Monthly Archives : August 2009

The rigged game


On Tuesday the Guardian reported that the Obama administration is now making Israel an offer it can’t refuse: In exchange for a government order to freeze construction for Jews in Jerusalem, Judea and Samaria, the administration will adopt a “much tougher line with Iran over its alleged nuclear weapons program.”     Israel should refuse this offer.     What…

Read More »

What Israelis Think of Rahm Emanuel


Dear Friends, As I have written in a number of articles recently, Israelis consider President Obama to be deeply hostile to Israel. A Jerusalem Post poll from June showed that only 6 percent of Israeli Jews think that he is pro-Israel and a more recent Haaretz poll showed that a mere 12 percent of Israelis think Obama is supportive of…

Read More »

Netanyahu”s perilous statecraft


This week we discovered that we have been deceived. Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu’s principled rejection of US President Barack Obama’s bigoted demand that Israel bar Jews from building new homes and expanding existing ones in Judea and Samaria does not reflect his actual policy.     Construction and Housing Minister Ariel Attias let the cat out of the bag.  …

Read More »

Fatah’s message


A central pillar of the Obama administration’s Middle East policy paradigm was shattered at the Fatah conference in Bethlehem – but don’t expect the White House to notice.     At the conference, Fatah’s supposedly feuding old guard and young guard were united in their refusal to reach an accommodation with Israel. Both old and young endorsed the use of…

Read More »

Israel and the “realists”


Voices in America calling for downgrading US relations with Israel seem to multiply by the day. One of the new voices in the growing anti-Israel chorus is the Atlantic‘s well-respected military affairs commentator, Robert Kaplan. This week Kaplan authored a column for the magazine’s online edition titled “Losing patience with Israel.”     There he expressed his support for the…

Read More »