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Matt Spetalnick
Displaced Palestinians arrive in the northern Gaza Strip on Wednesday.
WORLD / Politics
Dec 5, 2024
Trump's Mideast envoy in push to reach Gaza ceasefire before inauguration
Steve Witkoff met the prime ministers of Israel and Qatar separately in late November.
Tulsi Gabbard's nomination has raised alarm among the ranks of intelligence officers.
WORLD / Politics / ANALYSIS
Nov 15, 2024
Trump's choice of Gabbard as U.S. intelligence chief vexes spy world
Donald Trump’s nomination of Tulsi Gabbard is among several high-level picks that suggest he may be prioritizing personal allegiance over competence.
A congratulatory billboard for U.S. President-elect Donald Trump in Jerusalem on Thursday.
WORLD / Politics / ANALYSIS
Nov 8, 2024
Biden plans final Mideast peace push but will leaders ignore him?
Officials in the region will likely be reluctant to take big steps, preferring instead to wait for Trump's inauguration in January.
U.S. President Joe Biden meets with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu at the White House in Washington on July 25.
WORLD / Politics / ANALYSIS
Oct 18, 2024
After Sinwar death, Biden faces big obstacles to Gaza peace
U.S. President Joe Biden's hope for a cease-fire in Gaza is far from certain as he faces a cascade of interlocking Middle East crises.
Children at the site of an Israeli strike on a tent camp sheltering displaced people in Khan Younis, in the southern Gaza Strip, on Tuesday.
WORLD / Politics
Oct 16, 2024
U.S. tells Israel to improve situation in Gaza or risk military aid
It is Washington's strongest warning since Israel's war with Hamas began a year ago.
Men run for cover after an Israeli strike on the Mreijeh neighborhood in Beirut's southern suburbs on Friday.
WORLD / ANALYSIS
Oct 5, 2024
Countdown to Middle East war? How the region can step back from the brink
Brakes remain to halt a regional fall into a wider conflagration that would lock Israel and Tehran into escalating conflict and suck in other nations.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu speaks to a joint meeting of the U.S. Congress in Washington on Wednesday.
WORLD / Politics
Jul 25, 2024
Netanyahu sketches vague outline for postwar Gaza
Israeli leader also accused anti-Israel protesters as standing with Hamas, charging without evidence that they were backed by Iran
Palestinians, who fled the eastern part of Khan Younis after they were ordered by the Israeli army to evacuate their neighborhoods, ride on a vehicle loaded with belongings in the southern Gaza Strip on Tuesday.
WORLD / Politics
Jul 3, 2024
Israel's next headache: Who will run postwar Gaza?
Fearing Hamas, powerful local families in Gaza are refusing to talk to Israel about any postwar plans.
U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken arrives in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia, on March 20.
WORLD / Politics
May 3, 2024
U.S. and Saudi Arabia finalizing details of security pact, sources say
For now, negotiators have prioritized a bilateral security accord that would then be part of a wider package presented to Israel.
U.S. President Joe Biden speaks on the phone with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu at the Oval Office in Washington on Thursday.
WORLD / Politics / ANALYSIS
Apr 5, 2024
Biden ultimatum to Netanyahu: protect Gaza civilians, or else
Analysts said the implicit threat was to slow U.S. arms transfers to Israel or to temper U.S. support at the U.N.
 Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu addresses the Conference of Presidents of Major American Jewish Organizations in Jerusalem on Feb. 18.
WORLD / Politics
Mar 28, 2024
Israel asks U.S. to reschedule scrapped meeting on Rafah military plans
Rafah is the last relatively safe haven for Palestinian civilians amid the ongoing conflict in Gaza.
U.S. President Joe Biden attends a meeting with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in Tel Aviv in October 2023.
WORLD / Politics
Mar 26, 2024
Netanyahu halts envoys' U.S. trip amid rift with Biden over Gaza U.N. vote
Famine looms in the Gaza Strip and there is growing global pressure for a truce in the war health authorities say has killed some 32,000 Palestinians.
Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman (right) fist bumps U.S. President Joe Biden upon his arrival at Al Salman Palace, in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia, on July 15, 2022.
WORLD / Politics
Feb 8, 2024
Saudi Arabia pushes for U.S. defense pact ahead of presidential election
Such a major regional deal would face numerous political and diplomatic obstacles, not least the uncertainty over how the Gaza conflict will unfold.
Smoke rises from damaged buildings in the Gaza Strip on Friday. Washington has appealed to Jordan, Egypt and Gulf states to persuade Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas to pursue institutional reforms with urgency to prepare for post-war Gaza.
WORLD / Politics
Dec 18, 2023
U.S. wants overhauled Palestinian Authority to run Gaza after Hamas
Washington considers the Mahmoud Abbas-led administration as the the only realistic post-war solution despite its unpopularity.
Smoke rises from Gaza amid the Israel-Hamas war on Saturday.
WORLD
Nov 18, 2023
Forever war? Israel risks a long, bloody insurgency in Gaza
None of the ideas floated so far by Israel, the United States and Arab nations for the postwar administration of Gaza have managed to gain traction.
Palestinian Hamas militants take part in a rally marking the 31st anniversary of Hamas' founding, in Gaza City, in the Gaza Strip, in December 2018.
WORLD / Politics / ANALYSIS
Nov 4, 2023
How Hamas aims to trap Israel in Gaza quagmire
The militant group has prepared for a drawn-out war and believes it can hold up Israel's advance to force its archenemy to agree to a cease-fire.
Smoke billows over the northern Gaza Strip during Israeli bombardment on Wednesday.
WORLD / Politics / ANALYSIS
Oct 19, 2023
Israel's endgame? No sign of postwar plan for Gaza
Israel has vowed to wipe out Hamas, but it has no clear plan for how to govern the ravaged Palestinian enclave even if it triumphs on the battlefield.
U.S. President Joe Biden participates in a bilateral meeting with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on the sidelines of the 78th U.N. General Assembly in New York City last month.
WORLD / Politics / ANALYSIS
Oct 13, 2023
In U.S., Biden faces few calls to rein in Israel amid Gaza crisis
Allies of the U.S. president want to avoid giving Republicans making the crisis a political liability as he seeks re-election in 2024.
U.S. President Joe Biden, accompanied by Vice President Kamala Harris and Secretary of State Antony Blinken, delivers remarks Tuesday after speaking with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu about the situation following Hamas' deadly attacks on Israel.
WORLD / Politics / ANALYSIS
Oct 11, 2023
Israel-Hamas war upends Biden's two-pronged Mideast strategy
After keeping the Israeli-Palestinian conflict at arm's length, Biden now finds himself thrust into a crisis likely to reshape his Middle East policy.
People hold Israeli and U.S. flags as they take part in a demonstration in Tel Aviv on Sept. 20.
WORLD / Politics
Oct 10, 2023
Conflict forces Biden and Netanyahu into uneasy partnership
After months of strain over the path forward in the Middle East, the two leaders have been thrust into a wartime partnership.

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