John Gee explores the motivations behind Israel's assault on Gaza. "What the world has witnessed in the latest Gaza war is in keeping with past Israeli military practice," he writes. "Harm to civilians is not a chance by-product of warfare against an armed enemy nor is it motivated mainly by a desire for vengeance. It follows a pattern of Israeli counter-insurgency practice."

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Ramzy Baroud assesses why so many in Israel and the West did not foresee the events of Oct. 7, 2023. "Israel’s attention was focused intently on the West Bank," he notes. "Israel believed that Hamas seemed disinterested in an all-out confrontation." Israel's overarching weakness is that "it tends to pay close attention to its internal political discourses and intelligence analyses while largely neglecting Palestinian discourses," he adds.

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During a recent event hosted by the Forum on the Arms Trade, experts assessed the legal barriers to halting the sale of weapons to Israel by the U.S. and the Netherlands. While both countries have laws preventing the transfer of weapons to states that violate human rights, courts have chosen to be deferential to the desires of government leaders, rather than the letter of the law.

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A recently released report by the Center for Security, Race and Rights at Rutgers Law School found that Islamophobia plays a substantial role in policymaking, identifying three ways that it shapes U.S. foreign policy: “1) restricting open debate about unconditional U.S. support for Israel, notwithstanding documented and systematic violations of international law by the Israeli government; 2) perpetuating racist tropes that Muslims and Arabs innately hate Jews; and 3) discrediting the Palestinian people from realizing their full civil, political, national and human rights."

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