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Jonathan Spyer

Jonathan Spyer

The Spectator

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Trump has pointed out the hypocrisy of Gaza’s allies

Trump has pointed out the hypocrisy of Gaza’s allies
29.01.2025 7

The Spectator

Jonathan Spyer

Notebook / Syria feels close to a zone of anarchy

Notebook /					 													 						Syria feels close to a zone of anarchy
28.01.2025 10

The Spectator

Jonathan Spyer

Hamas has exploited Israel’s weaknesses

Hamas has exploited Israel’s weaknesses
19.01.2025 7

The Spectator

Jonathan Spyer

What al-Jolani’s past can reveal about Syria’s future

In late February 2012 I was travelling through Syria’s Idleb province. I stayed for a few days in a town called Binnish, not far from the...

13.12.2024 3

The Spectator

Jonathan Spyer

The death of a dynasty

The astonishing and abrupt fall of Bashar al-Assad’s regime in Damascus is a moment of historic importance for the Middle East, in which the...

08.12.2024 3

The Spectator

Jonathan Spyer

Success for Syria’s rebels is far from guaranteed

Syrian Sunni Islamist fighters are continuing to consolidate their gains in Syria’s Aleppo province. Almost the entirety of Aleppo city, sometimes...

02.12.2024 2

The Spectator

Jonathan Spyer

A ceasefire deal won’t finish off Hezbollah

Nothing is yet confirmed, but it appears that a ceasefire between Israel and Lebanese Hezbollah is imminent. The fighting, which began on 8 October...

26.11.2024 4

The Spectator

Jonathan Spyer

Israel won’t be distracted by ceasefire talks

Two senior US officials are in the Middle East this week, with the joint mission of negotiating an end to the current war between Israel and a...

23.10.2024 2

The Spectator

Jonathan Spyer

How Yahya Sinwar rose and fell

The killing of Hamas leader Yahya Sinwar is a key milestone for Israel in its ongoing, grinding effort to destroy the Palestinian Islamist movement...

18.10.2024 7

The Spectator

Jonathan Spyer

Where does Lebanon go from here

Israel’s overt ground intervention into Lebanon is now entering its third week.  So far, the Israel Defence Forces (IDF) have advanced just a few...

13.10.2024 20

The Spectator

Jonathan Spyer

Only escalation will deter Iran from future attacks

Iran’s decision to launch 181 ballistic missiles at Israel on Tuesday night followed a similar pattern to the attacks of 14 April. Israeli and...

02.10.2024 5

The Spectator

Jonathan Spyer

Why Hezbollah miscalculated – and Israel attacked

In the early hours of Tuesday morning, the IDF spokesman’s office issued a laconic statement, according to which Israeli forces have commenced...

01.10.2024 5

The Spectator

Jonathan Spyer

How will Iran response to Nasrallah’s assassination?

The assassination of Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah transcends the immediate confrontation between Israel and its Islamist enemies. Nasrallah...

28.09.2024 2

The Spectator

Jonathan Spyer

Can Israel pull of its attempt to cow Hezbollah?

Israel carried out its largest-scale operation against Hezbollah targets in Lebanon yesterday since the summer war of 2006. Wave after wave,...

24.09.2024 10

The Spectator

Jonathan Spyer

Pager bombs won’t stop Hezbollah

The killing of 12 people, including several Hezbollah members, and the wounding of thousands more when 5,000 pagers simultaneously exploded in...

18.09.2024 3

The Spectator

Jonathan Spyer

Israel is turning its sights on Hezbollah

As its Gaza campaign cools, Israel’s attention is returning northwards. Approximately 60,000 Israelis from northern communities are still refugees....

12.09.2024 2

The Spectator

Jonathan Spyer

Netanyahu faces an unenviable dilemma on Gaza

The murder of six Israeli hostages by Hamas in Gaza earlier this week led to an outpouring of grief and fury in Israel. For a considerable and...

04.09.2024 3

The Spectator

Jonathan Spyer

Iran and Hezbollah don’t want a war with Israel

Hezbollah’s response to the killing of senior official Fuad Shukr, when it finally came, was a more minor event than anticipated. For weeks, both...

26.08.2024 2

The Spectator

Jonathan Spyer

Netanyahu won’t hand Hamas an easy victory

The latest information seeping out from the negotiations for an end to the war in Gaza suggest that agreement between the sides remains out of...

19.08.2024 2

The Spectator

Jonathan Spyer

Israel awaits Iran’s response to Teheran and Beirut killings

Following the killings of Hezbollah’s Fuad Shukr and Hamas’s Ismail Haniyeh, Israel and the Middle East are poised and waiting for the next move....

03.08.2024 6

The Spectator

Jonathan Spyer

Can Israel hold back from all-out war with Hezbollah?

On 27 July, 12 children from the Druze community of the Golan Heights were slaughtered when an Iranian Falaq 1 missile hit a soccer field in the...

30.07.2024 1

The Spectator

Jonathan Spyer

‘Total victory’ / Here’s how Israel can win

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu was photographed on his flight to the US earlier this week next to a hat bearing the slogan ‘total...

24.07.2024 2

The Spectator

Jonathan Spyer