US Opinion and Commentary

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Controversy About Trump’s Ambassador to Israel

Posted December 21st, 2016 at 4:44 pm (UTC-5)
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Battle lines are being drawn over Donald Trump’s choice to be Ambassador to Israel.

David Friedman is a bankruptcy lawyer who has done work for Trump. Friedman is a vocal opponent to the long-standing U.S. policy of a two-state solution between Israel and the Palestinians, insulting American Jews who do support it.

When named last week, Friedman said he looked forward to doing his job “from the U.S. embassy in Israel’s eternal capital, Jerusalem” instead of Tel Aviv, where the embassy has long stood, pending a negotiated deal about the status of the holy city.

Trump campaigned on promises to change U.S. foreign policy in the Middle East and elsewhere. What will that mean for the nearly 50 year stalemate between the Israelis and Palestinians and how the United States deals with other countries in the region?

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Will Obama Roll the Dice on the Middle East One More Time?

Posted September 6th, 2016 at 9:37 am (UTC-5)
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 All along, the assumption has been that Obama might wait to act until after the presidential election, so as to avoid creating problems for Hillary Clinton. There’s plenty of precedent: Ronald Reagan, Bill Clinton and George W. Bush all bid for a Middle East legacy during their final months.

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Israel’s Unprecedented Geopolitical Strength

Posted February 12th, 2016 at 1:18 pm (UTC-5)
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It may seem counterintuitive, or even downright strange, but Israel’s geopolitical position is probably stronger now than at any time in the country’s history. This is likely to continue at least in the short-to-medium term, but looming long-term challenges should give some pause to Israel’s current leaders.

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Obama Shutters the Peace Process Shop

Posted November 9th, 2015 at 12:55 pm (UTC-5)
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White House officials stated that an agreement between the two sides “isn’t in the cards” during what remains of the Obama presidency … It’s a stunningly honest admission, particularly for a president who set such high goals seven years ago. But was it a wise one? What is the Obama Administration up to?

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Obama: ‘If Not Now, Bibi, Then When?’

Posted November 9th, 2015 at 9:57 am (UTC-5)
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Last year, shortly before Benjamin Netanyahu made one of his periodic visits to the White House, I interviewed Barack Obama about the Israeli-Palestinian conflict… The president told me … “The essence of my conversation,” Obama said, is this: “If not now, when? And if not you, Mr. Prime Minister, then who?  

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Whither Peace 20 Years After Rabin’s Assassination?

Posted November 4th, 2015 at 4:03 pm (UTC-5)
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A deal between Israelis and Palestinians now seems impossible. The current narrative is whether or not they are sliding towards a third intifada. Today it seems clear that the late Israeli Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin was committed to making some kind of deal with the Palestinians beyond what was agreed to in 1993. Rabin, who helped engineer victory for Israel in the 1967 Six-Day War, was a believer in military might before negotiations. And maybe that was what was so threatening about him. Rabin had fought for Israel’s existence. And then, he shook the hand of his enemy, Yasser Arafat. Whatever it might have looked like in reality, peace was very possibly at hand when he was shot and killed in Tel Aviv 20 years ago today.

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Boiling Point: Is a Third Palestinian Intifada About to Break Out?

Posted October 19th, 2015 at 4:00 pm (UTC-5)
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Most of the ingredients are there for a collective explosion.

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Obama, Netanyahu and the Future of the Jewish State

Posted September 14th, 2015 at 9:05 am (UTC-5)
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We are now in the 48th year of the Israeli occupation of the West Bank. Hope for a two-state solution dims by the day. Right now, there are influential figures on the center-left, in America and in Europe, and certainly in the developing world, who believe that Israel is becoming an apartheid state

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