Seth Frantzman is the author of Drone Wars: Pioneers, Killing Machine, Artificial Intelligence and the Battle for the Future (Bombardier 2021) and an adjunct fellow at The Foundation for Defense of Democracies.
An Israeli startup called Vocalis Health is working with the country’s National Emergency Team to conduct a trial using voice samples to identify coronavirus. It is one of many innovative approaches being trialled in Israel as the country is radically transformed by the battle against the virus. The Israeli Ministry of Defence’s Directorate of Defense Research
Hooded and masked police officers tackle a man suspected of breaking coronavirus restrictions. This was the scene in Tel Aviv earlier this week, as Israeli authorities ramp up their hard-line approach to dealing with the virus. But can such measures work? Or has Israel’s approach gone too far? Israel’s prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu has certainly been clear
The targeted assassination of Qasem Soleimani is a game changer for Israel in its simmering conflict with Tehran. This drone strike could mean an Iranian attack on Israel in response. But whether Iran seeks to attack or not, it means that the country’s remaining allies in the region – such as Hezbollah’s leader Hassan Nasrallah
Donald Trump’s decision to pull troops out of Syria is one of the most shortsighted foreign policy miscalculations in recent memory. The president’s actions leaves the West’s Kurdish allies at the mercy of Turkey. And Trump’s bizarre attempt at justification – claiming that he abandoned the Kurds because they didn’t help the United States in the Second
Benjamin Netanyahu is only the second prime minister in Israel’s history to win three elections in a row, but could ‘Bibi’s’ time finally be up? When Israel’s PM called a snap election – due to take place in April – initial polls suggested that his Likud party would win twice as many seats as any other party. His
Donald Trump has promised Syria’s bloody regime that it will pay a ‘big price’ for the chemical weapons attack in eastern Ghouta, which left dozens dead. And many agree Bashar al-Assad should face the consequences of his appalling actions. But the United States – and the West – would do well to stop and ask themselves a
Not for the first time, Kurds in Iraq and Syria are facing an uncertain future. In Syria, an estimated 150,000 people were displaced by fighting in the mostly Kurdish region of Afrin in the space of a few days this month. When the Turkish army, backed by Syrian rebel allies, rolled into the city of Afrin,
Turkey and Russia back different sides in the Syrian conflict, but they do agree on one thing: the role of the United States in Syria has grown too large. This view accounts for the recent Turkish incursion against US-backed Kurdish militias in Afrin, in northern Syria. As well as taking military action, Turkey’s politicians are
Donald Trump is the most famous advocate of Twitter diplomacy but he is not the only high-profile politician to delight in using the site to wind up his enemies. In the Middle East, old opponents are also taking a leaf out of the Trump playbook. The latest spat is between the United Arab Emirates and Turkey,
Christmas in Jerusalem, Bethlehem and Nazareth has, once again, been overshadowed by politics. The latest controversy surrounds Donald Trump’s decision to recognise Jerusalem as the capital of Israel. The mayors of Bethlehem and Nazareth responded to Trump by toning down Christmas celebrations in a show of solidarity. Outside Bethlehem’s Church of the Nativity, the lights on
The last Isis-held town in Iraq, Rawa, has fallen; across the border in Syria, the Russians declared a ‘total rout of the terrorists’. But this tough fight, which has taken three-and-half years, could all be in vain: the coalition which has driven Isis out now faces the gloomy prospect of winning the war and losing the peace.
The headlines announcing the opening of the dome-shaped Louvre Abu Dhabi are a cornucopia of superlatives. ‘Spectacular palace of culture shimmers in the desert’ and ‘a cultural cornerstone where East meets West’ were two of the most laudatory. ‘East meets West’ is the frequently used cliché. However the new museum, which cost around $1 billion
The Machko teahouse in the centre of Erbil, the capital of the Kurdistan region of Iraq, has seen much of the area’s history. Founded in 1940, it survived Saddam Hussein’s oppression and years of privation. On September 25th, it was packed with patrons gathering to watch the latest chapter in the Kurdish region’s long history unfold. Since June, when Kurdistan Regional
After six years of fierce fighting and with hundreds of thousands dead, the Syrian civil war finally appears to be settling down. The country is now divided into various pockets of influence, with Turkish-backed rebels in the north, US-backed Kurdish forces and their allies in the east and the Syrian regime and its Iranian-backed militias in the centre
Towns on Ukraine’s ceasefire line are marking three years since some were retaken by government forces from pro-Russian separatists. But there is little cause for celebration: houses in Marinka, Krasnogorovka and Avdiivka bear the scars of war. Some of these scars are recent, including a large house with nine apartments that was destroyed in shelling in late July. The
Next month, Iraq’s Kurds head to the polls in an eagerly-awaited independence referendum. Ahead of the vote, on September 25th, the country’s Kurdistan Regional Government is searching for inspiration from abroad. Brexit, unsurprisingly, is an obvious pick; many Kurds are hoping that Kurdexit could – as with Britain’s shock departure from the EU – finally
Since June 2014, when Islamic State attacked northern Iraq, the desks at Mar Ephrem seminary in Hamdaniya, a city 18 miles southeast of Mosul, have stood empty. Today, they are dusty and rooms once teeming with priests and nuns in training are dark; student ID cards, with titles such as ‘Syrian Catholic: Parish of Bashiqa, Iraq’, litter the floor and a
The Afghans on the road in Serbia were wet from the rain. They were trying to hitch a ride into the border town of Presevo to make the way north to Hungary. Later I saw them sitting next to a train station drying their socks. Did they fear for the future? ‘This is nothing, we
As the sun set over the frontline in northern Iraq on the first day of the long anticipated Mosul offensive, Kurdish peshmerga and Iraqi army soldiers began to celebrate the first victories over Islamic State. Almost a dozen villages had been taken yesterday, and more than 77 square miles liberated southeast of the Isis stronghold. The offensive
At night, the temperature around the Islamic State-held city of Mosul drops to around 80°F. At the Bashiqa front line, 15 miles northeast of the city, it would feel pleasant and almost calm, were it not for the steady sound of exploding shells. Most of life is tea and cigarettes. It’s like a quiet day
