Abbas Miffed at Obama
Mahmoud Abbas is grousing that Obama is being “unclear” with him on future peace talks. That’s rich. The man who has a hundred and one excuses for avoiding direct talks and who says he’s not inciting...
View ArticleRe: Palestinian Democracy Requires Palestinian Democrats
Jonathan, you are undoubtedly correct that the current culture of Palestinian politics makes a peaceful Palestinian state highly unlikely. In the last 10 years, the peace-partner Palestinians have...
View ArticleRival Palestinian Governments Abusing Their Own People — Again
Israel is constantly accused of turning Gaza into “one big prison” — and never mind the fact that Egypt, which also borders Gaza, sharply restricts the number of Palestinians allowed to transit its...
View ArticleIsrael’s Gaza Policy Boosts Hamas’s Popularity? Doesn’t Look Like It
Radical leftists worldwide enthusiastically support Hamas, which has the cardinal virtue of being virulently anti-Israel. It’s a pity they never asked Gaza Strip residents, who actually have to live...
View ArticleFailure Would Be Refreshing
We are about to begin — if it doesn’t end before it starts — another round of the endless talks between the Palestinian Authority and Israel. The sense of unreality pervades; all but the most obtuse...
View ArticleWill’s Formula for Peace: Stop the Process
George Will has been on a roll, writing one blockbuster column after another on Israel and what he correctly dubs the “mirage” that passes for a “peace process.” He gives some context: Since 1967,...
View ArticleAre We There Yet?
Shocking as it may seem to those who actually bought into George Mitchell’s, Hillary Clinton’s, and the president’s cheery pronouncements, it may be that the peace talks are essentially done. The...
View ArticleMideast Game of Chicken Continues
The news today out of Ramallah is that Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas is saying that he will continue to participate in the peace talks that have been orchestrated by the Obama...
View ArticleWashington’s West Bank Pyromania
Secretary of State Hillary Clinton made a stunning admission last week that has garnered far too little attention. After a de rigueur assertion that the Israeli-Palestinian “status quo is...
View ArticleWhy Mahmoud Abbas Cannot Make Peace
Once in a while, I “meet” someone online, on blogs and in comment sections, who thinks the current round of Israeli-Palestinian peace talks might end the conflict, but I don’t think I know anyone in...
View ArticleHow Anti-Israel Groups Undermine Their Own Credibility
Liberal American Jews are often appalled by allegations of Israeli “war crimes” against Palestinians — and equally appalled by Israelis’ apparent indifference to these allegations. What is wrong with...
View ArticleObama’s Middle East Policy vs. Reality
While the frantic bribe-athon by the Obama administration continues to try reimposing the settlement moratorium, building has already resumed, according to this report: Bulldozers have been working...
View ArticleEnding “the Occupation” Is Not a Palestinian Priority
In yesterday’s post, I explained why a settlement freeze decreases Palestinian motivation to make a deal by ensuring that foot-dragging entails no price. But conventional wisdom on the...
View ArticleWhen Washington Has Amnesia, Israelis and Palestinians Pay the Price
My last two posts (here and here) discussed why no peace deal is likely to emerge from Barack Obama’s drive to restart Israeli-Palestinian talks. But if this drive merely proves futile, the entire...
View ArticleTied Up in Knots — Again
It’s a game of chicken. Bibi has agreed to present to his cabinet the Obami’s harebrained scheme to restart the non-peace talks if he can get it in writing. Why is that so hard? Perhaps the deal isn’t...
View ArticleSo How’s the Bribe-a-Thon Going?
The Obama team keeps insisting that the “problem” in the non-direct, non-peace talks (it has been two months since the last talks, and no one but the Obama administration seems all that concerned) is...
View ArticleFake Palestinian Diplomacy No Substitute for Actual Negotiations
The notion that the chief obstacle to peace in the Middle East is an Israeli unwillingness to make the sacrifices necessary for an agreement (settlements and Jerusalem) is a familiar theme in...
View ArticleRep. Ileana Ros-Lehtinen Slams PLO-Flag Decision
It’s so refreshing — and sadly rare — when a politician comes out and just says the honest truth. Today Rep. Ileana Ros-Lehtinen, the new chair of the House Foreign Relations Committee, issued some...
View ArticleThe Unintended Consequences of a Unilateral Declaration of Statehood for...
Anyone taking seriously the Palestinians’ current diplomatic offensive against Israel — by way of a UN resolution on settlements and international recognition of Palestine as an independent state —...
View ArticleRE: Egypt Needs Liberalism
There’s not much more to say in a general sense about Michael Totten’s badly needed reality check differentiating liberal democracies — roughly, those that have robust democratic institutions that...
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