When we moved to Israel in 1983, my first job was at Israel’s largest (at the time) software consultancy. One of my colleagues was a modern Orthodox (“dati”) man. I was far less to the “left” then, and since this man actually lived in a Tel Aviv suburb, not the settlements, I assumed he was [...]
Negotiations
Real News Network does a good job presenting the significance of the possible prisoner exchange: Tweet
Three reactions to the Obama speech by left-leaning Israeli journalists. More below. Tweet
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 [...]
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. Tweet
A detailed report by Seymour Hersh in the New Yorker, on opportunities and dangers facing the Obama administration: American and foreign government officials, intelligence officers, diplomats, and politicians said in interviews that renewed Israeli-Syrian negotiations over the Golan Heights are now highly likely, despite Gaza and the elections in Israel in February, which left the [...]
Mar
18
AronT on March 18th, 2009
Andrew Sullivan over at his blog on The Atlantic quotes a piece by Jeffrey Goldberg (of the same magazine) on why “Hamas will never be a partner for peace.” The details of Goldberg’s argument are irrelevant. It is just a tired variation on a tired theme. Every time I read silly articles like that, steam [...]
An interesting analysis by Simon Tisdall of the Guardian, discussing Obama’s options: If in four years’ time, military confrontation with Iran has been avoided, the Iraq withdrawal has been managed honourably and without internal collapse and some kind of half-credible peace process between Israel and its Arab neighbours is in train, Obama’s people will probably [...]