The municipal election campaign in Türkiye kicked off with a debate on alliances and cooperation. It seems that the People’s Alliance will campaign for the March 31, 2024 elections similarly to the 2019 and 2023 elections following a meeting between President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan and Nationalist Movement Party (MHP) Chairperson Devlet Bahçeli.

The temporary cease-fire in Gaza was scheduled to expire Tuesday, but the parties agreed to extend it for two days. Still, witnessing the joy of Palestinians being rescued from Israeli prisons, rather than the killing of Palestinian women and children, offered some relief to people around the world. It is important, however, for the international community to keep objecting to Israel’s massacres. The prisoner exchange revealed that Israel was violating the human rights of Palestinians even before the Oct. 7 attack. Hence the need to keep talking about the two-state solution and mounting pressure on Israel to facilitate a permanent cease-fire is necessary. Specifically, the backlash from the West, including Spain and Belgium, needs to continue without interruption.

Elon Musk, the world's wealthiest businessperson, faced a new campaign against him when he liked an antisemitic post on his platform, X (Twitter). Media Matters, an organization that published a report on the prevalence of antisemitic content on the platform, triggered major American companies advertising on X to withdraw their ads. Musk, experiencing significant commercial losses, attempted to demonstrate his non-antisemitic stance by visiting Israel. However, associating this with proving one's non-antisemitic stance is problematic, considering the history of antisemitism predates Israel's history, and leaders like Prime Minister Netanyahu have a long history of trying to equate criticism of Israel's policies with antisemitism.

Even if Israel emerges from the Israeli-Palestinian conflict with a limited military victory, it remains the loser of the conflict. Following its intense campaign against Gaza post-Oct. 7, Israel either failed or chose not to seize the greatest historical opportunity since its establishment. Today, it grapples with an ontological security crisis and profound regional and global status anxieties on a scale unseen since 1948.

The main opposition Republican People’s Party’s (CHP) recently elected chairperson, Özgür Özel, is still looking for ways to back up his pledge to "change" with concrete steps. Despite having defeated Kemal Kılıçdaroğlu, who lost the 2023 presidential election, Özel needs to manage intraparty power struggles. Provided that some pro-CHP commentators refer to Özel as party chair and to Istanbul Mayor Ekrem Imamoğlu as the movement’s leader, it is safe to say that this dual structure has already become an actual fact within the main opposition party. Whether Özel is a mere placeholder or that party’s co-chairperson, this new situation shall take a toll on the CHP.

The prisoner exchange agreement reached between Israel and Hamas marks a significant turning point in the course of the war. The agreement implies that Israel has stepped back from its pledge to halt operations until all prisoners are released. However, it is clear that Israeli attacks will continue after a brief hiatus. Predicting that the release of all Hamas prisoners will take months, if not years, it is not difficult to anticipate that the conflict will intermittently intensify and persist for an extended period. The events since October 7 have become the foremost agenda item in the region, transforming the pursuit of a solution to the Palestinian issue into a new driving force. Therefore, in the coming period, we can expect the Gaza war to continue with its ups and downs, while diplomatic efforts for a final resolution intensify.

News outlets continue to cover President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan’s criticism of Israel and the West as his questioning of “hypocrisy” and “double standards” unsettles Israel’s most ardent supporters in politics and the media. That is because the Turkish leader’s remarks encapsulate the international community’s conscientious voice – which causes pro-Palestine protests to erupt across the West and the East.

President Biden's opinion piece published in The Washington Post over the weekend reveals how disconnected he is from reality. Biden makes a peculiar analogy by suggesting that Putin and Hamas are "fighting to erase their 'democratic neighbors' from the map." This is, at the very least, a strange comparison. Biden claims that these actors hope to benefit from the chaos they create by undermining regional stability and integration. However, it's evident that Biden fails to accurately contextualize Russia's invasion of Ukraine or Israel's actions in Gaza.