Palestinians
« Previous Entries Next Entries »
If doing nothing is insane, what, then, must be done?
Thursday, November 12th, 2009
Pundits everywhere are calling for a rethinking of America’s Middle East policies, assuming that the current tack will yield nothing productive. One of the most controversial calls was made by Thomas Friedman, in which he suggested the U.S. should pull the plug on its current diplomatic efforts, give the Israelis and Palestinians the White House [...]
The Israelis never miss an opportunity to miss an opportunity
Monday, November 9th, 2009Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas warned on Thursday that he might not run for re-election in January, although it’s not clear if the announcement should be taken seriously, as it might be a ploy to pressure the U.S. and Israel. It’s useful to remember that, like this blog, Abbas has been assailed by extremists from [...]
MondoWeiss assails Jewish identity politics, again
Sunday, November 1st, 2009Several recent posts on MondoWeiss decry the fact that the overwhelming majority of attendees at the recent J Street conference were (horror of horrors!) Jews, or that they looked at the conflict through a distinctly (gasp!) Jewish prism and dared to discuss (how appalling!) Jewish values. Lynn Gottleib asks “do we really need another Jewish [...]
The pro-Israel peace camp cares about America, too
Tuesday, October 20th, 2009As it prepares for its first national conference this weekend, J Street, the political arm of pro-peace, pro-Israel American Jews, is being assailed by those who don’t want it to take positions independent of the Israeli government. Chuck Freilich, a former Israeli National Security advisor, castigates the J Streeters’ “presumptuousness” and claims they think they [...]
The myth that “Israel has no partner” for peace
Wednesday, October 14th, 2009The claim that “Israel has no partner for peace” is often trotted out by Israeli and American Jews. Sometimes it is backed up by the argument that the Palestinians are in political disarray, and that relatively moderate Palestinians don’t have the power to stop violent extremists from wrecking any agreement. That argument deserves to be [...]
How to prevent another conflagration in Jerusalem
Friday, October 9th, 2009At long last, I’ve found some sensible sentiments on the scary, sad situation in Jerusalem. They come from Americans For Peace Now’s Lara Friedman and Daniel Seidemann of Ir Amin, who have a piece in Haaretz. They note a few other times when battles over Jerusalem’s holy places threatened to turn a nationalist conflict into [...]
One state advocates, how do you know two states aren’t possible?
Tuesday, September 29th, 2009How do you know? What makes you so sure? You say, “It is too late for a two state solution” or “Israel is already one state. It is an apartheid state, and the only way forward is to transform it into a just state.” Where do you get this absolute certainty? With all due respect, [...]
Is a breakthrough feasible? Alon Ben-Meir says yes
Thursday, September 24th, 2009NYU Professor Alon Ben-Meir sees reasons for hope. It seems to me that ALL of the scenarios he envisions would need to occur in order for a breakthrough to occur. That is unlikely. But stranger, more unlikely things have occured on this planet, including the birth and development of a Jewish state. As I noted [...]
George Mitchell rejects the “F-word”
Tuesday, September 22nd, 2009Much of the media are dismissing today’s Obama-Netanyahu-Abbas summit as an abject failure. Check out the Guardian, which uses the word “failure” no less than three times in its chronicle of the UN meetings, along with “meager results,” “inauspicious start” and other formulations to characterize negotiations that supposedly yielded nothing. I haven’t come across the [...]
Sabra, Shatilla and Gaza: A tale of two wars
Monday, September 21st, 2009On Sept 25th, 1982, at a Peace Now rally in Tel Aviv, more than 400,000 Israelis rose up and demanded an investigation of Israel’s responsibility for the Sabra and Shatilla massacres in Lebanon. Israeli troops had been responsible for guarding those two Palestinian refugee camps. But on Sept. 15th, they had allowed Christian Phalangists to [...]
« Previous Entries Next Entries »
|