In what can only be described as a petty act of petulance, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu recently recalled Israel’s ambassador in Paraguay and closed the Israeli embassy in Asuncion. He made these rash decisions after Paraguay, in a dramatic reversal, moved its embassy in Jerusalem back to Tel Aviv. “Israel views with the utmost gravity the […]
U.S. President Donald Trump’s much-vaunted Middle East peace plan, the “ultimate deal” to resolve Israel’s protracted conflict with the Palestinians, was supposed to be unveiled this summer. Keenly aware of this timeline, Trump’s representatives in charge of the peace process, Jared Kushner and Jason Greenblatt, began distributing a draft of the proposal. They may have […]
The United States has altered its view of the Palestinian refugee problem, which goes to the core of Israel’s protracted, often bloody conflict with the Palestinians. The shift marks a significant break with U.S. policy and may yet affect ordinary Palestinians and the willingness of the Palestinian Authority to engage in peace talks with Israel. […]
Thirty one years ago, on a bright sunny afternoon in Tel Aviv during the first week of December and only days before the first Palestinian uprising broke out, I found myself in the presence of one of Israel’s most iconoclastic and idealistic figures, Uri Avnery. Avnery, who died on August 20 at the age of […]
Can the nearly four-decade-long enmity between the United States and Iran be eased? That’s the big question following U.S. President Donald Trump’s recent announcement of his willingness to confer with Iran’s leaders. “I would certainly meet with Iran if they’re ready to meet,” he said during a White House press conference at the end of […]
Iran’s brash and threatening attempt to establish a military foothold in Syria, its most important Arab ally, has concentrated minds in world capitals. In recent weeks, this topic has topped the agenda in high-level talks between Israel and Russia, Iran and Russia and the United States and Russia. It’s clearly one of the most important unresolved […]
On July 24, just days after the Knesset passed legislation officially defining “the land of Israel” as “the historical homeland of the Jewish people” and “the State of Israel as the national home of the Jewish people,” Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan went ballistic. Responding to the nation-state bill,” Erdogan warned it would cause “blood, […]
Good- news stories rarely emerge from the Middle East these days. Syria is bogged down in a civil war that has cost the country very dearly, and Israel is bombing Iranian bases there. Israel and Hamas are fighting again and might yet go to war for the fourth time in a decade. Iran, Israel’s chief […]
Israel withdrew unilaterally from the Gaza Strip in the summer of 2005, but 13 years on Gaza remains a tinderbox and a bone in Israel’s throat. Israel had hoped that its pullout from Gaza, conceived and implemented by Prime Minister Ariel Sharon, would bring a measure of prosperity to its generally impoverished Palestinian inhabitants and […]
On the eve of U.S. President Donald Trump’s summit with Russian President Vladimir Putin in Helsinki on July 16, pressure is building on Iran to withdraw its contingent of advisors and troops from Syria. Israel and the United States have demanded Iran’s pullout, as have Sunni Arab nations ranging from Saudi Arabia to Egypt. Even […]