Qifa Nabki
Israel
Fearful Symmetry
Below is a translated excerpt from the most recent speech by Hezbollah Secretary-General Sayyid Hassan Nasrallah. His discussion of the timing and planning of Hezbollah’s retaliation for Israel’s attack in Quneitra a couple weeks ago was absorbed, characteristically, with the question of symbolism. Nasrallah’s postmortem glosses on his party’s operations often assume this pose of the charismatic schoolmaster, drawing the attention of … Continue reading
A Puzzling Escalation in the Golan
The Syrian vortex has made strange bedfellows over the past year. The rise of the Islamic State had the effect of briefly putting everyone else on the same team, a federation of American fighter pilots, Hizbullah commandos, Syrian Army rank-and-file, and Iranian military strategists. Israel contributed the odd play, but mostly communicated its support for Team World in the language … Continue reading
An Interview with Omar Khouri
I recently caught up with a friend of mine, Omar Khouri, with whom I spent a few summers as a kid in Lebanon (along with other luminaries like Omar Naim and Fadi Baki). Khouri’s star is rising in the art world; his paintings have been exhibited in New York and Beirut, and some of his recent stuff is available for … Continue reading
Hamas and the Peace Process
On May 13, 2008, Yuval Diskin, the director of the Israeli Internal Security Service, Shin Bet, met with U.S. Ambassador Richard Jones to discuss the prospect of a “cooling down” period with Hamas. The conversation was recorded in a government cable released by Wikileaks, and sheds some light on the military strategy that Israel has pursued … Continue reading
Humanitarian Relief in Gaza
A couple of weeks have elapsed since Gaza was “drawn into the center of Mideast strife” and the chorus of outrage has grown louder, with several Nobel peace laureates calling for a military embargo against Israel and a US Secretary-of-State famous for his “who-moi” moments giving an impromptu shot across the bow from a hot mic. Will it matter? Does … Continue reading
Qifa Nabki 
And the people say…