Another Bush Legacy “In allowing the Israelis and Palestinians to have it out on the ground, and not giving them a diplomatic alternative, thousands of Israelis and Palestinians have lost their lives. And the whole edifice of a peace process that began with Henry Kissinger was destroyed.” —Former U.S. Ambassador to Israel Martin Indyk WHEN […]

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The Afghan Dilemma—House Armed Services Committee Chair Ike Skelton (D-MO) describes President Barack Obama’s Afghanistan strategy as “not new” but the “first strategy” in a war that has been under-resourced and “forgotten” since the Bush administration initiated it in 2001. The Afghanistan assessment that General Stanley McChrystal presented to the president reportedly calls for an […]

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“I hope that in the coming months we will see negotiations launched on all fronts as result of a regional peace initiative by President Obama, with the Palestinian issue at its core…. In my opinion, Israel should enthusiastically join the initiative.” —Israeli Defense Minister Ehud Barak, August 3, 2009 LONG-TIME OBSERVERS OF THE MIDDLE EAST […]

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Torture at Guantánamo? “On a couple of occassions [sic], I entered interview rooms to find a detainee chained hand and foot in a fetal position to the floor, with no chair, food, or water. Most times they had urinated or defacated [sic] on themselves, and had been left there for 18-24 hours or more. On […]

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Bomb Iran?—Swine flu kept the story off the front pages of American newspapers, but the Israeli press is engaged in a robust public debate over the prospect of an Israeli Defense Forces (IDF) attack on Iran’s nuclear facilities. That line of discussion continues in the Israeli press. “As far as Netanyahu is concerned, a decisive […]

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