📄 Khalil E. Jahshan argues that a renewed Arab joint list could increase Palestinian-Arab representation in #Israel and help deny #Netanyahu another coalition. Success depends on overcoming party rivalries and turning Arab voters’ preference for unity into electoral leverage. Read more 👇

📄 Josh Paul analyzes Section 224 of this year’s NDAA, which would shift #US-#Israel defense ties from military aid to deeper industrial and technological integration, weakening congressional oversight and creating new risks for #US national security. Read more 👇

📄 Nabeel Khoury examines #Yemen’s rival authorities, which remain trapped between external patrons, internal corruption, and humanitarian collapse. The PLC and the Houthis govern different Yemens, Khoury argues, but both have subordinated public welfare to political survival. Read more 👇

📄 Ruhama Bekele examines the #Gulf smart city projects that are embedding AI-enabled surveillance into daily life while using ethical frameworks to mask weak accountability. The result is a growing architecture of state control that civil society can expose but not easily constrain. Read more 👇

📄 The #US-Israeli war on #Iran has deepened sanctions, poverty, and repression into a severe humanitarian crisis. Yara M. Asi examines how Iranian civilians face mass casualties, displacement, damaged health systems, food insecurity, and lasting social devastation. Read more 👇

Support in the #US Senate for blocking arms sales to #Israel has grown since 2024. Although the latest resolutions failed, 85% of Senate Democrats voted in April 2026 to halt such sales. Learn more 👇 https://arabcenterdc.org/resource/shifting-voting-trends-in-the-us-senate-on-arms-sales-to-israel/#US

📄 Hadi Kahalzadeh argues that devastating #Iran’s economy is unlikely to break the regime, but will instead deepen social hardship, inequality, and security-state control. Read more 👇 https://arabcenterdc.org/resource/why-devastating-irans-economy-will-not-break-the-regime/#Iran’s

📄 Kristian Coates Ulrichsen argues that while #SaudiArabia has been buffered from the worst effects of the #Hormuz closure, prolonged disruption will sharpen economic pressures and reinforce #Riyadh’s turn toward fiscal realism and targeted Vision 2030 investment. Read more 👇

📄 Greg Aftandilian argues that President #Trump’s threat to “blow up” #Oman reflects #Washington’s mounting frustration with #Muscat’s neutrality, but that #Oman’s stance is rooted in its longstanding effort to balance relations with #Iran, the #UnitedStates, and the wider #Gulf. Read more 👇

Join us to explore the current state of transitional justice in Syria and the significance and limitations of recent prosecutions. 📅 June 3, 2026 | ⏰ 10:00 AM ET | 💻 Zoom RSVP Now 👇 https://arabcenterdc.org/event/transitional-justice-and-accountability-efforts-in-syria-challenges-and-prospects/

We’re hiring! Arab Center Washington DC is seeking a full-time Editor to join our Publications team in Washington, DC. Apply by sending your resume and cover letter to [email protected] with “Editor” in the subject line. Applications will be reviewed on a rolling basis. Learn more 👇

📄 Ingie Gohar covers Bernie Sanders’s push to rein in AIPAC-related campaign spending, Trump’s claims on Netanyahu and Iran diplomacy, new US sanctions tied to Lebanon, Hezbollah, and the Global Sumud Flotilla, and court rulings on sanctions against Francesca Albanese. Read more 👇

📄 Charles Dunne argues that the #Iran war has ended credible #US security primacy in the #Gulf without producing a viable successor. The result is a more unstable regional order in which neither #Washington nor #Beijing can guarantee #Gulf security. Read more 👇

📣 The call for applications for the eighth #ACRPS International Winter School #IWS8, titled “Migrant Communities in an Age of Resurgent Nativism: Rethinking the Questions of Citizenship and Belonging,” is now open. 📅 January 9–14, 2027 | 📍Doha, Qatar | ⏳ Apply by July 1, 2026 https://acr.ps/hBxNM4x

📄 #Iran’s closure of #Hormuz exposed the #Gulf’s reliance on a single chokepoint, pushing states to build pipelines, rail links, and ports. Jim Krane cautions these incomplete workarounds may lower economic risks enough to make future wars more likely. Read more 👇

The Unit for Political Studies argues the #Iran war has exposed the limits of #SaudiArabia’s de-escalation strategy, forcing #Riyadh to reassess its economic and security ambitions as risks in #Hormuz and the #RedSea, and doubts over #US protection, constrain its regional strategy. Read more 👇

📘 Nader Atassi reviews Daniel Neep’s #Syria: A Modern History, arguing that the book offers a sweeping, sociologically grounded account of modern #Syria from the late Ottoman period to the fall of the #Assad regime in 2024. Read more 👇

📄 Imad K. Harb examines renewed calls for federalism in #Lebanon amid war and political fragmentation. He argues that sectarian federalism would deepen Lebanon’s tensions, endanger minorities, and make reconstruction and institutional reform more difficult. Read more 👇

🗺️ Between October 2023 and July 2025, the Israeli Knesset passed more than 30 laws deepening its apartheid regime and intensifying its repression of Palestinians. Learn more in our infographic👇 https://arabcenterdc.org/resource/a-new-wave-of-discriminatory-israeli-laws-targeting-palestinians/

📄 Zainab Abdi examines how #Iran-aligned militias within #Iraq’s Popular Mobilization Forces have retained operational autonomy despite state integration. The 2026 war in #Iran has exposed deep tensions between Iraqi sovereignty, militia power, and regional confrontation. Read more 👇

📄 Yousef Munayyer argues that the #Nakba is an ongoing process of displacement and violence against Palestinians, now expressed through genocide in #Gaza, settler violence in the #WestBank, and criminal violence inside #Israel. Read more 👇

📄 Daniel Brumberg argues that #Trump’s coercive approach, more than internal divisions in the Iranian regime, is blocking diplomacy with #Tehran, even as Iranian elites continue debating how best to negotiate for regime survival. Read more 👇

📄 Sina Toossi argues that protests in #Iran have not produced political change because the opposition lacks unifying leadership, while regime repression, cohesive coercive institutions, and diaspora groups’ limited legitimacy have constrained unrest. Read more 👇

Ingie Gohar reports on congressional moves over #US military operations against #Iran, Democrats’ questions about #Israel’s nuclear program, #Trump’s negotiations with and threats against #Iran, and #Lebanon-#Israel peace talks on May 14–15. Read more 👇

📄 Alaa Mahajna examines #Israel’s February 2026 land registration measures in the #WestBank, which amount to de facto annexation by law. The measures entrench Israeli sovereignty claims in Area C, while accelerating Palestinian dispossession and undermining the basis of a future Palestinian state.

Join us to examine developments in Palestine since the onset of the Iran war and how Israel has used the conflict to advance annexation objectives. 📅 May 20 | ⏰ 10:00 AM ET | 💻 Zoom https://arabcenterdc.org/event/palestine-under-the-cover-of-the-iran-war-oppression-and-ethnic-cleansing-escalate/

📄 Nabeel A. Khoury argues that the #IranWar and related regional conflicts have failed to produce a durable transformation and are instead accelerating instability across the #MiddleEast.

Ingie Gohar reports on the Senate’s sixth defeat of efforts to require approval of the Iran war, Trump’s call for only “surgical” Israeli strikes in Lebanon, US warnings to Hormuz shippers, and an expedited $8.6B weapons sale bypassing congressional review. Read more 👇

📄 Greg Aftandilian argues that recent cooperation between #Libya’s rival governments, including a unified budget and military exercises, masks entrenched divisions. Corruption, militia patronage, and external interference continue to sustain fragmentation. Read more 👇

📄 Dana El Kurd argues that declining Arab trust in the #UnitedStates reflects a deeper crisis in the #US-led international order. Restoring any credible rules-based order requires a shift in #US policy, especially on #Palestine, and greater reliance on multilateral alternatives. Read more 👇

Join ACW and Badil for a webinar with Tarek Mitri, Rola El-Husseini, Sami Halabi, Raya Jalabi, and Nasser Yassin on Lebanon’s fragile ceasefire and the unresolved questions of sovereignty, deterrence, and recovery. https://arabcenterdc.org/event/ceasefire-in-lebanon-between-negotiation-and-reality/

📄 Kristian Coates Ulrichsen argues that the UAE’s exit from OPEC signals a shift toward an independent oil strategy and a weakening of the Saudi-led regional order. The move reflects Abu Dhabi’s willingness to abandon constraints that no longer serve its interests. Read more 👇

Khalil E. Jahshan assesses the Bennett–Lapid alliance, arguing it may challenge Benjamin Netanyahu electorally and may succeed in unseating him. Jahshan concludes that even if it does, the bloc offers little prospect of meaningful policy. arabcenterdc.org/resource/the...

Trita Parsi argues that #Iran missed an opportunity to engage President #Trump directly, suggesting that its hesitation was interpreted by Trump as weakness.

Join us for a discussion on Lebanon’s fragile ceasefire and the questions of sovereignty, deterrence, security, and recovery shaping the country’s post-ceasefire prospects. 📅 May 6, 2026 | ⏰ 10:00 AM–11:30 PM ET | 💻 Via Zoom 👇 Register here now!

📄 Harith Hasan argues that #Iraq’s political elite remains trapped in factional bargaining as the #Iran war erases #Baghdad’s room to balance between #Washington and #Tehran, leaving a hollowed-out state facing mounting economic and security crises. Read more 👇

📄 Manal Shehabi argues that attacks on #Gulf desalination plants could trigger a rapid humanitarian water crisis and wider economic disruption, making protection of water infrastructure an urgent imperative. Read more 👇

Ingie Gohar reports on Democratic efforts to force War Powers votes on #Iran before a May 1 deadline, a State Department opinion saying the Trump administration undertook the war “at the request of Israel,” new green card guidance, and UAE currency swap support. Read more 👇

📄 Among #US Democrats, support for #Israel continues to erode as more Democratic politicians question the party’s traditional platform of unconditional support, given many voters’ outrage over Israel’s conduct in #Gaza, the West Bank, #Lebanon, and #Iran. Read more 👇

Join us tomorrow at 11:00 EDT to examine the evolution of the #Palestinian diaspora in #Chile through the lenses of migration history, identity construction, and political mobilization. For more info and to register👇

Imad K. Harb explores how the #IranWar has exposed a gap between Gulf expectations of #Egyptian military support and Cairo’s economic and strategic constraints. https://arabcenterdc.org/resource/egypt-and-the-gulf-a-relationship-under-pressure/#IranWar#Egyptian

Marc Lynch argues that weakened governments will struggle to manage the fallout of the #IranWar in the #MiddleEast, entrenching instability and fueling further conflicts for years to come. https://arabcenterdc.org/resource/after-the-iran-war-regional-devastation-and-future-instability/#IranWar

📄 Daniel Brumberg argues that US-Iran escalation has shifted to “mutually assured devastation,” risking regionwide collapse. Only reciprocal negotiations—backed by US pressure on Israel—can stop a spiral of conflict. Read more 👇

📄 Rohan Advani argues that #Gulf sovereign wealth funds might help cushion the economic shock of the #Iran war but give #GCC states little influence over its course. Advani shows how global integration has made #Gulf economies prosperous, but also made them more vulnerable and harder to protect.

Join us to examine the evolution of the Chilean Palestinian diaspora through the lenses of migration history, identity construction, and political mobilization. 📅 April 23, 2026 | ⏰ 11:00 AM–12:30 PM ET | 💻 Via Zoom To learn more, visit 👇

Arab Center Washington DC announces that Daniel Neep has assumed the role of Director of Publications and Senior Fellow. He brings extensive academic and policy experience focused on Syria and the Levant.

📄 Without a broad national consensus, #Lebanon cannot sustain talks with #Israel or make lasting decisions on war and peace, writes Nabeel A. Khoury. Externally imposed agreements risk collapse and renewed conflict. Read more 👇

Thank you for joining our 11th Annual Conference, Trump’s Second Term: Upending Democracy, Development, and Diplomacy. Learn more at the event page below: https://arabcenterdc.org/event/trump-second-term-upending-democracy-development-and-diplomacy/

📄 Yara M. Asi argues that settler violence, state policy, and legal impunity work together to expand Israeli control and displace Palestinians in the West Bank, threatening not only Palestinian sovereignty but also Palestinians’ very presence on the land. Read more 👇