Analyses
Middle East
The Ceasefire is Just a Band-Aid on a Mortal Wound
Claudia De Martino 24 January 2025
On January 19, just before President Trump’s inauguration, a ceasefire between Israel and Hamas came into effect. While the agreement will not end the 15-month war on Gaza, it marks a significant breakthrough on one of the war’s key objectives outlined by the Israeli government: the release of the remaining hostages. This objective is also the one that enjoys the strongest public support with 57.5 percent of Israelis in favor. After months of negotiations in Qatar, the deal aims to secure the return of all hostages in three stages.
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    Lebanon’s Solidarity Beyond Politics
    Nicole Hamouche 15 January 2025
    Despite political polarization, the shared experience of closeness in adversity has solidified the foundations of vivre ensemble, a defining aspect of the Lebanese identity, “because Lebanon is the witness of history, because religions are complementary, and because the people are one,” and “our identity, despite our diversity, is Lebanese,” as stated by the newly elected President, Joseph Aoun, in his inaugural speech.
  • Joseph Aoun Takes the Helm in Lebanon: The End of the “Iranian Era”
    Riccardo Cristiano 14 January 2025
    General Joseph Aoun, until now the commander-in-chief of the army, is the new president of Lebanon. This marks the end of a dramatic, thirty-year chapter in the troubled history of this small yet crucial country. After 26 months of a presidential vacuum, his election officially brings to an end the so-called “Iranian” era, during which Hezbollah, the Party of God, not only achieved military success but also made Lebanon the Mediterranean terminal for exporting the Khomeinist revolution.
  • Reconstruction and Distrust: Stories Amid Lebanon’s Ceasefire
    Nicole Hamouche 23 December 2024
    After an initial sense of relief, reactions to the ceasefire among the population vary depending on one’s personal history, background, and level of awareness. If, for a population exhausted by years of repeated violence since the end of the so-called civil war—what stateman and journalist Ghassan Tueni called “the war of others”—the news of a ceasefire was significant, a page of such brutality cannot be turned in just a few days or weeks. Besides the moral damages, the bill of this war includes 4,047 killed and 16,593 injured in Lebanon since October 2023, with over 3,000 deaths in the last two months alone. Around 1.5 million people have been displaced, and destruction is concentrated in the South and in the southern suburbs of Beirut, Hezbollah’s headquarters. This comes on top of the unprecedented financial and economic crisis that has gripped the country for years, compounding the suffering.
  • Mona Harb on Lebanon’s Fragile Ceasefire and the Road to a New President
    Alessandra Tommasi 17 December 2024
    On November 28, 2024, a ceasefire between Israel and Lebanon began, announced by US President Joe Biden as “designed to be permanent.” However, strikes continue to devastate southern Lebanon. Just days ago, Tel Aviv declared a partial troop withdrawal but refrained from a full pullback as part of the truce. Amid this fragile peace, set against Lebanon’s severe economic and political crises, we reached out to Mona Harb, Professor of Urban Studies and Politics at the American University of Beirut.
  • The Gaza Massacres: A Suicide for Israel?
    Alessandra Tommasi 22 November 2024
    “The siege. The hunger. Innocent children, the first victims of war. […] Why does God allow harm to be done to children? […] It pairs with another insoluble question: how could God allow the Holocaust? Children were the first to be sent to the gas chambers. The only thing that should be clear to everyone is that a Palestinian child is worth exactly the same as a Jewish child.” From the biblical massacres of the innocent to the war in Gaza. This is how Macellerie – Guerre atroci e paci ambigue (“Slaughterhouses – Atrocious wars and ambiguous peace,” by Siegmund Ginzberg begins, a book that profiles a violent humanity through conflicts and atrocities in history, from the Warring States period in China to today’s wars. Ginzberg, a journalist and essayist born in Turkey to a Jewish family, is not alone in taking a stand in recent weeks. Historian Anna Foa, “a Jew of the diaspora,” explores the “same pain for both sides”—the victims of October 7, the Israeli hostages, and the civilians killed in Gaza—in her book, Il Suicidio di Israele.
  • October 7, One Year on: Shia-Sunni Divisions Eclipse Arab Aversion to Israel
    Giancarlo Bosetti , Alessandra Tommasi 4 October 2024
    One year after the Hamas massacre on October 7th, the war has expanded into a regional conflict, involving Lebanon and later Iran. In Gaza, the death toll has reached nearly 42,000. Most of Hamas’ leadership – except for Yahya Sinwar – has been killed, as well as Hasan Nasrallah and much of Hezbollah’s leadership. Meanwhile, 97 Israeli hostages remain in Hamas’ hands, and violence in the West Bank has become increasingly frequent, with many analysts warning of a potential “Gaza-fication” of the area. Reset DOC reached Prof. Olivier Roy, Professor of Political Science at the European University Institute (Florence).
  • After Nasrallah: Why Hezbollah’s Grip Threatens Lebanon’s Future
    Riccardo Cristiano 2 October 2024
    According to the BBC, the missile attack on Hezbollah’s general command bunker is said to have caused 492 casualties, in addition to the wounded. The Israeli army has announced the killing, among others, of Hezbollah’s leader, Hassan Nasrallah, and nearly the entire senior leadership of the party. The number of Lebanese casualties, especially in southern Lebanon and the Shiite neighborhoods of Beirut, remains unknown, as no one can yet account for those trapped beneath the rubble. Israeli forces have gained control of strategic positions near the border, while hand-to-hand combat between Hezbollah militants and Israeli soldiers has already claimed eight Israeli lives. Despite these developments, few believe Hezbollah will disappear
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