Bibi, with a little help from friends like President Trump, has once again deftly navigated the legal, electoral and political systems in Israel to cement his position and that of his coalition for at least the next four years. Netanyahu would have to be a bumbling idiot to blow this prospective coalition. And no one has ever accused him of either bumbling or idiocy. If Bibi continues the policy of "creeping settlements" and avoids a "blitzkrieg" of annexation, we will all likely act like frogs in a warming bucket of water. And all that will be left to do is to redraw the maps.
Read More
President Trump did the right thing for Israel, for the Palestinians and for America by recognizing Jerusalem as Israel’s capital. No matter what your view of the President may be, his was a statesmanlike pronouncement worthy if our President. It remains to be seen what the results may be, and given the fact that it is the Middle East there will inevitably be drama.
Read More
Sending poor Jared Kushner to beard the old men of Middle East, Abbas and Netanyahu, was like sending him into the ring with Floyd Mayweather - it was no contest.
Read More
The Israeli encirclement of Jerusalem and announcement of more settlement housing makes the prospect of a two state solution increasingly impossible. If no solution between Israel and the Palestinians is possible, then we need to adjust our thinking. And by calling into question the Palestinian State, what are the Israelis saying about the future of their own state of Israel
Read More
“The Palestinian issue originally achieved strategic importance for the US primarily as a result of the Cold War and the US-Soviet competition for allies in the strategic Middle East. With the end of the cold war there has been a sometimes-serious debate about just how important the issue is to the United States. For the most part its importance has been assumed. Everybody knows it is important – but is it really important to us? And what about Israel?
Read More
At their meeting tomorrow the match-up will be uneven. Bibi does his homework and will know precisely what has been going on in the White House and the Congress. He will be better informed than his interlocutors, including the President. His intelligence on the Middle East region as it impacts on Israel is better than ours, and his attention to detail makes him a formidable negotiator. Bibi has a lot in common with President Trump but has been at it a lot longer. If there is a clash, we will probably not see it. But if President Trump thinks he can bully Prime Minister Netanyahu, Trump better be prepared to lose.
Read More