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 […]
Sixty-six days. At this hour, that is how long Khader Adnan has gone without food to protest his detention without charge by the Israeli government. Unless you follow events in the Middle East closely, it is possible this is the first time you have heard of Adnan, or only heard of his in the last […]
Last week Palestinian officials from Gaza and the West Bank met in Qatar to form a unity government. Since 2007, Hamas has ruled Gaza and Fatah the West Bank. While there have been several attempts in the past to form a unity government, none have been succssful. In this episode of Understanding Israel, Israeli Major (res.) […]
2011 evidenced our inability to predict substantial change and respond to tumultuous events. The ramifications of foreign policy decisions will not show their true colors for some time. Below, I discuss notable states – Turkey, Iran, Egypt, Qatar, Cuba, Burma, Ivory Coast, Norway, Israel, and Palestine – that I believe are important because of their effects on peace […]
UNESCO recently admitted Palestine as a full time member of the UN family. This decision has had considerable consequences: division among the EU powerhouses, U.S. suspension of its financial support to UNESCO, and the end of the Euro-Atlantic community unity as we know it. The 194 members of the UN Education, Science, and Cultural Organization […]
Altogether overshadowed by developing Israel-istine histrionics, the president of Iraq, Jalal Talabani, stood before the United Nations General Assembly on Friday to promote his vision for a democratic state anchored in peace and the rule of law. He extolled the need for a harmonious state, irrespective of sectarian, ethnic or factional affiliations. “This is the […]
Has America exhibited moral courage by addressing change, or the lack there of, in the world? Or has it squandered our hope for a principled effort to rid American foreign policy of its realist inclinations and desire to cling to paradigms? Many of us have placed our trust in America (i.e., President Obama) to challenge […]
This week, the ballet of heads of state and government will open up at the United Nations headquarter in New York. This year, tensions are a little higher than the previous ones for one reason: Palestine. The Palestinian Authority will be seeking for a change of status within the UN. One of the major concerns […]
Do positive opportunities exist because of the upcoming vote on Palestinian statehood at the UN? Are our diplomats really trying for peace, or are they adhering to a diplomacy of intransigence? Will the development of a mutually hurting stalemate finally allow for peace between Israel and Palestine? The impending vote to recognize Palestinian statehood has inspired […]
Is Turkey’s grandstanding vis-a-vis the Palestine issue hypocritical in light of its own continually deleterious approach to another stateless group – the Kurds? What conditions support the notion that there should or should not be a dichotomy between Turkey’s approach to the two groups – Kurds and Palestinians? With this, how does the apparent contrast […]
News broke recently from various outlets that Israel has been providing training and non-lethal supplies for Jewish settlers in Palestine to defend themselves from an expected onslaught of unrest during the days surrounding Palestine’s bid to seek official recognition from the UN in September. Palestine’s attempt at recognition, while doomed at the outset because of […]
Finding an address to the conflict involving Israel and Palestine, to ensure lasting peace in the Near East, has been nearly impossible. A continual lack of support for Israel, though, has driven us to ask for some sort of punitive measures to ensure that Palestine does not further endanger peace in the region. The Arabs’ lack […]
I have recently been fortunate to conduct several interviews with some very influential and interesting figures, the latest being with the former U.S. Ambassador to the Sultanate of Oman, David J. Dunford. Ambassador Dunford was appointed to Oman in 1992 and served until 1995. He has since retired to Tucson, Arizona, where he is an […]
Twilight on the corniche in Beirut in February The chatter in the news and on Twitter today is about President Obama’s big speech on the Middle East at the State Department tomorrow. What will he say? There is no question this is a serious opportunity to get the Arab Spring back on track. It has veered […]
An interesting debate has begun over at Foregin Policy. Last Tuesday, Israel’s vice premier and minister of strategic affairs Moshe Ya’alon wrote a provactive article that blames Palestinians for stalling the peace process. He writes that Palestinians, “instead of concluding a deal with Israel…have demonstrated a total unwillingness to compromise, often favoring terrorism, as witnessed […]