January 27, 2026
counterextremism
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Trump’s Middle East fiascos to satisfy Qatar

by Giovanni Giacalone The Middle East is in turmoil as the Kurds in the north-east of Syria are being massacred by al-Jolani’s jihadists while prisoners belonging to ISIS are escaping from prisons. In Gaza, Hamas is rebuilding its forces and gathering weapons for a new offensive against Israel. In Lebanon, Hezbollah did not disarm and […]

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Europe Israel MENA News Middle East News Politics

“Operation Domino”: The widespread Hamas network uncovered in Italy

by Giovanni Giacalone On Saturday, December 27, the Italian State Police and the Financial Guard arrested seven Palestinians suspected of collecting millions of euros in support of Hamas. Authorities also issued international arrests for two others outside the country. Three associations, officially supporting Palestinian civilians but allegedly serving as a front for funding Hamas, are […]

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MENA News Middle East Opinion

Managing Escalation by Losing It: One Year On from America’s Yemen Mistake

By Amb. Dr. Mohamed Qubaty How restraint without Yemeni leverage turned crisis management into a doctrine of permanent escalation. One year after early warnings that U.S. restraint in Yemen was backfiring, the Red Sea crisis has become less an emergency than a condition—managed, mitigated, and endlessly postponed, but never resolved. What was once treated as […]

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Europe MENA News Middle East Politics

When some members of the Italian Catholic Church cannot distinguish “opinion” from “support for terrorism”

by Giovanni Giacalone           On Friday, December 12, 2025, Turin’s Appeal Court released an Egyptian imam who was being held in a detention center for illegal aliens in Sicily awaiting to be deported by order of the Italian Ministry of Interior. The individual, 47-year-old Mohamed Mahmoud Ibrahim Shahin, had been preaching […]

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Europe Israel MENA News Middle East Opinion Politics

Is Italy using a soft approach on Palestinian extremism and terrorism?

by Giovanni Giacalone On Saturday, October 25, 2025, Italy-based Palestinian leader Mohammad Hannoun was barred from entering the city of Milan for one year. The city’s police chief had the measure delivered to Hannoun as he stepped off the plane from Rome to Linate airport, where he was supposed to join a pro-Palestinian demonstration scheduled […]

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Iran Israel Middle East Opinion Politics

Gaza to the Arabian Sea: The Straits and the Balance of Power

By Amb. M. A. Qubaty A Defining Regional Moment The arc stretching from Gaza to the Red Sea, from Lebanon to Yemen and across to the Arabian Sea, is entering a perilous new phase. The region is no longer defined by Gaza alone, but by a wider confrontation pitting Israel against Iran and its regional […]

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Europe Israel Opinion Politics

Italy’s ambiguous positions regarding Israel’s war on terror may have multiple goals

by Giovanni Giacalone As the Israeli operations against Hamas move closer to their final objectives with the beginning of the IDF operations in Gaza City, aiming to eradicate the Palestinian terrorist organization and the raids in Doha against the Hamas leadership, the masks worn by some of the European leaders begin to fall. While the […]

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Europe MENA News Middle East Opinion Politics

Albanese’s acrobatics after US sanctions – A potential political future in Italy with the anti-US far-left?

by Giovanni Giacalone On July 29 and 30, 2025, the UN Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights in the Palestinian Territories, Italian citizen Francesca Albanese, was invited to hold a series of press conferences at the Italian parliament by Alessandra Maiorino and Stefania Ascari, representatives of the Five Star Movement respectively at the […]

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Europe MENA News Middle East News

Jihadist propaganda: 20-year-old arrested in Lecco with bomb-making manuals

by Stefano Piazza Several videos promoting the ideology and activities of the Islamic State were found on the devices of the young man, a university student in Milan In recent days, the State Police arrested a 20-year-old Egyptian citizen for possession of material for terrorist purposes. Yesterday, as requested by the Public Prosecutor’s Office in […]

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Trump is no ally of Israel and Netanyahu needs to act now

by Giovanni Giacalone It is widely known how the Biden administration was quite problematic for Israel with its pressure to limit the IDF’s actions against Hamas, the entrance into Rafah, cutting the weapon shipment and imposing continuous “humanitarian aid” into Gaza that went straight into Hamas’ pockets. However, sometimes things can only get worse and, […]

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