Damascus Reverts to Form
Well, that didn’t last long. Last week, Syrian President Bashar Assad announced he would resume peace negotiations with Israel without preconditions, but now he suddenly says it’s impossible. “What we...
View ArticleAxis of Uranium Meets Middle East Peace Process
It’s a busy month for Brazil. The Latin American giant hosted Shimon Peres last week, sustained a visit from Mahmoud Abbas this week, and will receive Mahmoud Ahmadinejad next week. Not exactly a...
View ArticleRE: Abbas Still Says No
The new preconditions for negotiations that Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas posed this week are, as Jonathan noted, equivalent to refusing to negotiate until there’s nothing left to...
View ArticleDer Spiegel: “An Israeli Affront Against Germany”
The headline is breathless, and the article is stupid. The German paper claims that both the failure of the Shalit talks and the Dubai assassination were grave Israeli insults to Germany. This marks...
View ArticleAre They Being Smart Yet?
Joe Biden arrived in Israel. A ticker-tape parade he did not receive. As this report notes: Vice President Biden arrived in Israel on Monday to boost U.S. efforts to mediate talks between Israelis and...
View ArticleObama’s Strategy Is to Weaken or Remove Bibi
The Obama administration seeks to recover from the stagnation it imposed on the peace process a year ago by doubling down on its strategy of making impossible demands on the Israelis, hoping that this...
View ArticleAround and Around Foggy Bottom
At the State Department briefing, one sometimes gets the sense it’s Abbott and Costello time (“Who’s on First?”). Reporters on Tuesday tried in vain to get answers to two questions: have the Obami...
View ArticleThe Shocking Rashad Hussain Interview
A friend of COMMENTARY calls my attention to this interview with the controversial Rashad Hussain, the U.S. Special Envoy to the Organization of the Islamic Conference. You will recall that his...
View ArticleQuick Reaction to the Obama-Netanyahu Meeting
With all the normal caveats — we don’t know what was said in private, etc. — there are a few takeaways from the just-concluded news conference. 1. It was noteworthy that Obama explicitly affirmed in...
View ArticleSniffing Out What “Pro-Israel” Means (Updated)
In the last week or so, the Emergency Committee for Israel has come out with ads on the anti-Israel records of Reps. Mary Jo Kilroy, Glenn Nye, and Jim Himes, specifically calling attention to their...
View ArticleWhat Washington’s Lame Response to Terror Says About the Peace Talks
If more reasons were needed for concluding that the current Israeli-Palestinian talks won’t produce a deal, here’s another: the designated mediator — i.e., the Obama administration — has just proved...
View ArticleRE: It’s Not About Settlements
As Jennifer noted yesterday in her comments on Giora Eiland’s Ynet op-ed, Palestinian unwillingness to recognize Israel as a Jewish state is the make-or-break issue of the peace process. She’s also...
View ArticleIs All Criticism of Israel Out of Bounds?
That’s what Chas Freeman claimed during a panel discussion with Steve Clemons this week. In an attempt to defend himself against charges that he’s an “Israel-basher,” Freeman argued that anyone who...
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