• The Rise of “Incels”

    What happens when lonely men, embittered by a sense of failure in the sexual marketplace, find each other and form communities on the internet? The result can be deadly. Psychologist examines genesis of online groups of sexually embittered men, roots in evolutionary behavior, why some turn violent.

  • Clear Relationship Between Antisemitism, Political Violence and Antidemocratic Conspiracy Theories

    A new national poll found that highly antisemitic Americans are three times more likely to support violence to achieve certain political goals compared to the general population. A new study establishes a clear relationship between antisemitism, political violence and antidemocratic conspiracy theories on both ends of the political spectrum.

  • How Does Israel's Last Invasion of Gaza Compare to Now?

    Analyzing the 2014 Gaza War, the last time Israel invaded the strip, could give a window into how the coming days and weeks will play out.

  • Israel's Strategic Crisis

    After the crisis caused by being caught by surprise on 7 October, Israel now faces a second crisis as its government struggles to find a strategy to meet its stated objective of pushing Hamas out of Gaza and rendering it incapable of further atrocities in the future.

  • Israel May Find Gaza Easy to Enter, but It Will Be Hard to Leave

    If there’s one lesson that should have been learned from the US experience in Iraq, Afghanistan and elsewhere; the Gulf states in Yemen; and Israel’s own two-decade-long occupation of south Lebanon, it’s that it is always easier to forcibly enter a country than it is to leave it.

  • Analysts Examine Israel’s Security Failures in Hamas Attack

    Analysts point to numerous security failures by Israel’s intelligence and military apparatus ahead of Hamas’ unprecedented attack on Israel.

  • Intelligence Failure or Not, the Israeli Military Was Unprepared to Respond to Hamas’ Surprise Attack

    Intelligence can only do so much. The other key piece of defense is understanding how your enemy thinks and operates. And there the Israelis also appeared to struggle.

  • Fringe-Left Groups Express Support for Hamas’s Invasion and Brutal Attacks in Israel

    Some fringe-left groups are aligning with anti-Zionist organizations in the wake of Hamas’s attack on Israel, by expressing support for Hamas’s atrocities in the name of “resistance” and “liberation.”

  • Antisemitism Surges Around World as Israel, Hamas Clash

    As the conflict between Israel and Hamas rages for another day, many Jews around the world face a familiar threat: a surge in antisemitism. From New York to London, St. Louis to Sydney, Jewish communities are grappling with hate and bigotry that often flare up whenever the Middle East erupts.

  • How Did Israeli Intelligence Miss Hamas’ Preparations to Attack? A U.S. Counterterrorism Expert Explains How Israeli Intelligence Works

    Hamas is on Israel’s doorstep. One would think Israel could better understand what is happening in Gaza and the West Bank, as opposed to 1,000 miles away in Iran. How did Israel not see something this advanced right next door? Some Israeli officials have said they believed Hamas was already deterred by recent Israeli counterterrorism operations, and that the group lacked the capability to launch an attack on the scope and scale of what occurred.

  • Israel’s War on Hamas: What to Know

    Israel will seek to eliminate the threat posed by the Palestinian militant group for good, but its campaign in Gaza could draw in other adversaries, including Hezbollah and al-Qaeda.

  • What Role Did Russia Play in Hamas's Attack on Israel?

    Russia’s ties to Hamas are well-documented, as are its ties to Hamas’s main backer, Iran. For some observers and commentators of the ongoing bloodshed in Israel, that in itself is cause for blaming Moscow, accusing it of having a direct hand in the spiraling violence. That’s not correct, said Hanna Notte, a Berlin-based expert on Russian policy in the Middle East.

  • Hamas Assault Echoes 1973 Arab-Israeli War – a Shock Attack and Questions of Political, Intelligence Culpability

    The parallels were striking – and surely not coincidental. Exactly 50 years and a day after being taken completely off guard by a coordinated military attack by its neighbors – Egypt and Syria – Israel was again caught by surprise. The invasion of southern Israel by Hamas militants on 7 October 2023 will probably be even more traumatic for Israelis than the 1973 war was because while in 1973 it was members of the military bearing the brunt of the surprise assault, this time it is Israeli civilians who have been captured and killed, and on sovereign Israeli territory. In this crucial respect, then, this war is unlike the one in 1973.

  • Hamas Attacks Israel

    While I am always wary of predicting the course of a war, we can be reasonably sure of one thing. The political backlash within Israel will be harsh and will go beyond inquiries into the intelligence failure. Not yet, for the country will come together as the fighting continues and partisan differences will be put aside. But once the dust settles. Not only has the coalition’s policies on judicial reform left Israeli society deeply divided, something of which Hamas will have been well aware, but also its active support of extremist groups stirring up trouble in the West Bank and Jerusalem meant that the Israeli Defense Forces (IDF) were diverted to protect them. This is one explanation for the empty guard posts and thin lines of defense on the border with Gaza, which affected the ability to respond to the attacks.

  • The Southern Border Poses Terrorism Risks. Homegrown Threats Still Loom Larger.

    The fears of terrorists entering the U.S. illegally can never be completely dismissed, but to date they have been mostly hypothetical, as there is scant evidence that illegal immigrants have committed acts of terrorism in the United States. For now, the most serious terrorist danger still comes from lone-actor racially or ethnically motivated violent extremists (RMVEs), radicalized online here inside the United States, attacking soft targets using firearms.