The opportunity to pull the Middle East back from the brink came and went within hours of Israel’s confirmation that it had killed Hamas leader Yahya Sinwar.

Instead of capitalizing on Israel’s tactical success to declare victory in Gaza, push for a ceasefire that could also end hostilities in Lebanon, and negotiate a prisoner exchange that would secure the release of the 101 remaining Hamas-held hostages, Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu insisted the war would continue until the Israeli military liberated the captives.

More than a year into Israel’s devastating assault on Gaza in response to last year’s Hamas brutal October 7 attack on Israel, Netanyahu’s problem is that he is pursuing two long-tested strategies that have failed to produce results.

Israel's killing of Hamas leader Yahya Sinwar changes little as fighting in Gaza and Lebanon goes on with no end in sight

Israel ignores at its peril the increasingly bold writing on the wall.

The writing suggests Israel’s US and European diplomatic and military defense shield, a fixture of Israeli defense and foreign policy, and the Jewish state’s existing and potential regional partnerships are fracturing and, in some cases, possibly crumbling.

What were they thinking?

It’s a question both Hamas and Israeli Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu’s ultra-nationalist government have yet to answer.

The UN Security Council met to discuss the recent escalation and the Israeli attack on UNIFIL troops. France and the United States called for the Lebanese army to be strengthened in an effort to maintain peace along the border, and the Lebanese Ambassador to the UN condemned Israel's actions. For more on this story, joining us is James M. Dorsey. He is an Adjunct Senior fellow at Singapore's S. Rajaratnam School of International Studies.

James discusses Iran, Israel, Lebanon, and Hezbollah in his weekly show on Radio Islam

Hezbollah and Iran are playing political and military defence in Lebanon.

Militarily, Hezbollah has demonstrated that it may be down but is not out as a result of Israeli body blows in recent weeks, including the September 27 killing of its leader, Hassan Nasrallah.

Even so, Iran’s network of militant non-state actors, dubbed the Axis of Resistance, has little to show for itself a year into the Gaza war beyond adding to the economic cost of Israel’s war in Gaza.

Mohammad Ali al-Husseini personifies the complexity of escalating tensions tearing the Middle East apart.

A onetime associate of Hassan Nasrallah, the Hezbollah leader Israel killed, Mr. Al-Husseini, a Lebanese Shiite cleric, has emerged as a controversial figure in Saudi efforts to counter Iran and its allies by making inroads into non-Saudi Shiite Muslim communities, particularly in Lebanon.

Since October 2023, with the support of the US and other Western allies, Israel responded to the October 7 attack with a campaign of aerial bombardment that devastated Gaza.

The death toll is now well beyond 40,000 people, and there appears to be no end sight to the suffering.

As the war widens and deepens across the region, questions of what will happen to the Palestinian people when the war ends are being drowned out.

The destruction of the past year is almost unfathomable. However, what lies ahead threatens to be much, much worse.

To help us try and make sense of it, "Leave It to the Experts" spoke with Dr. James M. Dorsey, an Adjunct Senior Fellow at Nanyang Technological University’s S. Rajaratnam School of International Studies.

James" remarks start at minute 5:58

Israel’s killing of Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah has turned Iran’s asymmetric forward defense strategy into a double-edged sword.