Three Years Later

Building a future that gives the Palestinians their right to self-determination is difficult, but absolutely necessary.

2025 Year in Review: Prolonged Conflict, Erratic Policy, and Burgeoning Artificial Frontiers

The past year has presented important lessons for the world to learn

Rebuilding from Rubble: The Future of Gaza

By Abigail Flynn / Spring/Summer 2025

Amid the dust and rubble, the new ceasefire offers relief to a war-ravaged Gaza; hope remains for a bright future in the Strip as questions surface of the role civil servants formerly employed by Hamas will play in governance

A State is not Built with Rhetoric Alone—with H.A. Hellyer: CR Amplified ep. 5

By Abigail Flynn / Fall 2025

Verbal gestures toward recognition of a Palestinian state mean little without practical policies to hold Israel accountable for its violations of international law

Confederative Futures and the Burden of Leadership in Israel/Palestine

By Klara Vlahčević Lisinski / Fall 2025

The pathway to recognition of Palestinian Statehood does not require the world’s approval through the raising of 192 flags; rather, it requires convincing “one state only—the state of Israel”

Israel is Erasing Palestine and the West is Complicit

By Nour Odeh / Fall 2025

The genocide unfolding in the Gaza Strip has allowed Israel to speed up its takeover and ethnic cleansing of the occupied West Bank in stealth mode

What Palestinian Statehood Must Mean to Mean Anything

By Omar Auf / Fall 2025

As more governments prepare to recognize Palestine this September, the gesture risks being performative unless matched with concrete policies such as sanctions and legal obligations, and a decolonial vision of statehood that challenges occupation at its roots

Journalism in Peril: The Gaza Genocide as a Global Test of Press Freedom

By Mohamed Salama and Mona Raafat Alsaba and Saif Shahin and Shahira S. Fahmy / Fall 2025

In Gaza, it isn’t only civilians that are being laid to ruin; the freedom to tell the story of its people is being muzzled by successive Israeli strikes targeting and killing Palestinian journalists

Ending the War In Gaza: What Must Be Done Now

By Gershon Baskin / Fall 2025

Israel’s military juggernaut will not be stopped in Gaza without significant international pressure and a range of conditional sanctions

Recognizing a Palestine State: What’s New—and What’s Not

By Bidisha Biswas / Fall 2025

Australia is the latest G8 nation to pledge recognition of an independent Palestine, but long before Western capitals took action, recognition of the Palestinian state echoed across India, Indonesia, South Africa, and much of Latin America in a shared sentiment of justice rooted in anti-colonial solidarity

From Symbolic Victories to a People’s Victory: How Gaza Forged Global Recognition of Palestine

By Ramzy Baroud / Fall 2025

A story of two tracks: the symbolic quest for a state and the daily reality of a people fighting for their existence

Who are Palestine’s Overlooked Refugees? Investigating Stateless Palestinians in Jordan

By Francesca Maria Lorenzini /

Stateless Palestinian refugees originally from Gaza who now live in Jordan face a precarious legal and economic situation as they lack adequate support systems. Scant attention is paid to their struggles

Longer Sticks and Shorter Carrots: How the U.S. is Changing its Engagement in MENA

By Amr Adly / Winter 2025

The United States’ approach to achieving international hegemony is shifting away from trade and investments back toward bombs and missiles

In Jordan, Trump is a Divisive Figure

By Laila Shadid / Winter 2025

Before Trump officially took office, some Jordanians believed that he was the “lesser of two evils”. Now, two months into his presidency, Trump has few fans in Amman

The Consequences and Prospects of Israel’s Ban of UNRWA

By Jørgen Jensehaugen and Kjersti G. Berg and Lex Takkenberg / Winter 2025

As the UN agency’s operations continue to be obstructed, its outright ban will continue the perpetuation of severe human suffering and have multidimensional ramifications, from illegality on the international level to political considerations regarding the tenuous ceasefire

Round Two: Trump’s Foreign Policy Takes on New Challenges

By William B. Quandt / Winter 2025

Trump will have to manage the continuing conflict in the Middle East, the war in Ukraine, and the rising power of China as he navigates the beginning of his second term

Is Israel a Liberal Democracy?

By Raphael Cohen-Almagor / Fall 2024

Israel’s democratic principles are under threat both internally and externally. Its long-term survival is to integrate fully into the Middle East, and the key to that integration is to peacefully resolve the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.

Is China Becoming a Political Player in the Middle East?

By Dominika Urhová and Gedaliah Afterman /

China saw Israel’s war in Gaza as an opportunity to gain traction in the Middle East at the expense of the United States, but is it ready to become a serious political actor in the region?

Hamas “From the Heart of Battle”: Analyzing Abu Obaida’s Discourse

By Erwin van Veen and Sophia Agathocleous / Summer 2024

The frames and focus of the speeches of Hamas spokesperson Abu Obaida reveal the group’s strategic goals and the psychological warfare used to achieve them.

The Court Rules: Occupation Illegal

By Abigail Flynn /

What does the advisory opinion from the International Court of Justice tell us and why is it important?

It’s Been a Year

It’s time to end this war

Don’t Forget About the Red Sea

By Burak Şakir Şeker / Summer 2024

A widening of Israel’s War on Gaza could threaten the vital Red Sea waterway and lead to a global economic crisis

China Tests the Water in Palestinian Diplomacy

By Ramzy Baroud / Summer 2024

While the ramifications of the recent unity agreement signed in Beijing by multiple Palestinian factions remain to be seen, it is evident that China has stepped up as a leader in the region

Less Than a State

By Sean Lee / Summer 2024

Without a new framework that ensures true sovereignty and security for a future Palestinian state, the two-state solution will remain a farce

The World Fears Wider War After Hamas Leader’s Assassination

The international community races to reduce tension after a series of targeted killings carried out by Israel

Prioritizing Palestinian Self-Determination is Long Overdue

By Omar Auf / Summer 2024

The discussion about a one-state or two-state solution must be preceded by efforts to facilitate exercise of the right to self-determination by the Palestinian people. Only then can a realistic solution be genuinely pursued.

World Refugee Day Highlights Growing Challenges

By Abigail Flynn /

The growing rate of refugees across the globe constitutes an international crisis. Supporting these displaced people requires acknowledging the consequences of conflict and building resilient frameworks to protect refugee rights

War on Palestine Underscores the Supremacy of Geopolitics

By Omar Auf / Spring 2024

Why do states ignore violations of international law in Gaza?

In Targeting UNRWA, Israel Aims to Destroy the Right of Return

By Daoud Kuttab / Spring 2024

Hoping to capitalize on world sympathy after October 7, Israel tried to use its allies to defund and dismantle the UN relief agency.

Children’s “Right to Play” In Gaza

By Ana Davis / Spring 2024

Like children everywhere, Gaza’s boys and girls should be playing and enjoying their childhoods, but the actions of the Israeli government and military make that impossible

Showing Palestine Refugees that Americans Care

By Omar Auf / Spring 2024

The Cairo Review asks the UNRWA USA National Committee questions about its purpose, processes, and operations amid the existential crisis UNRWA is facing.

Time to Renew an Old Promise? A Brief History of Global South Solidarity with Palestine

By Bidisha Biswas / Spring 2024

Anti-colonial and post-colonial politics have shaped global understandings of the Israel-Palestine conflict for decades, beyond the narrow vision of many Western countries

Death or Detention: Israel’s Attacks on Journalism Follow a Lethal Pattern

By Jodie Ginsberg / Spring 2024

Israel’s campaign of targeting and silencing the media has hidden its crimes under a dark shadow

Bridging Local and Global Assistance for Palestinian Refugees in Egypt

By Maysa Ayoub / Spring 2024

What happens to those who are beyond UNHCR and UNRWA’s scope of operation?

Navigating the Politics of Humanitarian Aid in Gaza

By Shatha Abdulsamad / Spring 2024

Despite Israeli efforts to destroy it, UNRWA remains an embodiment of international responsibility for the question of Palestinian refugees, and a reminder of their inalienable right of return.

UNRWA After October 7: Building a Comprehensive Response Framework for Palestinian Refugees

By Lex Takkenberg / Spring 2024

UNRWA’s future cannot be considered in isolation—a comprehensive, multi-stakeholder approach, with displacement issues at its center, is now necessary.

Scrolling Social Media Sentiments on the Gaza War

By Ayusha Chalise /

Despite efforts of platforms like Meta to curb political content generally, frustration and sympathy for both sides of Israel’s War on Gaza continues to run deep among users

UNRWA Funding is Burdened with Conditionality

By Anne Irfan / Spring 2024

The UN agency’s essential humanitarian role lies in the balance thanks to the political contingencies of its donors.

The Implementation Crisis—with Richard Falk

By Omar Auf /

International law scholar Richard Falk discusses international law and politics as they pertain to the ongoing genocide committed by Israel in Gaza and the wider Palestinian plight, in addition to UN reform.

A World that Ended Apartheid can do the Same for Israel’s Occupation

By Abderahman Salaheldin /

Ending the Israeli occupation and forging a Palestinian state requires a unified effort that parallels the process which ended racial segregation in South Africa.

In Darkness All is Black: Exploring the Realities of Violence by the Israeli State and Hamas

By Erwin van Veen / Winter 2024

The events of October 7 and beyond raise a major ethical question: by what standard is the violence that Hamas uses against Israel different from the violence that the Israeli state uses against Hamas?

Is There Hope for Gaza Under International Law?

By Abigail Flynn / Winter 2024

Why has international law failed to hold Israel responsible for its destruction of Gaza? It was built to enable the colonizer, not to protect the colonized, explains legal expert Jason Beckett.

Voices for Peace – with Lara Friedman

By Nadeen Shaker /

Young progressive Jews calling for a ceasefire in Gaza spent weeks since October 7 shutting down U.S. train stations, highways, and government buildings. But can their messages of solidarity reverberate beyond these demonstrations to cause change within government and Congress, especially as criticism of Israel is being increasingly shut down and classified as anti-semitism by US officials.

Today’s episode is with Lara Friedman, president of the Foundation for Middle East Peace (FMEP), a nonprofit organization working to promote peace between Israel and Palestine/peaceful future for Palestinians and Israelis.