Tel Aviv will not be staging its annual Pride parade this weekend due to the coronavirus pandemic. The event, which was attended by 250,000 people last year, is the Middle East’s largest but organisers say they are hopeful that it may be able to take place later in the summer. Read more…
Lebanon is facing an unprecedented economic crisis, spurring protests and a threat to the country’s stability unlike any seen since the end of the country’s bloody civil war three decades ago. The crisis – which was ignited last October by planned tax rises and grew into a wider movement against Read more…
The release of the US Middle East plan last week was a nakedly political event. As his impeachment trial in the US Senate continued, Donald Trump attempted to bolster his support among pro-Israel evangelical Christians at home, while throwing an electoral lifeline to Benjamin Netanyahu. Indeed, the Israeli prime minister Read more…
LFI Focus provides a periodic analysis on Israel-Palestine, providing an in-depth view of the issues that affect the region. This edition focuses on the release of the US Middle East plan. You can read it here. To view other editions of LFI Focus, please click here.
Israel’s prime minister and opposition leader met with Donald Trump today as the US administration began to roll out its controversial Middle East peace plan. Benjamin Netanyahu and Benny Gantz had separate White House meetings with the president, with the US reportedly not planning to announce full details of its Read more…
General Qassem Soleimani, who was assassinated by the United States last week, has been described as the “single most powerful operative in the Middle East today”. His two-decade leadership of the Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corp’s Quds Force has seen the Islamic Republic’s influence and power in the region seemingly expand – but Read more…
Less than one in five Britons support boycotts of Israel and most view the Jewish state as the UK’s most important Middle Eastern ally in the fight against terrorism, according to polling released last week by BICOM. The annual poll also found an increase in the number of people who Read more…
Mass protests swept Iran over the weekend after the regime abruptly cut fuel subsidies and raised petrol prices. Protests occurred in 100 cities and towns, including Tehran, Shiraz, Tabriz, Kermanshah and Sanandaj. Amnesty International says over 100 people have been killed in clashes between demonstrators and baton-wielding security forces. Unofficial reports from Read more…
President Trump’s decision last week to abandon the Kurds and give the green light to Turkey’s invasion of north-eastern Syria has sent shockwaves through the Middle East, including in Israel. Even as the US now apparently scrambles to rein Turkey in, the impact of the president’s actions may be far-reaching. Read more…
The first part of Donald Trump’s much-delayed plan to secure “the ultimate deal” – peace between Israel and the Palestinians – was published on Saturday. The document, entitled Peace To Prosperity, outlines a $50bn investment plan ahead of an “economic workshop” in Bahrain this week. The Palestinian Authority, which is Read more…
LFI vice-chair Dame Louise Ellman MP has spoken about the forgotten plight of the Jewish refugees from the Middle East and north Africa, in a Parliamentary debate. In a debate in Westminster Hall, Dame Louise Ellman highlighted the tragic plight of the 850,000 Jews displaced from the Middle East in Read more…
Shortly before he was inaugurated as president in January 2017, Donald Trump said of Jared Kushner: “If you can’t produce peace in the Middle East, nobody can.” Pulling off the “deal of the century” – peace between Israel, the Palestinians and the Arab world – would have been a large task for Read more…