Is Washington Responsible for What Israel Does With American Weapons? The IDF’s Conduct in Gaza Should Prompt Scrutiny of U.S. Arms Transfers

The Biden administration should be doing more to determine whether U.S.-origin weapons and intelligence are facilitating violations of international humanitarian law in Gaza, contends International Crisis Group’s Brian Finucane. Read the article on ForeignAffairs.com

Backgrounder: What Is Hamas?

Learn more about the origins and objectives of Hamas, an Islamist militant group and one of the Palestinian territories’ two major political parties. Read the Backgrounder

Tracker: Israeli-Palestinian Conflict

Keep up with alerts and recent developments on the conflict from CFR’s Global Conflict Tracker. Access the Tracker

Is Washington Responsible for What Israel Does With American Weapons? The IDF’s Conduct in Gaza Should Prompt Scrutiny of U.S. Arms Transfers

The Biden administration should be doing more to determine whether U.S.-origin weapons and intelligence are facilitating violations of international humanitarian law in Gaza, contends International Crisis Group’s Brian Finucane. Read the article on ForeignAffairs.com

Invading Gaza Is the Least Bad Option for Israel: All the Other Options Have Already Failed

If Hamas retains military capabilities, it presents an intolerable security threat—a ground invasion is Israel’s only defensible choice, argues the Wilson Center’s James F. Jeffrey. Read the article on ForeignAffairs.com

The President’s Inbox Recap: The Renewed Fighting in Gaza

CFR’s James M. Lindsay and Steven A. Cook discuss the end of the humanitarian pause in Gaza, the resumption of the fighting, and the future of the conflict. Read the blog post on CFR.org

Hamas’s Goal in Gaza: The Strategy That Led to the War—and What It Means for the Future

Arab Center for Research and Policy Studies’ Leila Seurat examines what Hamas’s October 7 attacks revealed about Gaza’s centrality in the Palestinian struggle—and about strategic shifts within Hamas itself. Read the article on ForeignAffairs.com

Gaza and the Future of Information Warfare: The Digital Front of the Israel-Hamas Conflict Is a Preview of Fights to Come

Minutes after Hamas militants attacked Israel on October 7, a second front in the war began online, transforming physical battles covering a few square miles into an information conflict that spanned the globe, write Arizona State University’s P. W. Singer and the Atlantic Council’s Emerson T. Brooking. Read the article on ForeignAffairs.com

How Hezbollah Sees the War in Gaza

CFR’s Ray Takeyh describes how Hezbollah largely echoes Iran’s pronouncements of support for Hamas and warns of its intervention should Israel persist with the invasion of the Gaza Strip. Read the In Brief on CFR.org

Israel’s Failed Bombing Campaign in Gaza: Collective Punishment Won’t Defeat Hamas

If Israel wants to succeed in destroying Hamas, it must give Palestinians a genuine alternative to simply supporting the group. This will require creating a pathway for a Palestinian state, argues University of Chicago’s Robert A. Pape. Read the article on ForeignAffairs.com

Why Arab States Must Lead on Gaza: How Regional Countries Can Pool Their Leverage to End the Israel-Hamas War

If Egypt, Jordan, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, and the United Arab Emirates can coordinate their approaches to the war in Gaza, they will have a better chance of stabilizing the region, writes SOAS University of London’s Lina Khatib. Read the article on ForeignAffairs.com

The War That Remade the Middle East: How Washington Can Stabilize a Transformed Region

Istituto Affari Internazionali’s Maria Fantappie and Johns Hopkins University’s Vali Nasr discuss Washington’s goals in the Middle East—and how Saudi Arabia can play a key role in reviving Israeli-Palestinian negotiations and forging a nuclear agreement with Iran. Read the January/February Foreign Affairs article

Why Israel Won’t Change: The War in Gaza Will Likely Reinforce the Country’s Rightward Tilt

Although Israelis blame the country’s leadership for the catastrophic security failures surrounding the October 7 attacks by Hamas, Israeli history has shown that episodes of war or extreme violence have only reinforced a rightward tilt in Israeli politics, writes Century International’s Dahlia Scheindlin. Read the article on ForeignAffairs.com 

The Israeli-Palestinian Conflict and the Psychology of Trauma: How Insights From Therapeutic Practice Can Help Build Peace

Boston University’s Jessica Stern and Bessel van der Kolk discuss the psychology of terrorism and trauma and argue that mourning, reciprocity, and reconciliation are necessary to break the intergenerational transmission of violence. Read the article on ForeignAffairs.com 

Podcasts and Events

Academic Webinar

“Public Opinion on Israel and Palestine,” with Shibley Telhami, November 29, 2023.

Why It Matters

“Understanding the U.S. Role in the Israel-Hamas War,” with Steven Cook and Gabrielle Sierra, November 22, 2023.

The Foreign Affairs Interview

“The Missing Israeli Endgame,” with Ami Ayalon and Daniel Kurtz-Phelan, November 20, 2023.