborhoods.
“I finished the two Torah scrolls myself at the place where 75 years ago, our martyrs were brutally shot into the water,” said Rabbi Shlomo Koves in Budapest.
With the economy contracting and Iranians feeling the squeeze, it’s no surprise that Iran has begun to lash at the United States—and now the United Kingdom and Europe.
While neither country appears to want a war, Tehran’s graduated nuclear escalation is inherently risky, introducing more variables into an already dangerous equation.