A familiar sinking feeling accompanies the news of a unity agreement between the Palestinian Authority’s Fatah leadership and the Islamist Hamas government of Gaza. Some informed observers suggest to AJC that this should not be taken too seriously. It is, they claim, mainly window dressing designed to facilitate the Palestinian attempt to bypass negotiations with
Many say that the peace process is at a standstill. This is mistaken, since nothing stands still in the politics of the Middle East. A more accurate formulation is that the peace process is in retreat. Among the Palestinians, the Abbas-Fayyad government continues to work on building infrastructure for statehood, but its leaders look across
Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas announced he will not run again for president. Of course, with the apparent cancellation of Palestinian Authority elections in January it’s clear that no one will run against him either. And so we are left with two Palestinian governments, in Ramallah and Gaza, both illegal under Palestinian law and running
Like the cliché from an old Western film where the hero squints at the horizon and says “it’s too quiet,” General Amos Yadlin, the outgoing chief of Israel’s Military Intelligence, issued a warning in his recent briefing to the Knesset Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee. He said, “The recent security calm is unprecedented but there
Last week Jerusalem and Ramallah vividly displayed their respective dysfunctions. The Knesset passed a law requiring a referendum on withdrawal from Jerusalem or the Golan Heights, areas that have been legally incorporated into Israel. Not to be outdone, the Fatah party’s Revolutionary Council (described as its highest “legislative” body) issued yet another provocative declaration rejecting
According to Jewish tradition, the Almighty weighs our deeds and judges us in the ten days between Rosh Hashanah, the Jewish New Year, and Yom Kippur, the Day of Atonement. This period is called “Days of Awe,” a metaphor that also accurately evokes the current state of Palestinian-Israeli negotiations.We find ourselves poised between the opening
A new and insidious myth in now emerging in some of the coverage of the re-launch of direct negotiations between Israel and the Palestinians: that Israelis are indifferent to peace. Probably the most widely-circulated version of the tale was “Why Israel Doesn’t Care About Peace,” the cover story by Karl Vick in Time magazine on September
To hear some tell it, the resumption of direct peace talks between Israel and the Palestinians means the dawn of hope in the Middle East. Others, including much of the Israeli media, discount any chance of success. The truth appears to lie somewhere in the middle.Why the talks might fail: A peace accord will entail
We appear to be on the cusp of direct peace talks between Israel and the Palestinians. Years ago, a moment like this would have seemed pregnant with hope and excitement. Today, responses to the news coverage vary between gray and blasé. At this moment it may be worthwhile to recall something of the spirit of
Some observers close to the Israeli government are expressing concern over reports of a meeting of former U.S. national security advisors with President Obama at which there was said to have been discussion of a new peace process strategy if Israeli-Palestinian negotiations—still blocked by Ramallah—fail to produce results. Although the Administration has subsequently and repeatedly denied
In his biting poem “Pink Eyeglasses,” the great Hebrew poet Natan Alterman wrote of the power of illusion to distort even the most honest analysis: “The lens gives the color and the heart follows.” During the Ten Days of Repentance between Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur, all of us—and especially our leaders—need to look through
What a week it was! For the first time in Israel’s history a former prime minister was indicted. Two former ministers began serving prison sentences. And the trial of former president Moshe Katzav finally began. Who can blame the Israeli media for paying most of their attention to the visit of pop megastar Madonna?Israeli newspapers
The Bethlehem Fatah conference—the first in twenty years—provides one more illustration of the need to reevaluate the Middle East peace process.Somewhat confusingly, Fatah understands that the goal of the process is two states, but refuses to recognize Israel as the state of the Jewish people and appears to claim all of Jerusalem for the future
It has been hard of late to be a supporter of dialogue in this fractured Holy Land. The recent trend toward unilateralism in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict is in large part an expression of disillusionment with dialogue. The “disengagement” or “convergence” plans and the electoral (and military) victories of the rejectionists such as Hamas are part of
