Israel & Palestine

The part of Israel that remains perfect to Martin Peretz is vanishingly small. But it does still exist, tangibly enough that you could trace its perimeter on a map of Tel Aviv: the ethnically mixed neighborhoods of Jaffa, the impeccably preserved Bauhaus downtown, the symphony halls and dance theaters, the intersections that still hold traffic, tense and honking, at 2:30 in the morning, the cosmopolitan sidewalk cafés that make real the old liberal dream.

Special Middle East envoy George Mitchell is back in the region conducting his shuttle diplomacy, settlement construction continues apace and the much-anticipated speech of Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton managed to avoid hard choices. It's business as usual, so presumably we can all relax — Israel has dodged another peace bullet.

No so fast. I would suggest that recent events should have sent the gevalt-o-meter into the red zone for anyone concerned about Israel's future or shared American-Israeli interests.

President Barack Obama's political fortunes suffered a dramatic blow on Nov. 2. Since then, whether in domestic policy or the international arena, nations, as well as U.S. politicians, have raised their price for cooperating with him.

The leaders of the Israeli right and of the settler movement have been wearing their Cheshire Cat grins since the United States announced its pullback from negotiations to extend a limited Israeli moratorium on settlement construction. Israel’s right have taken to vilifying America’s current president with a birther-like enthusiasm and are celebrating what they consider to be another victory against U.S. peace efforts.

Yasher Koach, Bibi, it looks like the White House has finally given up. For close to two years now, they've been hectoring you about a Palestinian state. First, they tried sticks: They worked to undermine you politically by letting Israelis know you didn't have the president's trust. Then they tried carrots: offering to double Israel's stock of advanced jet fighters, veto any critical resolutions at the U.N.

The efforts to resume peace talks on ending the Israeli-Arab conflict are in full swing. The United States is aggressively courting the Israeli government of Benjamin Netanyahu and his right-wing coalition, trying to embarrass them with sufficient riches that would convince even the most recalcitrant Israeli politician to reconsider Israel’s settlement policy (for ninety days at least). U.S.

The last time you visited your favorite blog, how wide of a cross-section of public opinion did the comments represent? It probably depended on the blogger, on the article, and on the mood of the day.

The New America Foundation’s American Strategies Program and the Palestinian Note hosted Palestinian Authority Prime Minister Salam Fayyad for a discussion of his state-building agenda in the West Bank, which he hopes will bring about the end of the Israeli occupation. Fayyad’s plan has reached its half-way mark and so far, has created stronger underpinnings for the political process in Palestine. Fayyad spoke passionately about the strong sense of self-empowerment and perception of possibility that these programs have brought about in Palestine.

On 26 August, Shibley Telhami, Anwar Sadat Professor for Peace and Development at the University of Maryland and Amjad Atallah, co-Director of the Middle East Task Force at the New America Foundation, discussed the results of the 2010 Arab Poll of 6 Arab countries and the implications for U.S. policy in the region.  Daniel Levy, co-Director of the Middle East Task Force, led the conversation by asking how the findings of this survey may drive the new round of Middle East peace talks – the prism through which the Arab world views U.S. policy – and how the U.S.

On July 26, The New America Foundation welcomed Jessica Montell, the Executive Director of B’Tselem, the leading human rights organization in Israel, to discuss the human rights situation in Israel and the Occupied Territories.

B’Tselem recently published two reports, its 2009-2010 annual report on human rights in the West Bank and Gaza, and “By Hook and by Crook”, a report detailing Israel’s settlements in the West Bank.