Attention to the Unseen

The Daily Beast reports: The Middle East is sitting on a powder keg and the longer the tensions continue to escalate the greater chance of the region spiraling to a point where Iran and the U.S. could be drawn into a full-blown war through their respective proxies. Iran entered the conflict directly for the first time Monday night, hitting Israeli and ISIS targets in Iraq and Syria. While U.S. and U.K. forces have carried out strikes on Houthi military targets…

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CNBC reports: Within 24 hours, Iran launched missile and drone strikes on targets in three countries — Iraq, Syria and Pakistan — and took the extraordinary step of announcing its responsibility for the attacks, triggering anger from its neighbors. The developments have heightened concerns over the possibility of a wider Middle East conflict, as the Israel-Hamas war and daily Israeli bombardment of the Gaza enclave passes the 100-day mark. Baghdad recalled its ambassador to Iran after the Monday night attack…

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Nataliya Gumenyuk writes: New Year’s Eve is an important holiday in Ukraine. At the end of December, I asked my sister how she would be celebrating this year. “In the bomb shelter,” she said, matter-of-factly. She planned to cook sandwiches, which would be easier to carry down to the safe room from the 10th floor if there was an air-raid siren. In 2023 there were more than 6,000 air alerts in Ukraine. Last month alone, Russia launched some 624 drones…

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The Guardian reports: Ukraine’s military has shot down two of Russia’s command planes, in one of the most disastrous days for the Kremlin’s air power since the start of Vladimir Putin’s full-scale invasion. Valerii Zaluzhnyi, Ukraine’s commander in chief, said his air force had destroyed an A-50 long-range radar detection aircraft and an Il-22 control centre plane. Both were flying above the Sea of Azov on Sunday when they were hit at 9.10pm local time. The A-50, which detects air…

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Shane Burley writes: “Let Gaza live! Let Gaza live!” The chant bounced off the century-old granite walls of New York City’s historic Grand Central Station on Oct. 27, as thousands poured onto the floor wearing black T-shirts reading “Jews Say Ceasefire Now.” This messaging has become familiar, as massive rallies around the country, including one of 5,000 people in Washington, D.C., and others in dozens more cities, have been organized by Jewish activists speaking primarily as Jews. These protests represent…

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The New York Times reports: The United States-led airstrikes on Thursday and Friday against sites in Yemen controlled by the Houthi militia damaged or destroyed about 90 percent of the targets struck, but the group retained about three-quarters of its ability to fire missiles and drones at ships transiting the Red Sea, two U.S. officials said on Saturday. The damage estimates are the first detailed assessments of the strikes by American and British attack planes and warships against nearly 30…

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Middle East Eye reports: After three months of Israel’s war on Gaza, and after months of widespread mass protests against the war and calls for US President Joe Biden to support a ceasefire, Washington ordered air strikes on Yemen, an escalatory move that could push the region into a wider war. The decision by Biden has exponentially increased the level of anger from lawmakers and progressives who have been working since October to push for a ceasefire in Gaza. But…

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HuffPost reports: Top White House official Brett McGurk is quietly floating a controversial plan to reconstruct Gaza after Israel’s assault concludes, HuffPost has learned, despite serious concerns from some officials inside the administration that it would sow the seeds for future instability in the region. In recent weeks, McGurk has been pitching national security officials on a plan suggesting an approximately 90-day timeline for what should happen once active fighting in Gaza ends, three U.S. officials said. It argues that…

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Elisabeth Kendall writes: On 14 November 2023, the military spokesman of Yemen’s Houthis, General Yahya Sarea, released a statement with an image of an Israeli ship on fire with a vow to ‘sink your ships’. Five days later, dramatic footage captured on the bodycams of Houthi hijackers and beamed around the world showed heavily armed insurgents clad in black balaclavas jumping out of a helicopter onto the deck of the Galaxy Leader, a cargo ship affiliated with an Israeli businessman,…

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  Elisabeth Kendall, Yemen and Middle East expert, Girton College, University of Cambridge, says: “Of course the reason behind the strikes by the United States and the UK is to try to disengage the Houthis from wreaking havoc in the Red Sea. So the whole point is to try to tamp down the conflict there, and to ease the burden of fear on the shipping industry and therefore the knock-on effects that that has on our economies. The problem now…

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