August 06, 2008
Facilitating a Middle East Peace Deal Now: The Refugee Issue
Iceland and Sweden will accept for resettlement a couple hundred Palestinian refugees stuck on the Iraq-Syria border with nowhere to go because neither state will take them. Good for Iceland and Sweden. (Insert snark here about the eternal devotion of the Arab states to the cause of Palestinian refugees.). But we should actually think of this as a model. I...
July 31, 2008
Olmert's End--and Kadima's Future?
I suppose that it says something about the state of American election-year politics, or the blogosphere, that the toppling of an Israeli Prime Minister has been greeted with mostly a deafening silence. Maybe there wasn't that much to say. I think that Aluf Benn's analysis in Ha'aretz is pretty close to the mark. As much as I respect Yossi Klein...
July 25, 2008
Wingnut Welfare Greenwashes the JNF
Ever since Tommy Franks called Doug Feith "the stupidest f*cking guy on the face of the earth," it's been a pretty sure bet not to expect too much from the family. Good thing, too. In today's Wall Street Journal, Feith's son David Feith writes a horrible piece on the Jewish National Fund. (I'm not sure David is Doug's son, but...
July 03, 2008
May 30, 2008
May 23, 2008
John Hagee and the Israel lobb(ies)
How about an accountability moment for the alleged "Jewish leaders" who made nice to John Hagee?
May 21, 2008
Ehud Chamberlain?
Israel and Syria have been engaged in talks concerning a possible land-for-peace deal with Golan Heights. I'm just waiting for John McCain and George Bush to denounce the Prime Minister of Israel as an appeaser. Obviously, he doesn't understand anything about what happens when you negotiate with terrorists. I'm actually a little skeptical that this track will work. It involves...
April 21, 2008
No genocide for at least ten years ...
... and that's a promise from Hamas, as conveyed by the execrable Jimmy Carter.
April 17, 2008
March 18, 2008
November 10, 2007
September 20, 2007
August 28, 2007
Turks and Armenians
Over at The Daily Dish, Jamie Kirchick follows Mark and makes the sensible point that the Anti-Defamation League, which claims to be a humanitarian organization, should not be censoring its own officials for pointing out that the Armenian genocide was, in fact,a genocide. The origin of this is the Turkish government's pressuring Israel to pressure American Jewish groups not to...
January 16, 2007
Reality intrudes
If the Israeli attack on Hezbollah in Lebanon was such a triumph, why did the Israeli Army Chief of Staff just resign?
January 11, 2007
Reality creep
The cryptic asides about Iran and Syria in Bush's speech, and the raid on the Iranian consulate, made this post from last month up to 10% less loony, I'm sorry to report....
January 10, 2007
Israel-Palestine potential breakthrough?
This is potentially huge: Hamas leader Khaled Meshal, generally considered a hard-liner within the group, has acknowledged the existence of Israel: Israel is a "reality" and "there will remain a state called Israel, this is a matter of fact," Meshal said in an interview. The problem was not Israel's existence but the failure to establish a state for Palestinians, said...
January 07, 2007
Politics of the absurd?
The State Department refuses to give a U.N. team access to prisoners at Guantanamo, then dismisses their critical report as "without merit" because it isn't based on first-hand evidence.
December 14, 2006
Health tip
Don't eat a sardine sandwich and chocolate chip cookies in the evening. Last night, I did that, and dreamed someone snuck up to the bed and put a tinfoil hat on my head while I was asleep. Then I dreamed that I had the following dream: January 5, 2007 My fellow Americans: As I speak to you today, US aircraft...
August 28, 2006
The Nasrallah Interview
I am very cautiously optimistic that Nasrallah's contrite interview concerning the Israel-Hizbullah war is good news. Nasrallah essentially admitted that the war was a mistake; there is no way that Hizbullah would have kidnapped two Israeli soldiers, he said, had it known that Israel would have struck back so forcefully. I doubt that he actually means it. Instead, I agree...
August 16, 2006
A little louder, please
Steve Clemons' excellent blog, The Washington Note, is a must-read for anyone interested in US foreign policy. I don't always agree with Clemons, but I do always learn from him. Which is why a cryptic statement from him the other day was a little disappointing. In a well-reasoned takedown of prominent neoconservative Jeffrey Gedmin (notable not just for its reasoning...
August 14, 2006
Who won?
A typically superb overnight analysis of the Israel-Hizbullah war by Ze'ev Schiff in Ha'aretz. One clear victor in all of this is Hizbullah's media strategist, with an assist from the Israeli leadership. HIzbullah managed to convince the world that it would win if it survived, a claim helped by early, reckless Israeli statements that it was attempting to destroy Hizbullah....
August 12, 2006
Some sharp questions for Jerusalem
if I were a relative of any of the 24 Israeli soldiers killed today in Lebanon, or a relative of any Lebanese civilian killed today, I would have some very sharp and hostile questions for whoever decided to continue the ground offensive through 8 am Monday. Both Lebanon and Israel have agreed to this cease-fire. So has Hizbullah, sort of:...
August 10, 2006
Perhaps, a glimmer
An interesting piece today in Ha'aretz by Imad Shakur, a former Arafat advisor and member of the Palestinian Revolutionary Council. He makes some provocative points about Israel becoming a more "normal" country because it has "lost" a war yet survives as a state. Whether or not he is right as to the military balance remains to be seen. But at...
August 08, 2006
Just asking
NATO began its war against Milosevic and the United States began its war against the Taliban with extended bombing campaigns. What do we know about the numbers of civilians killed, wounded or displaced and the monetary damage that both bombing campaigns cost? And did the Europeans or the Arab League condemn the US or NATO for a "barbarous attack" against...
August 07, 2006
For It Before They Were Against It
So for two weeks Arab governments and Iran demanded an immediate cease-fire in Lebanon. Now, France and the United States draft a security council resolution calling for an immediate cease-fire, and both the Arab League and Iran reject it. It's pretty easy to see why, of course. No one would call the IDF's ground campaign a raging success, but Israeli...
July 14, 2006
Middle East War: A Quneitra Option?
The New York Times features an insightful op-ed today by Michael Young, a veteran reporter in Lebanon, about the current Israeli-Hezbollah war (I don't agree with its conclusion, but that's for another post). Young points to a central problem: Syria is the real power behind Hezbollah, but Israel is attacking Lebanon, which has no control over it. That's not totally...
June 12, 2006
Gaza Update
The initial IDF report will conclude tentatively that the cause of the Gaza explosion was a Hamas bomb planted on the beach in order to deter Israel Navy commandos: Some of the findings have already been reported: that five of the shells definitely landed some 250 meters from the beach, and that the explosion occurred at least eight minutes after...
June 11, 2006
The Gaza "Massacre": Hold Your Fire
The death of seven Palestinians on a Gaza beach two days ago was clearly a tragedy. But at this point we don't know who caused it. The Israeli Air Force initially apologized for a "mistake," leading to worldwide condemnation led by (unsurprisingly) the French. But let's not move too fast. Ha'aretz reports today that the IDF is launching an internal...
June 08, 2006
In other assassination news....
Israel has killed Hamas' security chief, Jamal Abu Samhadana. Abu Sanhadana, who headed the Popular Resistance Committees in Gaza, was responsible for several terrorist attacks--especially Qassam missile attacks on southern Israeli cities. But he was also director-general of the Hamas government's interior ministry: PA President Abu Mazen vehemently objected to his appointment (as did Israel, who had Abu Sanhadana on...
January 10, 2006
Darfur, the Arab League, and the Jews
Just when you thought Darfur couldn't get more grotesque, it does: the invaluable Eric Reeves points out that both the Arab League and the African Union have decided to hold their summit meetings in Khartoum, the capital of the genocidal Sudanese regime. No doubt these meetings will be quite a feather in the regime's cap, and show potential other mass...
January 04, 2006
Sharon's stroke and Israeli politics
Josh Marshall shudders to think what the final story will be in light of Ariel Sharon's "significant" stroke earlier today. No one knows, of course, but let's assume that Sharon is incapacitated for an extended period of time, a reasonable assumption for a stroke victim who is 77 years old, 5'7", and weighs well over 250 pounds. It seems to...
November 30, 2005
Velvet Divorce, Israeli-Style
Surprising exactly no one, Shimon Peres has left the Labor Party to join forces with Ariel Sharon and the new Kadima Party. As is typical with much Israeli politics, the move is generating more heat than light: Labor is accusing Peres of betrayal, Likud is saying that this proves Kadima is a left-wing party, etc. etc. But this is a...
