Mairav Zonszein

Opinion | Bibi’s Empty Victory Lap

"A genuine victory narrative would see Israel enter long-term security agreements that do not rely on the exertion of further military force but rather seek ways to stop needing it."

My latest for the @nytopinion.nytimes.com
www.nytimes.com/2025/07/09/o...

A Twelve-Day War, A New Middle East? | International Crisis Group This week on Hold Your Fire!, Richard speaks with Crisis Group experts Ali Vaez, Yasmine Farouk, Mairav Zonszein, Max Rodenbeck and Michael Hanna about the uneasy truce between Israel and Iran after t...

Good Hold Your Fire episode on the Iran war and what happens now, with @crisisgroup.org’s Richard Atwood, @mairavz.bsky.social, Ali Vaez, @maxji.bsky.social, Yasmine Farouk, and @mwhanna.crisisgroup.org.

www.crisisgroup.org/middle-east-...

Will he? Won’t he? The Trump Iran Show | International Crisis Group This week on Hold Your Fire!, Richard speaks with Crisis Group experts Ali Vaez, Mairav Zonszein, Max Rodenbeck, Yasmine Farouk and Michael Hanna about the escalating Israel-Iran war, Israel’s objecti...

I joined this week’s episode of Hold Your Fire with a long list of colleagues - @alivaez.bsky.social, @mairavz.bsky.social, Max Rodenbeck and Yasmine Farouk - to assess the latest on the Israel-Iran war and the prospect of direct U.S. intervention.
www.crisisgroup.org/middle-east-...

Israel military razed Gaza perimeter land to create ‘kill zone’, soldiers say Combatants’ testimonies describe how areas were destroyed to create ‘a death zone of enormous proportions’

Soldiers were told to "deliberately, methodically, and systematically annihilate whatever was within the designated perimeter, including entire residential neighborhoods, public buildings, educational institutions, mosques and cemeteries, with very few exceptions” www.theguardian.com/world/2025/a...

My aunt lives in a village in the north West Bank. About five years ago, an Israeli settlement was built just up the hill from her home. Settlers regularly come down the hill to harass them.

A few night ago, she awoke to Israeli soldiers right under their window.

Trump’s Gaza Fantasy Exposes Israel’s Failure The nation has no good answer for its nemesis.

Israel has no good answer for Hamas. My piece for Slate. With thanks to @methsaxon.bsky.social slate.com/news-and-pol...

Far right Finance Minister and de facto governor of the West Bank Bezalel Smotrich is en route to Washington for the first meeting with US officials since becoming a minister in government. Under Biden, Smotrich was boycotted.

I can’t help but feel some
Antisemitism in the Trump/Vance attack on Zelensky

My guess is that Zelenskyy came to Washington exactly in order to show Europeans who they're dealing with

Syrian Jews return to Damascus for the first time in decades, hoping to build bridges Thousands of Jews left Syria in 1992, when they were allowed to emigrate. The visit by a small delegation of U.S.-based Syrian Jewish religious figures last week was their first time back since then.

You would think this would be a top story in Israel, a cause for celebration, a moment of appreciation for the new emerging Syria.

But it's gotten almost no attention.
www.npr.org/2025/02/27/g...

Syrians emerging from dictatorship bristle at new threat from Israel Israeli attacks are angering Syrians and unsettling the country’s new leaders, who are dealing with multiple crises after the end of Bashar al-Assad’s rule.

"While there appeared to be “genuine concern” among Israeli officials that Syria, under its new rulers, could pose a security threat, the rising tide of attacks appeared “counterproductive to any peace and stability,” I told @washingtonpost.com www.washingtonpost.com/world/2025/0...

Things are bad and could get worse, but who would have thought phase one of the ceasefire hostage deal would reach completion. That's a lot.

Did she erase this tweet?

Important to point out though, that Netanyahu carefully caters what goes out into the ether, and he has an interest in his rejection of phase 2 being explicit now. That doesn't mean that's actually how things will go.

Israeli defence minister tells military to prepare for 'extended' West Bank stay Israel has ordered its military to prepare for an "extended stay" in parts of the occupied West Bank as it steps up operations against Palestinian militant groups, the Israeli defence minister said on Sunday.

Defense minister said the 40,000 people displaced from their homes in Jenin, Tulkarem and Nur a Shams camps will not be allowed to return to their homes in the next year.
Sound familiar?
www.reuters.com/world/middle...

Yes @edyong209.bsky.social www.nytimes.com/2025/02/22/m...

We're in uncharted territory now. The chance of things going off the rail have increased dramatically.

On the one hand, Israel is doing everything to dismantle Hamas as a functioning entity , on the other, it is shocked and angry when it is unable to operate as a functioning entity in a place that has been buried under rubble.

The IDF says Bibas children were not shot dead but killed by their captors’ hands.

“The minute the Gaza ceasefire went into effect, the IDF operation started in the West Bank...On the political level, I see it as a way the Israeli government is asserting itself. It’s saying, ‘We still control you,’” I told the @washingtonpost.com

www.washingtonpost.com/world/2025/0...

Israel medical team also claims the Bibas children were murdered and not killed in an Israeli air strike, as Hamas claimed.

3 buses explode in Bat Yam, Holon in suspected strategically planned terror attack Buses empty, nobody hurt; bombs may have been intended for Friday morning but had timers incorrectly set; 2 more devices found on buses nearby; police suspect West Bank terror cell

Israel is already operating in the West Bank in largest and longest operation since Second Intifada. It’s unclear what doing more of the same will achieve but there is no doubt- all eyes should be on West Bank
www.timesofisrael.com/3-buses-expl...

Today was an especially wretched today on X, and I remembered I should really be posting here.

Ukraine's European backers must decide, collectively & quickly, what they are willing & able to do with no US backing, in Ukraine & for themselves. Relatedly, they should ask who, in & outside the region, they can work with.
With luck, US engagement will continue. But trusting luck isn't a strategy.

Join me in 15 minutes
Online Event | Lebanon-Israel ceasefire: What’s at stake?

🗓️ Today | 17pm Beirut/Tel Aviv | 16pm Brussels | 10am Washington D.C
@crisisgroup.org
t.co/3JJ2dbOSZI

NEW Q&A | Can the Hizbollah-Israel Ceasefire Hold?

In this Q&A, Crisis Group experts Heiko Wimmen, David Wood and @mairavz.bsky.social examine the truce’s terms and the chances that it will hold.

www.crisisgroup.org/middle-east-...

Israel is on the one hand keeping the Palestinian economy in the West Bank on the brink of collapse and at the same time concerned that Iran is funding terror there and admitting people are motivated by economic despair

YouTube video by International Crisis Group Israeli settler violence in the West Bank

My latest 📽️ for @crisisgroup.org. Since the Hamas attack last year, Israeli settler violence against Palestinians in the #WestBank has reached record levels. Yet, this phenomenon is not new. Watch to understand the context.
w/ @mairavz.bsky.social
www.youtube.com/watch?v=3VnO...

Once, a prime minister would have stepped down if wanted for crimes against humanity.

Israel’s longest serving leader is wanted for crimes against humanity in all 22 EU member states, the same countries where Jews were exterminated 80 years ago.

Never again should mean never again to anyone.