AboutArticles by Michael Jansen

Divded attention

23 Jan 2025

While world media focused almost exclusively on Israel’s three women hostages freed last Sunday at the start of the six-week ceasefire in the war on Gaza, little attention was...

Palestinians celebrate despite a delay in the ceasefire between Israel and Hamas over the hostage list, in Khan Younis. Reuters

Truce deal phases could be skipped for resuming war

19 Jan 2025

After months of sabotaging Gaza ceasefire proposals, Netanyahu manufactured melodrama when compelled to accept the plan announced by outgoing US President Joe Biden at the end of May last...

Bold claims

16 Jan 2025

Donald Trump has been infected with delusions of grandeur. Ahead of moving back into the White House on Jan.20 he has called for the US acquisition of the...

Lebanese President Joseph Aoun (right) meets his Cypriot counterpart Nikos Christodoulides at the presidential palace in Baabda, east of Beirut, Lebanon. Associated Press

New Lebanese president embarks on reformist path

12 Jan 2025

By electing Lebanon’s army chief Joseph Aoun to be the country’s 14th president parliament committed Beirut to forming a government which will enact reforms required to access $21 billion...

International gains

09 Jan 2025

Former US President Jimmy Carter’s obituaries have largely ignored his progressive domestic record in office and lauded him as the best-ex-president the US ever had thanks to his post-White...

Gaza’s healthcare services are in tatters

05 Jan 2025

Israel's systematic effort to eradicate Gaza's hospitals is part and parcel of its overall campaign to make it impossible for Palestinians to live in the narrow coastal strip. The...

Deadly work

03 Jan 2025

Journalists across the world risk their lives daily to report in conflict zones and all too often become the story. This is especially true on Gaza where from Oct.7,...

HTS must unite partners to curb infighting

29 Dec 2024

Syria is not Idlib. Syria’s new rulers, dominated by Hay’at Tahrir al-Sham (HTS), have yet to learn that Syria is far more commanding, complex and complicated than Idlib, one...

Syrians uncertain about their future after takeover

22 Dec 2024

Globally dominant Western media have focused on the liberation of Syria’s prisoners and mass graves outside Damascus, but little is being reported about how Syrians are coping with uncertainty....

Fading hopes

19 Dec 2024

The embattled West Bank hill town of Bethlehem faces a second cold Christmas as Palestinian Christians leave, and tourists stay away from the birthplace of Jesus and Christianity. “During these...

Michael Jansen

The author, a well-respected observer of Middle East affairs, has three books on the Arab-Israeli conflict.