The situation in the Middle East is at the brink of esca­la­tion. While observers are waiting for Iran and its proxies to start their announced attack on Israel, diplo­matic crisis inter­ven­tion is running at full speed in order to prevent a full-blown regional confla­gra­tion. In his interview with Till Schmidt, Ali Vaez analyzes the current situation.

In Gaza, the Israeli army is currently fighting Hamas, while at the same time the ongoing conflict with Hezbollah in the north is at the brink of esca­la­tion. Is there a two-fronts war ahead for Israel? Till Schmidt talks with political scientist Matthew Levitt.

Despite clear polls and massive protests, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is still in office. Richard C. Schneider on the exhaus­tion of the people in Israel, possible scenarios for the end of the governing coalition — and why Netanyahu is playing for time. 

Yossi Klein Halevi in an interview about the goals and motives of the far right in Israel’s govern­ment – and why the decision whether to exempt the ultra-Orthodox from military service could lead to the fall of the coalition.

Gershon Baskin is one of the leading voices on the Middle East peace process and one of the few Israelis with direct contact to Hamas. For almost two decades, he was in contact with Ghazi Hamad, one of organisation’s senior political leaders. In this interview, Baskin provides insights into Hamas’ ideology, its often presumed will­ing­ness to sign ceasefire agree­ments and into ways to combat the organization’s cult of death.

A conver­sa­tion between Kerstin Müller, former Minister of State at the Federal Foreign Office, and Iran specialist Kasra Aarabi about 7 October, Iran as a sponsor of terrorist orga­ni­za­tions in the Middle East, coop­er­a­tion with Russia and the special role of the Iranian Revo­lu­tionary Guards. The EU should classify them as a terrorist organization.

Arkady Mil-Man was Israeli ambas­sador to Russia and now heads the Russia program at think tank Institute for National Security Studies (INSS) in Tel Aviv. In an interview with Till Schmidt, Mil-Man explains the role Russia played in Hamas’s attack on Israel and the rela­tion­ship between the Russian and Iranian regimes.

Israel and Iran: Iranian-Israeli author Meir Javendafar in an interview with Till Schmidt about the mutual percep­tion of the two countries, the current situation of protests and Russia’s influence on the nuclear agreement.

The Tehran-Moscow axis seems threat­ening, but it was born out of necessity and does not change much for Israel and the Middle East. However, the Russia-Israel rela­tion­ship has already deteriorated...

In Israel, Chinese invest­ments are increas­ingly viewed crit­i­cally, partly because of China’s relations with Iran. On the other hand, China offers enormous economic oppor­tu­ni­ties, according to Galia Lavi of the...

The anti-liberal revolt ist not limited to the US and Europe. Tenden­cies towards an ‘illiberal democracy’ and ethnic nation­alism can be observed in Israel as well. The Israeli author Dahlia...