Why Did Peace Talks Fail? Abbas Wouldn’t Take the Pen and Sign
The New York Times is reporting today that former Israeli prime minister Ehud Olmert’s memoirs confirm what has long been known to be true: that in September 2008, Mahmoud Abbas walked away from a...
View ArticleThe Fall of Obama’s Favorite Israeli
For the past three years, figures in America’s foreign policy establishment as well as media kibbitzers who knew little about Israel had a constant refrain: Tzipi Livni, the glamorous head of the...
View ArticleNetanyahu Isn’t Worried About Olmert
Former Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert spoke in New York yesterday at a conference organized by the Jerusalem Post. In his speech, Olmert attacked the policies of his successor Benjamin Netanyahu...
View ArticleThe Lesson of Livni’s Resignation: Don’t Believe Media Reporting on Israel
Former opposition leader Tzipi Livni’s resignation from the Knesset today offers a good opportunity to reflect on just how unreliable mainstream media reporting about Israel often is. Just two months...
View ArticleCoalition Shift Leaves Netanyahu on Top
The collapse of the short-lived supermajority who presided over Israel’s ruling coalition since May has given critics of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu the best couple of days they’ve had in years....
View ArticleOlmert’s No Threat to Netanyahu
American critics of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu have spent the time since his election in early 2009 longing for someone who could knock the Likud leader off his perch. But luckily for...
View ArticleThe Predictably Unpredictable Israeli Political Scene
Parliamentary democracy makes for strange alliances, and nowhere is this truer than Israel. Minor parties hold disproportionate sway, and the fragmentation of party politics means that even the largest...
View ArticleIsraeli Leftists Ditching Labor for Olmert?
The worst thing to happen to the Israeli left was not the rise of Benjamin Netanyahu, who managed somehow to win the first Israeli election after Oslo and then find the political acumen to take Likud...
View ArticleCan Abbas Resurrect Olmert’s Career?
The mini-boomlet fueling the attempted comeback of former Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert got a boost yesterday from an unlikely source: Palestinian Authority leader Mahmoud Abbas. As Haaretz...
View ArticleHow to Reset U.S.-Israel Relations?
The Washington Post poses an excellent question in its editorial today in which it ponders how best to “reset” relations between the United States and Israel. Though Democrats have spent the last year...
View ArticleIsraeli Poll Shows Labor at a Crossroads
Earlier this month, I wrote about an Israeli news report suggesting former Kadima party leaders Ehud Olmert and Tzipi Livni were considering teaming up with former Israeli TV journalist Yair Lapid for...
View ArticleIsraeli Political Parties Find Their Voices
One of the more interesting aspects of the current Israeli political pre-election shuffling is the unsettled nature of every major political party to the left of Likud. Kadima and Labor, the two...
View ArticleWhy Likud Wants to Absorb Israel Beiteinu
The Times of Israel is reporting that Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s Likud party will merge with Avigdor Lieberman’s Israel Beiteinu party in advance of the January Knesset elections. There are...
View ArticleEhud Olmert’s Conspiracy Theory
Former Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert recently advanced a curious conspiracy theory about me—a theory that would almost be flattering if it weren’t so absurd. Olmert charged that Prime Minister...
View ArticleFor Israel’s Critics, Reality Intervenes Again
Ever since Israel ceased to be dominated by one political party, when Menachem Begin’s Likud finally won the 1977 national elections, there has been a striking and ever-increasing disconnect between...
View ArticlePalestinian UN Bid Not About Peace
With the Palestinian Authority all but certain to have its status at the United Nations upgraded this evening to nonmember observer state, some who call themselves friends of Israel as well as some...
View ArticleDid Bibi Slap Obama in the Face?
Former Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert’s political options at home are limited. His breach-of-trust conviction and his pending corruption trial are preventing him from running in next month’s...
View ArticleMa’ale Adumim, E-1, and the Two-State Solution
Ma’ale Adumim, located immediately east of Jerusalem, and the E-1 corridor that connects it to the city, have always been (as Jonathan noted) part of the “Everyone Knows Two-State Solution”–“everyone...
View ArticleThe Misplaced Faith in Abbas
Ben Birnbaum’s thoughtful, well-reported piece on the Israeli peace process is one of those articles that can easily be interpreted as in accordance with anyone’s preexisting worldview: it’s a...
View ArticleDon’t Ignore Olmert’s Lesson in Futility
Those who choose to absolve the Palestinians of any responsibility for their own plight are faced with a difficult dilemma. After 20 years of peace processing that have included enormous concessions on...
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