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Wednesday, March 10, 2010 Is anyone serious about the Middle East peace process?We have to try to be optimistic about the indirect Israeli-Palestinian peace talks, because they are better than nothing at all. But we should not fool ourselves about the probable outcome. Bitterlemons, titled its issue about the peace talks, "Is Netanyahu serious about the peace process?" But as co-editor Yossi Alpher pointed out, that it is the wrong question. [more] by Moderator @ March 10, 2010: 03:58 PM CST [Link] [2 comments] Saturday, February 20, 2010 Horse Sense about America and the Middle EastBook Review: Smith, Lee, A Strong Horse: Power, Politics, and the Clash of Arab Civilizations, Doubleday, 2010. 256 pages, ISBN: 0385516118 Lee Smith has written a different kind of book about the Middle East, with a different message. It is part travelogue, part reportage, part analysis and part polemic. In the world of books about the Middle East, "A Strong Horse" is a horse of a different color. Smith's book is reminiscent of Tom Friedman's, "From Beirut to Jerusalem." Avoiding the cliched dogmas of neo-conservatives, MESA (Middle East Studies Association) academics, State Department honchos and Israeli "Arabists," Lee Smith talks horse sense about the Middle East and America's role in it. Abdul Halim Khaddam (former vice president of Syria), Elliot Abrams, Edward Said, Nathan Sharansky, Tony Badran, former terrorists and Nasser-era officials, and a gallery of "just folks" are among the people Smith met and interviewed in his travels. They provide an array of perspectives that show the subject matter as it appears from the outside looking in, from the top looking down, and from the bottom looking up at what seem to be the vagaries of power and policy. [more] by Moderator @ February 20, 2010: 06:52 PM CST [Link] [2 comments] Wednesday, December 23, 2009 Crystal Ball 2010There were no Crystal Ball in 2009, because Israeli and US elections seemed to produce a whole new set of possibilities - for better and worse. Looking at the review of the 2008 Crystal Ball, it seems I made a mistake. The predictions of 2008 could have just as easily been transferred to 2009 in most cases. And on the threshold of 2010, I dare to predict (not much daring required) that 2010 will look a lot like 2009: more stalled peace talks, more ineffectual US diplomacy regarding Iran, more suicide bombings in Iraq and Afghanistan. What was, for the most part, is probably what will be. [more] by Moderator @ December 23, 2009: 03:07 PM CST [Link] [1 Comment] Wednesday, December 2, 2009 A Palestinian peace plan for all of usPalestinian-American community leader, author and comedian Ray Hanania announced his candidacy for the Palestinian Authority presidency, if and when there are elections. Meanwhile, he offers the public his peace plan, a plan that at last, we should all be able to accept. He has launched the Yalla Peace Web site and the Ray Hanania for President of Palestine Facebook group to promote his candidacy and the plan, and he wrote about in Huffington Post and Jerusalem Post. [more] by Moderator @ December 2, 2009: 06:39 PM CST [Link] [7 comments] Monday, November 9, 2009 The end of the peace process movie?"Current impasse" in the Israeli-Palestinian peace process has become a sad cliche. There has been only one "current impasse" and it probably began some time in 1999. Since then, there has been really nothing to show for all the meetings and photo-ops and talk about peace, other than bombed out Palestinians and blown-up Israelis. That is the meaning of "peace process" in this neighborhood. Therefore, the enthusiasm of Mr. Obama for another round of "peace process" was greeted with some apprehension. Many of us have had about as much peace process as we can stand. The apprehension was not unjustified. [more] by Moderator @ November 9, 2009: 02:43 PM CST [Link] [8 comments] Wednesday, September 23, 2009 The summit of the absurd: Middle East process without peaceEugene Ionescu or Samuel Beckett could have written a play called "The Middle East Peace Process." Yesterday, in the Yet Another Middle East Summit that took place at the UN, we witnessed another scene in that play. Vladimir, Estragon and Godot himself appeared on the stage, said the same old things, provided the usual photo op, and departed to polite applause. [more] by Moderator @ September 23, 2009: 02:04 PM CST [Link] [8 comments] Sunday, September 6, 2009 Why Israelis and Americans are angryAlmost everyone says that Israelis are angry with the United States and President Obama, and Americans are angry at Israel. If "everyone says it," it must be true. Israelis are also angry at American Jews, supposedly, and American Jews are angry at Israel. It's supposedly all about the US demand for a freeze on building in West bank settlements, an issue that revealed a gap of understanding and trust between the Israeli government and the American administration, and between Israelis and (some) American Jews. [more] by Moderator @ September 6, 2009: 07:37 PM CST [Link] [13 comments] Tuesday, August 25, 2009 The vicissitudes of the Israeli-Palestinian-American Peace Process
According to a recent poll, President Obama has managed to do a remarkable thing: He has managed to convince both the a majority of Palestinians and a plurality of Israelis that the United States sides with their enemies: 12% of Israelis and 64% of Palestinians think that Obama's policy is more supportive of Israel; 40% and 7% respectively think it is more supportive of the Palestinians, and 38% and 23% respectively think it is supportive of both sides equally. Obama has once again confounded skeptics and done the impossible. All together now please, "Yes we can!" [more]
by Moderator @ August 25, 2009: 06:02 PM CST [Link] [5 comments]
Saturday, August 22, 2009
In the past month there has been a string of bombings in Iraq, killings hundreds of people in all. About 100 died in a single day. Strangely, these have evoked almost no comment in the United States, though Iraq and Iraq policy used to be at the center of American foreign affairs concerns. [more]
by Moderator @ August 22, 2009: 09:55 PM CST [Link] [1 Comment]
Monday, August 3, 2009
Both the past and the future may be illusions, but it is in the present that blood is shed.
I have recently been sent videos by email explaining why Israel need not share Jerusalem with the Palestinians and has a right to keep it as its own, forever. I have previously seen articles by Palestinians and their supporters explaining that Jerusalem is and always was an Arab city, the third most important city for Islam, after Mecca and Medina. I suspect that the real purpose of both points of view is to raise old grudges and to obstruct any progress towards peace. As another American administration begins its search for a fair and amicable settlement to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, the people who prefer the ongoing struggle to any possible settlement bring out their historical debating points once again.
by Moderator @ August 3, 2009: 12:49 AM CST [Link] [3 comments]
Sunday, July 26, 2009
Throughout the history of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, and especially during the Israeli-Palestinian "peace process," both Israel and the Arab side have been engaged in a carefully designed "peace war," the object of which is to make peace impossible while creating the appearance that their side wants peace, while the other side is an obstacle to peace (see What makes Israeli-Palestinian peace initiatives fail?). The Americans and Europeans, lured by the tantalizing prospect of peace in the Middle East, have allowed themselves to fall into successive traps that complicate the issue, and allow the sides to use the mediators to extract money as well as support for their claims, in order to bolster their own positions and continue the conflict. The fate of the Obama peace initiative is no exception. [more]
by Moderator @ July 26, 2009: 09:35 PM CST [Link] [2 comments]
"The current impasse in the Israeli-Arab conflict" is an almost ideal all-purpose title for an analysis essay, as it could have been used almost any month in the last 62 years.
The prospect of peace between Israelis and Palestinians is so attractive to most people, the need seems so urgent and solutions seem so obvious, at least to outsiders. Why then, have repeated attempts at resolution failed so miserably? (for example, see The Peace Process is dead, long live the peace process). [more]
by Moderator @ July 26, 2009: 09:32 PM CST [Link] [3 comments]
Tuesday, July 21, 2009
Danny Shapiro, a friend who has started working at the Peres Peace Center wrote the following account.
July 19 was the first day of a six day camp joining 32 Israeli kids, aged 12 - 14, from the poor southern towns of Yeruham and Sderot, and 28 Palestinian kids living in poverty and despair in the occupied territories. [more]
by Moderator @ July 21, 2009: 01:42 PM CST [Link] [1 Comment]
Monday, June 29, 2009
With respect to Western policy on the Middle East, the most significant events of the year may not be the Iranian election protests, or the US-Israel spat over settlements, or Palestinian unity or lack thereof. The most significant events may be the bankruptcy of General Motors, the world economic crisis, and the death of Michael Jackson. [more]
by Moderator @ June 29, 2009: 06:16 PM CST [Link] [7 comments]
Sunday, June 21, 2009
Almost anything anyone writes about the Iranian unrest may be true or false, and any predictions are likely to be wrong. The Iranians are now admitting that 13 people were killed yesterday, but CNN and others put the toll at 19-150 (see videos posted there as well). Protests erupted in Shiraz, in Isfahan and elsewhere. Basij thugs seem to be killing people even if they are only onlookers or look like protesters. Tanks had reportedly entered Azzadi Square on Saturday. On Sunday it was reported that Feezah Rafsanjani, daughter of Ayatollah Rafsanjani, and four other family members had been arrested. Iran has also expelled BBC reporter Jon Leyne. We can expect that media reports will be even more circumspect in the future. [more]
by Moderator @ June 21, 2009: 05:11 PM CST [Link] [1 Comment]
Monday, June 15, 2009
Benjamin Netanyahu's speech (see Address by Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu at the Begin-Sadat Center should not be viewed in the context of a "peace process" or judged in terms of its relevance to peacemaking. None of the peace-related utterances of Israeli, Palestinian or the Arab or Muslim world are actually directed at making peace, because none of the parties believes in the possibility of peace at this point or has worked to develop, in its own constituency, a concept of peace that might be acceptable to the other side. [more]
by Moderator @ June 15, 2009: 06:20 PM CST [Link] [2 comments]
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