Foreign Policy Blogs

Israel

Oslo, So Long

Oslo, So Long

  As a rite of summer in U.S. presidential campaigns, the nominee of the challenging party takes a trip out of the country to buff up his foreign policy credentials. Republican Mitt Romney is no exception, and his trip, not surprisingly, included a stop in Israel. Romney has a long friendship with Israeli Prime Minister […]

read more

Israel Creates a New University

Israel Creates a New University

  A little less than two weeks ago, a committee headed up by former Israeli Supreme Court Justice Edmund Levy and appointed by Prime Minister Netanyahu released the Levy Report. The Levy Report attempted to define, once and for all, the legal standing of settlement activity in the West Bank. It found that settlement expansion […]

read more

The Super Coalition Not So Super Anymore

The Super Coalition Not So Super Anymore

The following was taken from Jspace.com.  The article was written by Jspace Foreign Affairs Correspondent, Rob Lattin, who also blogs about Israeli and Middle Eastern foreign policy for Foreign Policy Blogs.  It is official, Israel’s super coalition experiment was a failure. After just 70 days, Shaul Mofaz and the Kadima party voted to remove itself […]

read more

Could Ehud Olmert Return to Politics?

Could Ehud Olmert Return to Politics?

The following was taken from Jspace.com.  The article was written by Jspace Foreign Affairs Correspondent, Rob Lattin, who also blogs about Israeli and Middle Eastern foreign policy for Foreign Policy Blogs.  On Tuesday, for the first time in a while, former Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert was able to take a deep sigh of relief. Olmert was cleared of […]

read more

The UN Chums the Water

The UN Chums the Water

The United Nations has a long history of, what some have called, anti-Israel bias. Many factors contributed to that, including several lop-sided human rights conferences that disproportionately condemned Israel and a high profile report on Israel’s operations against Hamas  in the winter of 2008-2009.  That report was subsequently delegitimized after its chief author, Richard Goldstone, admitted that […]

read more

Understanding Israel: A Different Look Into Evangelical Christianity

Understanding Israel: A Different Look Into Evangelical Christianity

Understanding Israel is a video-interview series created by Rob Lattin for the Foreign Policy Blogs.  By speaking to the people on the inside and on the ground, each episode seeks to intimately expose viewers to the important and controversial topics affecting Israel today.   Evangelical Christians make up one of America’s largest sects of Israel […]

read more

Photo Exposes More About Israel Than Its Subjects

Photo Exposes More About Israel Than Its Subjects

  Last week, a photo was published that showed two male Israeli soldiers, in uniform, holding hands. The picture was taken from behind, thus the viewer only sees their backs. But the two look very comfortable together. It quickly came out that the photo was staged. One of the men was gay, the other was […]

read more

Plugging Israel’s Brain Drain

Plugging Israel’s Brain Drain

Israel is one of the world’s science powerhouses.  With ten Nobel Prize winners, more than 4,000 technology startups, and high-tech companies reportedly comprising 45% of Israel’s exports, Israel is undoubtedly a technology hub. Despite statistical data identifying the country’s technological superiority, Israel is faced with the threat of its scientists and startup mavens seeking educational […]

read more

Could Unilateral Actions be the Panacea?

Could Unilateral Actions be the Panacea?

Jump-starting Israeli-Palestinian peace negotiations with unilateral declarations of statehood have long been considered a highly controversial and dangerous step that could ignite the conflict even further. Generally, a unilateral declaration of statehood from the Palestinians has been expected to emerge from West Bank leadership and not Jerusalem. That dynamic might be turned on its ear, […]

read more

Interview: Peter Beinart Discusses Zionism, Hamas, and the Settlement Movement

Peter Beinart’s newest book “The Crisis of Zionism” has garnerd significant controversy in the American-Zionist community, earning both praise and criticism.  The book is a personal reflection on what it means for the senior Daily Beast editor and CUNY professor to be a Zionist, the current state and future possibilities of democracy in Israel, and […]

read more

Book Review: The Crisis of Zionism

Book Review:  The Crisis of Zionism

The following was taken from Jspace.com.  The article was written by Jspace Foreign Affairs Correspondent, Rob Lattin, who also blogs about Israeli and Middle Eastern foreign policy for Foreign Policy Blogs.  Daily Beast writer Peter Beinart recently released his newest book, The Crisis of Zionism, and it is making serious waves in the American Jewish and […]

read more

A New Challenger Emerges: Yair Lapid

A New Challenger Emerges: Yair Lapid

The following was taken from Jspace.com.  The article was written by Jspace Foreign Affairs Correspondent, Rob Lattin, who also blogs about Israeli and Middle Eastern foreign policy for Foreign Policy Blogs.  Israel’s political system is notorious for its recycling of politicians. However, a new force is emerging, Yair Lapid, the former head anchor of Israeli television station […]

read more

Passports, Embassies and the U.S. Supreme Court

Passports, Embassies and the U.S. Supreme Court

The Israeli/Palestinian conflict, long entrenched in the Executive and Legislative branches of the American government, is finally working its way deep into the Judicial as well. This week the Supreme Court ruled, 8-1, that the lower courts could make a decision on the issue of placing Israel as the country of birth in the passports […]

read more

Israel Is Ready To Attack Iran, But are the Israelis?

Israel Is Ready To Attack Iran, But are the Israelis?

Anyone casually following the news of Israel recently would assume that the question is not if, but when, Israel will attack Iran. No Israeli leader seems to be able to speak publicly without mentioning the Islamic Republic’s nuclear program and Israel’s need to prevent it from moving forward. President Obama just gave an exclusive interview […]

read more

A Safe Economic Bet?

A Safe Economic Bet?

Even as the European and U.S. economies slid over the past few years, Israel’s financial footing remained fairly stable. In fact, last year protests erupted to lower housing prices in the Gush Dan area, even though prices reflected demand for Tel Aviv residencies. Today’s paper includes two more items that reflect positive growth in the […]

read more