Analyses
Middle East
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Renzo Guolo 6 August 2025Driven by the messianic far right that has him in its grip, and by his personal need to prolong the war to win the next elections, Benjamin Netanyahu crosses his Rubicon and announces his intention to reoccupy Gaza permanently. The die is cast, he lets it be known, making public Donald Trump’s support for the announced reoccupation of the Strip. - Riccardo Cristiano 1 August 2025The upheavals concerning the area we call the Holy Land, where Jesus preached and which today spans Israel and the Palestinian Territories, inevitably involve the Christians living there. To grasp their significance, it’s useful to start with a Franciscan who was a passionate scholar of Judaism, later becoming Custos of the Holy Land and then Latin Patriarch of Jerusalem—the first patriarch to become a cardinal, Pierbattista Pizzaballa. How can we define him? Using the term he chose when elected in 2020: the “patriarch of remaining.”
- Claudia De Martino 16 July 2025Many media outlets highlight how Israel is increasingly isolated in the West regarding Gaza. According to a Pew Research Center survey, the number of pro-Western states—above all Australia, Indonesia, Japan, and Turkey, and in Europe, Spain, Sweden, Greece, Ireland, and the Netherlands—that hold a negative perception of Israel is growing. The Israeli government and army continue to present the current military intervention—Operation “Gideon’s Chariots,” launched last May—as a necessary response to the “existential threat” posed by Hamas, while a growing part of the international community can no longer perceive any danger in the starving masses of Palestinians wandering around food distribution centers in constant danger of being killed.
- Riccardo Cristiano 11 July 2025United by geography and a long history that, since the end of the Ottoman Empire and especially during the long rule of the Assads, has taken on the characteristics of colonialism and occupation in the name of a “Greater Syria,” Lebanese and Syrians today share the same hope: that tomorrow will be different from today, putting an end to conflicts and reducing them to “wars of the past.” Reality demands this. In 2018, Lebanon’s GDP exceeded 55 billion dollars; today, it barely reaches 20 billion. One hundred thousand Lebanese pounds, which were worth 65 dollars at that time, are now worth just one. In Syria, in 2011, when the brutal repression of anti-government protests began, GDP reached 45 billion dollars; today it is only 9 billion.
- Pegah Zohouri 4 July 2025Two weeks after the ceasefire that halted the twelve-day war between Israel and Iran, regional tensions remain high, and domestic reverberations within Iran continue to unfold. While the conflict briefly united a politically fragmented society, it also exposed deep structural fissures. Most Iranians rejected foreign intervention, reaffirming a longstanding scepticism rooted in historical memory and national experience. Although critical of the current system, most of them seemed to agree that meaningful and sustainable transformation could only emerge from within.
- Alessandra Tommasi 12 June 2025“I’m proud to be called a normalizer by the Muslim Brotherhood’s affiliates.” That’s how Dubai-based blogger Loay Alshareef responds to attacks from across the Arab world, where the majority still oppose full recognition of the State of Israel. A practicing Muslim of Saudi origin, Alshareef doesn’t shy away from controversy: he openly defines himself as a “Zionist” and sees the Abraham Accords not as a betrayal of the Palestinian cause, but as a path to peace. On June 11, 2025, the activist and influencer took part in a roundtable discussion in Bologna, Italy, focused on combating antisemitism – an occasion on which Reset DOC spoke with him to share his views on the ongoing war in Gaza.
- Hussein Ibish 12 May 2025From May 13-16, President Donald J. Trump will repeat the opening gesture of his first administration by making the initial major diplomatic travel of his second term to Saudi Arabia (excluding his unanticipated visit to Rome for the funeral of the late Pope Francis) but this time also including the United Arab Emirates and Qatar. This trip comes at a highly significant moment in U.S.-Gulf Arab relations, and all parties will have specific agendas and deliverables at stake. Overall, Trump’s trip reinforces the centrality of these partnerships for all sides and signals that he continues to view Gulf Arab countries as important partners, not just for the United States but for his personal and political goals.
- Hussein Ibish 14 March 2025The administration of US President Donald Trump has left everyone who cares about free speech in the country little choice but to defend and champion Mahmoud Khalil, as he faces the most insidious attack on freedom of conscience in America in at least 60 years.
- Mariano Giustino 12 March 2025The fact that one of the longest conflicts in contemporary history, which has resulted in over 40,000 deaths, could soon come to an end is undoubtedly an event worth celebrating. Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) leader Abdullah Ocalan has ordered the armed wing of the party he founded in 1978 to end the armed struggle and dissolve the organization. Is this the end of an era? It’s still too early to say.
