West Asia has witnessed dramatic changes over the past 15 months.
Over 46,000 Palestinians were killed, a vast majority of them women and children. Almost all of Gaza’s population has been displaced, some of them several times. Around 1,00,000 Palestinians were wounded, and the enclave, which doesn’t have a functional, effective healthcare system, saw epidemics and an acute hunger crisis.
Israel largely fought a two-front war — one in Gaza and the other in Lebanon against Hezbollah. Israel has killed most of the top leadership of both organisations and degraded their military infrastructure, which has weakened Iran’s axis of resistance. The fall of the Assad regime in Syria was another major setback for Iran. Now that Syria, the land bridge for Hezbollah and Iran has been disrupted, Hezbollah would find it difficult to rebuild itself.
A weakened Hezbollah, a weakened Hamas, the collapse of the Syria-Iran axis are all good news for Israel. Tel Aviv also sees the return of Donald Trump to the White House as a positive development. But despite these developments, Israel still faces a lot of uncertainties.
Download the exclusive eBook from The Hindu for a multidimensional understanding on the unfolding crisis in West Asia.
What’s inside:
Introduction – The primacy of the Palestine Question, by Stanly Johny (International Affairs Editor, The Hindu)
The two-state solution: implausible and inevitable, by Bashir Ali Abbas
India and Palestine: between principles and pragmatism, by K.M. Seethi
U.S. and Israel: a multilayered relationship in a fractured world order, by Kabir Taneja
West Asia according to Iran, Iqbal S. Hasnain
Editor’s Note:
This eBook on West Asia is the latest in The Hindu’s series of publications that deal elaborately with subjects of general interest, which go beyond the regular news cycle. West Asia is in perennial crisis and the Gaza ceasefire is no more than a temporary relief from the relentless bombardment of Palestinians by Israeli forces over the last year.
The book discusses at length the two-state solution, which seems both implausible and inevitable at the same time; India’s position on Palestine, which often seems contradictory sandwiched as it is between moral principles and geopolitical pragmatism; the U.S.’s special relationship with Israel that skews the dynamics of the region; and the influence of Iran on the militias that impacts all stakeholders in West Asia.
This series of books in digital format will be available free for subscribers of the online edition, including ePaper, and available for purchase for others.
Each eBook is based on a single theme and seeks to be comprehensive with articles from subject experts across the world. We intend to publish this series regularly; and thereby build a large digital library for our reader community.
Suresh Nambath, Editor, The Hindu
To download a sample of the e-book : https://newsth.live/WestAsiaSample
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Published – April 29, 2025 12:28 pm IST
