The quest for Palestinian independence appears to be simultaneously at death’s doorstep and stronger than ever. At the granular level of on-the-ground realities and national policies, the very existence of the Palestinian national cause as a coherent and even extant political programme appears increasingly tenuous. Yet at the same time, the emerging state of Palestine [...]
At the end of my interview with President Obama the morning of Friday, August 28, after he had defended with lawyerly precision the pending multinational nuclear agreement with Iran and voiced a determined optimism that the toxic relations between his administration and Israel will be repaired, I asked him a more personal question. He had [...]
I spent a month in Gaza during Operation Protective Edge. It was one of the worst and deadliest months I have seen in my life. The reality there was much more complicated than was seen from a safe distance in Europe or the United States. Yes, Israel bombed Palestinian houses in Gaza. But Hamas is [...]
The summer has been an ugly one for the American Jewish community. What should have been a policy debate over the Iran nuclear deal devolved into something much more pernicious and overwhelming. The Iran deal, as important as it is, has become so divisive that the damage it is doing to American Jewry, and even [...]
For all his mistakes, Ariel Sharon was right: Ultimately, there is no other way but to take our fate into our own hands, shape our borders and divide the land. I spent the traumatic summer of 2005 in Gush Katif. As far as I was concerned, there was no other option. Precisely because I was [...]
In an interview with The Times of Israel in June 2013, Danny Danon, serving at the time as deputy minister of defense, asserted that his Likud party and the governing coalition of the day were staunchly opposed to a two-state solution. Despite Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s professions of support in principle for a two-state deal, the [...]
My last Saturday night was spent, like so many other Saturday nights over the past 35 years, attending a demonstration in Tel Aviv’s Rabin Square. With one day’s notice thousands of like-minded Israelis gathered together to cry out against the horrors of hatred and violence – the crimes committed by Jews, based on a warped, [...]
We often cover anti-Semitic outbursts, but attacks on Jews are just one link in the chain. The United States has been dealing in recent years with white hate criminals who murder black people and with Muslim hate criminals who murder soldiers. Europe is dealing with Muslims who murder Jews and Christians and with Christians who [...]
The issues causing concern include inspections over Iranian facilities, the failure to dismantle Iran’s nuclear infrastructure, thus enabling it to become a “nuclear threshold” state in 10 to 15 years, and the early lifting of sanctions. Several nations and the U.S. Congress are now debating these points. My aim here is not to rehearse the arguments about the [...]
Concluding the nuclear deal with Iran has intensified political arguments not only in Washington but also within the pro-Israel community. Many groups are devoting significant time and resources to opposing the agreement and attempting to prevent its approval by Congress out of a belief that it will leave both the United States and Israel less [...]