The Sunday Times of London has this to say: Administration officials say privately that Obama has given himself two years for a diplomatic breakthough on a two-state solution for Israel and the Palestinians, despite the opposition of Binyamin Netanyahu, the Israeli prime minister, to America’s minimum demand for a freeze on all settlement building in [...]
There are many who believe (or are worried) that Obama will follow the path of some of his predecessors and talk in public about stopping the settlements (and by implication the settlers) but do nothing about it in private. Aluf Benn argues that Obama is serious and has Congressional support on this issue: United States [...]
Gideon Levy writes about a phenomenon I have discussed in the past: Anti-Semitism is raising its head. Not in Warsaw, Munich or Paris, and there’s no need for the Anti-Defamation League to wave the evidence around. It’s right here, in our own home, in verdant Ramat Aviv, the most enlightened suburb of Tel Aviv, our [...]
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Uri Avnery agrees with my assessment of the Obama-Netanyahu meeting: BARACK OBAMA is often compared to Franklin Delano Roosevelt, but it is from the book of another Roosevelt that he has taken a leaf: President Theodore Roosevelt, who, 108 years ago, advised his successors: “Speak softly and carry a big stick!” This week, the whole [...]
Now that a few days have passed, I’m prepared to make a few comments about the Obama-Netanyahu meeting that took place earlier in the week.
Roger Cohen makes some good points: What’s really at issue here is that neither Israel nor the Arabs want a change in a status quo that locks in Israeli regional military dominance and the cozy relationships — arms deals, aid and all — that U.S. allies from the Gulf to Cairo enjoy. American interests are, [...]
Three years ago on Purim I accompanied my late father to the reading of the Megillah at a small Hasidic shtebel across the street from his home. The speech of the guest Rabbi got me so angry I began to write a very long piece on the Purim holiday. I managed to write two long [...]
In my previous post I talked a bit about the disinformation propagated by the mainstream media, specifically in regards to the Roxana Saberi story . Disinformation is the deliberate propagation of false information (as opposed to misinformation which is unintentionally false). The disinformation in this case is not the reported fact that Saberi was treated [...]
While I am glad for Roxana Saberi and her parents that she was released from Iranian prison, Glen Greenwald hits the nail on the wall: Right now — as the American press corps celebrates itself for demanding Saberi’s release in Iran — the U.S. continues to imprison Ibrahim Jassam, a freelance photographer for Reuters, even [...]
In Ha’aretz the other day they had this article which had me laughing out loud: “Obama’s people brief their Israeli counterparts in advance much less about security and Middle East policy activities than the Bush administration used to,” the officials said. In addition, when they do brief Israeli officials, they don’t consult with them or [...]
Continue reading about Jerusalem is Worried – Obama isn’t a Frier!