Israel

It appears that Israeli Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu is becoming more amenable to a U.S. plan that would halt settlements for an additional two months and during that time negotiations on final borders would commence. This plan is interesting for two reasons. First, tieing the settlement freeze to metrics represents a clear timeframe that both […]

In every recent Israeli election, complaints abound that there is  no qualified leader worthy of people’s votes and there is only one candidate that is barely good enough. Israeli Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu was the most recent good enough candidate for the right, while the left split their votes between then-Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni and […]

The Obama administration has gotten into hot water over Israel and the level of pressure inflicted on the Jewish state. Pro-Israel groups in the United States and many Israelis have criticized the White House on several different fronts, including calls by the administration to end Israeli settlement construction. Similarly, when Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu visited […]

The White House is pushing back against a D.C. rumor that President Barack Obama sent a letter to Israeli Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu offering a slew of favors in exchange for a two month extension of the West Bank settlement freeze. The rumor originated from a blog written by researcher David Makovsky, who has ties […]

I’ve written time after time about the irrelevancy of Israeli Foreign Minister Avigdor Leiberman. Yet, he still manages to suprise, not with an artful mastery of politics to gain clout, but with providing yet another excuse to his colleagues to dismiss him. Let’s review Leiberman’s history. Instead of examining events years ago, how about just […]

The Israeli intelligence services and the IDF have suffered some set backs of late that many critics have suggested indicates Israeli clandestine operations are in a free fall. “What happened to the days where (future Prime Minister and Defense Minister Ehud) Barack snuck into PLO headquarters in drag to assassinate some of the world’s most […]

Secretary of State Hillary Clinton is in Israel, and it appears that she did not pass up an opportunity to speak to the Israeli people. However, she used that opportunity to both say nothing and reaffirm what everyone knows — Israelis would prefer Clinton over Obama, hands down. On the saying nothing, in an interview […]

Anyone reading this blog knows that Israelis are becoming ever-more jaded by the peace process and more conservative by the day. Anyone reading also knows that I often take a very critical view of religious intervention in public policy, even in a religious state. Well, new interesting survey results are out, and it appears that […]

Jews and Israelis celebrated the new year Rosh Hashanah holiday last week, when families gathered and at sweet treats to shepherd in 5771. But, ten days later, Jews around the world fast for 25 hours to atone for their sins during the previous year and spend the day reflecting. As it so happens, Yom Kippur […]

This week marks the Jewish new year and one of the most important holidays for Israelis and Jews around the world. In honor of the occasion, President Barack Obama recorded a nice note for Israelis and Jews, a large portion of which feel abandoned by the administration for the pressure placed on Israel to halt […]

On its latest cover, Time magazine makes the startling assertion that Israel does not want peace, all in the midst of peace talks in Washington between President Obama, Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu and Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas. On the face of it, this assertion is meant to de-legitimize Israel as not a partner in […]

U.S. Special Envoy to the Middle East George Mitchell said today that Israeli and Palestinian leaders will meet on bi-weekly basis after this week’s peace talks. The first meeting will be held in Egypt, further signalling that Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak would like to play a crucial role in these negotiations. I’m guessing that the […]