Al Majalla covered last week’s unprecedented Israeli strike in Doha, which attempted—but failed—to take out Hamas’s top-level negotiators. Michael Horowitz explains the significance of the attack in his piece titled From covert to overt: Netanyahu's Doha strike is telling. In it, he says, “His emerging strategy shows a willingness to gamble on high-profile assassinations, even at the expense of diplomatic blowback, regional stability, and fragile negotiations.” For his part, Xiaotong Yang says the attack is a stark reminder to Gulf states that they cannot depend on US security guarantees. Will it lead to a Gulf pivot to China? Read his article to find out. And finally, Brian Katulis says Israel’s strike in Qatar dashes hopes for Gaza ceasefire. In his piece, he says, “Although Trump started off on a high note with a truce in place ahead of his inauguration, he has since lost focus. But strong US leadership and close cooperation with allies can turn things around.”

And Ramzy Ezzeldin Ramzy says, “While the US public has long been supportive of Israel, its genocide in Gaza appears to have had a big effect, with most young Americans now outright hostile towards it.” Read his piece to find out if this shift in public opinion will affect US policy going forward. For his part, Samer Abou Hawwach pens a piece titled The Voice of Hind Rajab' shows cries for justice are only getting louder. In it, he says, “A 24-minute standing ovation for the film’s premiere at the Venice Film Festival was more than a symbolic gesture of justice for Israel's murder of the five-year-old Palestinian girl, but a heartfelt cry of real anguish over the ongoing genocide in Gaza.

Meanwhile, Michael Harari explains Why a Syria-Israel security agreement is so important. He says, “Israel's strategy is being increasingly perceived as one aimed at weakening Syria, but the US is trying to move it along the diplomatic path instead—at least when it comes to Syria. And Ibrahim Hamidi pens a piece titled From Idlib to New York: Sharaa’s winding road to the UN. “From the plains of Idlib to the presidential palace in Damascus and now the UN headquarters in Manhattan, he traces the Syrian president’s journey to get to this historic moment. For his part, Abdul Rahman Mazhar Halloush reviews Syrian writer Fawwaz Haddad's new book, describing it as a “rich new character-driven novel that chronicles the fate of a homeland ensnared by the corrupt Ba'athist regime.”

Switching gears, Souraya Chahine’s article Trump Economic Zone plan raises eyebrows in Lebanon looks at how many in the country view the project as a demographic one with economic dressings aimed at expelling the country's southern population from their lands. Meanwhile, Sharif Mohammad pens a piece titled Cheers and jeers: Ethiopia inaugurates controversial dam. In it, he says, “Addis Ababa has finally inaugurated the long-awaited and much-touted GERD—Africa’s biggest dam—leaving Egypt and Sudan worried about the impact on their water supply downstream.”

In Technology, Marco Mossad explains how Rapid tech innovation is bringing AI closer to consciousness. In his piece, he says, “The latest large language models appear to question, display emotion, convey preference, possess independent thought, and even offer wisdom. Is this still algorithms, or something deeper?” And last but not least, El-Sayed Hussein interviews Egyptian novelist and one of the Arab world’s most renowned writers of historical fiction, Fathy Embaby, who speaks about how he uses history to understand the present.