menu_open Columnists

Middle East Monitor

We use cookies to provide some features and experiences in QOSHE

More information  .  Close

Amnesty International blames the victim in a time of genocide

Amnesty International blames the victim in a time of genocide

The late Dr. Israel Shahak once related that during WWII when a collaborator at the Warsaw ghetto was eliminated, the jubilant inmates (himself...

latest 7

Middle East Monitor

Paul de Rooij

Lebanon’s Energy Diplomacy: Turning Vulnerability into Connectivity

Lebanon’s Energy Diplomacy: Turning Vulnerability into Connectivity

Lebanon’s electricity crisis is usually attributed to fuel shortages, financial collapse and institutional failure. All three explanations are...

latest 9

Middle East Monitor

Dr Kamran Yeganegi

Why Is El-Sisi’s regime considering the sale of the Suez Canal?!

Why Is El-Sisi’s regime considering the sale of the Suez Canal?!

A proposal to sell the Suez Canal, in north-eastern Egypt, has sparked widespread concern among Egyptians, who are already deeply suspicious of the...

latest 20

Middle East Monitor

Mahmoud Hassan

Gaza students shame the Irish authorities

Gaza students shame the Irish authorities

After a summer in which the dreams of dozens of the best and the brightest young people in Palestine seemed to be shattered by the Irish authorities,...

yesterday 50

Middle East Monitor

Ciaran Tierney

An awakening question: From Rousseau to Al-Husri

An awakening question: From Rousseau to Al-Husri

On a summer day in 1749, Jean-Jacques Rousseau was walking through the streets of Paris when he stumbled upon a question posted by the Academy of...

yesterday 50

Middle East Monitor

Karam Nama

Israel’s Game

Israel’s Game

A few days ago, a very interesting article appeared in the Israeli newspaper The Jerusalem Post. It was written by AJ Jaff, whose profile describes...

previous day 90

Middle East Monitor

Dr Hassaan Bokhari

Cyprus’s energy paradox: Gas beneath the sea, isolation on the grid

Cyprus’s energy paradox: Gas beneath the sea, isolation on the grid

Cyprus presents one of the Eastern Mediterranean’s most striking energy contradictions. It possesses commercially promising offshore gas fields, yet...

saturday 60

Middle East Monitor

Dr Kamran Yeganegi

Tehran’s Dangerous Illusion of Control

Tehran’s Dangerous Illusion of Control

When Iran launched salvoes of drones and missiles at American bases, the message was clear. Strikes hit facilities in Kuwait, Jordan, and the United...

saturday 70

Middle East Monitor

Dr Jannus Th Siahaan

Dreams about Gaza: Israel’s ethnic cleansing proposals

Dreams about Gaza: Israel’s ethnic cleansing proposals

Let’s be done with the pretence of decency and soggy references to just resolution in the face of extreme circumstances.  Be done with the...

saturday 70

Middle East Monitor

Dr Binoy Kampmark

The Syria Option: Rethinking Middle Eastern Oil Exports Beyond Hormuz

The Syria Option: Rethinking Middle Eastern Oil Exports Beyond Hormuz

President Donald Trump’s endorsement of Syria as a possible alternative to the Strait of Hormuz has pushed an old energy-security problem back to...

saturday 70

Middle East Monitor

Dr Umud Shokri

Burnham apologized. Britain’s arms licenses tell a different story

Burnham apologized. Britain’s arms licenses tell a different story

Andy Burnham said sorry. He didn’t stop the weapons. Britain’s new prime minister built his early image on contrition. In July, before he even...

04.09.2026 70

Middle East Monitor

Jasim Al-Azzawi

Is removing Netanyahu enough to change Israel?

Is removing Netanyahu enough to change Israel?

The question is not an attempt to predict the outcome of Israel’s upcoming election on October 27, nor is it a wager on whether Prime Minister...

04.09.2026 70

Middle East Monitor

Karam Nama

Solidarity spreads across Brazil after US terrorism designation of Rawa Alsagheer

Solidarity spreads across Brazil after US terrorism designation of Rawa Alsagheer

The United States’ decision to impose counterterrorism sanctions on Palestinian activist Rawa Alsagheer and the Masar Badil movement has triggered...

04.09.2026 70

Middle East Monitor

Eman Abusidu

The Mecca Pact: Threat to Iran or an Opportunity to Reshape Regional Security?

The Mecca Pact: Threat to Iran or an Opportunity to Reshape Regional Security?

The signing of the Mecca Joint Defence Agreement by Saudi Arabia, Türkiye, and Pakistan on 7 August 2026 has introduced a new element into an already...

04.09.2026 80

Middle East Monitor

Mohammad Amin Ahmadi

Palestinian Elections Confront an Intractable Reality

Palestinian Elections Confront an Intractable Reality

Palestinians in Jerusalem, the West Bank and the Gaza Strip are preparing for legislative elections on 28 November, nearly two decades after the last...

03.09.2026 70

Middle East Monitor

Dr Sania Faisal El-Husseini

Sovereignty without consent: Afghanistan’s Taliban and the limits of control

Sovereignty without consent: Afghanistan’s Taliban and the limits of control

Five years after storming back to power, Afghanistan’s Taliban government wants the world to see a settled fact: a state that has outlasted...

03.09.2026 70

Middle East Monitor

Mansoor Qaisar

Israel’s plan for forced transfer with international complicity remains on the table

Israel’s plan for forced transfer with international complicity remains on the table

As Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu reiterated that the military would not withdraw from the territory it occupied in Gaza, Defence Minister...

03.09.2026 60

Middle East Monitor

Ramona Wadi

Slander and impunity: The World Central Kitchen killings in Gaza

Slander and impunity: The World Central Kitchen killings in Gaza

In September 2025, nine countries launched the Declaration for the Protection of Humanitarian Personnel.  Australia explained its important if dark...

03.09.2026 60

Middle East Monitor

Dr Binoy Kampmark

When the left speaks the language of Empire against Iran

When the left speaks the language of Empire against Iran

Amid a war of aggression waged by the United States and ‘Israel’ against Iran, a group of intellectuals identified with the left published in the...

03.09.2026 60

Middle East Monitor

Sayid Marcos Tenorio

The China paradox: A giant built on cracked foundations

The China paradox: A giant built on cracked foundations

For three decades, the West told itself a comforting story about China. Admit it into the global trading system, the theory went, and market forces...

03.09.2026 70

Middle East Monitor

Jasim Al-Azzawi

A homeland on canvas: Sliman Mansour and the rise of revolutionary Palestinian art

A homeland on canvas: Sliman Mansour and the rise of revolutionary Palestinian art

The death of Palestinian artist Sliman Anis Mansour stirred powerful memories. He passed away at Al-Makassed Hospital in occupied East Jerusalem on...

03.09.2026 70

Middle East Monitor

Dr Ramzy Baroud

Oslo at 33: Anatomy of an ongoing Palestinian disaster

Oslo at 33: Anatomy of an ongoing Palestinian disaster

According to the popular narrative surrounding the 1993 Oslo Accords between Israel and the Palestine Liberation Organisation (PLO), some of sort of...

03.09.2026 70

Middle East Monitor

Dr Mustafa Fetouri

Can Syria turn foreign power into national power?

Can Syria turn foreign power into national power?

For most countries, electricity is an economic input. For Syria, it is something more fundamental: a test of whether the state can again provide basic...

02.09.2026 60

Middle East Monitor

Dr Kamran Yeganegi

No equal talks under siege: The contradiction at the heart of US policy on Iran

No equal talks under siege: The contradiction at the heart of US policy on Iran

The latest direct exchange of attacks between the United States and Iran has returned the region to an old and dangerous rhythm: Washington fires,...

02.09.2026 70

Middle East Monitor

Jenny Williams

Washington reclaims Latin America through energy as Israel returns to Caracas

Washington reclaims Latin America through energy as Israel returns to Caracas

Venezuela’s oil is becoming more than an energy asset; it is emerging as an instrument in a wider contest for influence across Latin America. The...

02.09.2026 70

Middle East Monitor

Eman Abusidu

Natural gas, corridors, and security: Why Turkey wants Egypt in the Mecca Pact

Natural gas, corridors, and security: Why Turkey wants Egypt in the Mecca Pact

The Eastern Mediterranean’s importance is often measured by its gas discoveries, but reserves acquire strategic value only when they can reach...

02.09.2026 70

Middle East Monitor

Dr Umud Shokri

India remembers it has a spine

India remembers it has a spine

Nations do not usually recover their dignity with trumpets. More often, they rediscover it after humiliation has become so routine that even the...

02.09.2026 70

Middle East Monitor

Junaid S. Ahmad

Irrational fear: From Gaza’s paper kites to “unsafe” on campuses

Irrational fear: From Gaza’s paper kites to “unsafe” on campuses

I recall my childhood growing up in the Palestinian refugee camp of Nahr el Bared, in Lebanon. We were creative in devising seasonal games that...

02.09.2026 70

Middle East Monitor

Jamal Kanj

The Palestinian Legislative Council elections: an opportunity or a trap?

The Palestinian Legislative Council elections: an opportunity or a trap?

The Palestinian Legislative Council elections have reignited the long-standing debate over the merits of participation versus boycott. The...

01.09.2026 30

Middle East Monitor

Alain Alameddine

Trump’s Tug-of-War with Iran: A Forever Game of Perpetual Attrition

Trump’s Tug-of-War with Iran: A Forever Game of Perpetual Attrition

On the international political stage, war does not always manifest as a decisive confrontation that births a triumphant victor and leaves a shattered...

01.09.2026 70

Middle East Monitor

Karam Nama

Washington has two failed peace deals and both failed the same way

Washington has two failed peace deals and both failed the same way

The sixty-day window that Washington and Tehran gave themselves to end their war expired on August 17 without an agreement, leaving the two sides...

31.08.2026 70

Middle East Monitor

Nouroz Khan Bijarani

The EU’s complicity with Israel renders support for UNRWA negligible

The EU’s complicity with Israel renders support for UNRWA negligible

The EU, as well as individual European countries, have criticised Israel’s forced entry at the Qalandia Vocational Training Centre and the seizure...

31.08.2026 60

Middle East Monitor

Ramona Wadi

Culinary larceny: Why the true history of Palestine belongs to the soil, not the Israeli kitchen

Culinary larceny: Why the true history of Palestine belongs to the soil, not the Israeli kitchen

If you want to spark an absolute inferno of geopolitical passion over Palestine, you do not need to see the odious Benjamin Netanyahu swagger into the...

30.08.2026 90

Middle East Monitor

Dr Yvonne Ridley

Egypt’s apparatus of enforced disappearance must be halted – Silence by BRICS and AU not an option

Egypt’s apparatus of enforced disappearance must be halted – Silence by BRICS and AU not an option

In Egypt today, a knock at the door can erase a life. For thousands of citizens, the state does not simply arrest them; it deletes them from...

30.08.2026 60

Middle East Monitor

Iqbal Jassat

The war on Iran has failed to reorder West Asia

The war on Iran has failed to reorder West Asia

Six months after the United States and ‘Israel’ launched their war against Iran on 28 February, the conflict can be assessed not only by the...

29.08.2026 70

Middle East Monitor

Sayid Marcos Tenorio

Macaronis Resort in Indonesia’s Mentawai Islands: The Israeli link and the ownership questions that remain unanswered

Macaronis Resort in Indonesia’s Mentawai Islands: The Israeli link and the ownership questions that remain unanswered

Macaronis Resort sits on a small island in the Mentawai Islands, off Sumatra, Indonesia, famous among surfers for its powerful wave. In late August...

29.08.2026 100

Middle East Monitor

Dr. Muhammad Zulfikar Rakhmat

Pakistan, cricket, and the lunch break comedy of a nervous regime

Pakistan, cricket, and the lunch break comedy of a nervous regime

Some governments fear elections. Others fear protests, judges, journalists or students. Pakistan’s rulers have reached a more exquisite stage of...

29.08.2026 80

Middle East Monitor

Junaid S. Ahmad

‘We hate the term resilient’: Surviving puberty during a genocide

‘We hate the term resilient’: Surviving puberty during a genocide

Tens of thousands of girls in Gaza have experienced puberty since October 2023. At an already sensitive time, these girls have been left with no...

28.08.2026 50

Middle East Monitor

Midnight Adams

Operation Economic Outcast: Washington swaps missiles for money, but the math still doesn’t add up

Operation Economic Outcast: Washington swaps missiles for money, but the math still doesn’t add up

Washington has changed weapons. It has not changed its problem. On 24 August, Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent stood before reporters and announced...

28.08.2026 60

Middle East Monitor

Jasim Al-Azzawi

Can the economic blockade on Iran succeed this time?

Can the economic blockade on Iran succeed this time?

On 24 August, the Trump administration launched an operation called “Economic Outcast”, describing it as the largest economic offensive ever...

28.08.2026 100

Middle East Monitor

Dr Sania Faisal El-Husseini

Jakarta watches, waits, and weighs its options on the Mecca Pact

When Saudi Arabia, Turkey and Pakistan signed the Mecca Joint Defence Agreement on 7th August, declaring that an attack on one signatory would be...

27.08.2026 80

Middle East Monitor

Dr. Muhammad Zulfikar Rakhmat

International condemnation of settlements does not target Israel’s colonial plan

The discrepancy between Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s statements and those of the EU shows where the political deficiency lies....

27.08.2026 90

Middle East Monitor

Ramona Wadi

When the Money Stops: Hezbollah and the Economics of Disarmament

The Washington framework agreement conditions Israeli withdrawal from southern Lebanon on the verified disarmament of Hezbollah. The pilot zones were...

27.08.2026 80

Middle East Monitor

Ali Salman

Bombing Iran toward the bomb

The most grotesque possibility in the war to prevent an Iranian bomb is that the war itself may manufacture the bomb. Washington has spent years...

27.08.2026 80

Middle East Monitor

Junaid S. Ahmad

Purgatorial Ethics: Sudan, the UAE and Australia’s Arms Trade

Reprehensible as it is, the arms trade is an exercise of purgatorial ethics pursued by all states keen on having a market for the merchants of death:...

27.08.2026 70

Middle East Monitor

Dr Binoy Kampmark

Qusra is Just a Warning: Israel’s Blueprint for the West Bank

If you want to understand the bleak future awaiting the occupied West Bank, do not look away. Just pay attention to the events unfolding in the small...

27.08.2026 80

Middle East Monitor

Dr Ramzy Baroud

Gaza’s famine one year on: Did the world learn anything?

On 22nd August last year, the UN-backed Integrated Food Security Phase Classification (IPC) officially confirmed famine in Gaza Governorate, including...

27.08.2026 90

Middle East Monitor

Dr Mustafa Fetouri

Syrian Kurds offer the region a lesson in nationhood

When I look back at my university years—sharing a dorm room with a Kurdish colleague—I am reminded of a country that once understood unity not as...

26.08.2026 80

Middle East Monitor

Karam Nama

Schadenfreude: From hidden gas chambers to Israel’s viewing gallows

What’s the difference between Auschwitz-Birkenau complex and the Israeli Zionist gallows? Auschwitz-Birkenau did not come with a special “viewing...

26.08.2026 100

Middle East Monitor

Jamal Kanj

When a kite becomes a threat: What Gaza’s children reveal about the politics of fear

There is something profoundly unsettling about a military power becoming alarmed by children flying kites: In Gaza, where childhood has already been...

25.08.2026 80

Middle East Monitor

Dr Oroub El-Abed