On the evening of Wednesday April 27, immediately after the Fatah-Hamas rapprochement was announced, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu released a message demanding that the President of the Palestinian Authority, Mahmoud Abbas, choose between “peace with Hamas or peace with…
Tag: Abbas
The Peace Talks: Consensus vs. Consensus
At last it is happening. U.S. President Barack Obama has opened direct talks between Israelis and Palestinians. All American presidents since Carter have tried for peace and failed, each failure resulting in blood. Responsibility is heavy therefore on the shoulders…
The New Abu Mazen?
American mediator George Mitchell is again en route to the Middle East in a mission to jumpstart negotiations between Israel and the Palestinian Authority (PA). Mitchell is trying to keep his grip on the rope that Israeli PM Binyamin Netanyahu grudgingly let…
Settlements First
Ever since the speech by US President Barack Obama at Cairo University on June 4, 2009, construction in the West Bank settlements has become the focus of political attention in both Israel and the world. The clear, even blunt position…
The Third Choice
THE BLOOD still boils at the sights that came out of Gaza when Israel invaded in March. At least 107 Palestinians were killed, mostly civilians. Houses collapsed on their inhabitants. Hamas went underground, so that the “strongest army in the…
The Fading of the Two-State Solution
AFTER RETURNING from the Annapolis Conference, Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert told Haaretz (November 28, 2007) that “the State of Israel cannot endure unless a Palestinian state comes into being.” Olmert had made a like pronouncement in December 2003, when he was…
The PeaceMaker
I have succeeded in making peace between the Israelis and the Palestinians. In an interview preceding the Annapolis Conference, PA negotiator Saeb Erakat claimed that peace could be delivered in half an hour. The basis, everyone already knows, is the…
Never Never Land
AFTER HAMAS was elected, Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas (Abu Mazen) attempted to cooperate with it. This led Israel to claim there was no one to talk to. After Hamas took over Gaza, however, Abbas officially dismissed its government and set…
On the Narrow Shoulders of Abu Mazen
THE HERZLIA Conference has become, in the last few years, Ariel Sharon’s favorite forum for addressing the nation. One year ago (December 18, 2003), the Israeli PM used it to high dramatic effect: If the Palestinians do not take steps,…
Abu Mazen’s Second Try
THE death of Yasser Arafat has aroused feverish activity in the arena of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. As long as he was alive, time seemed to stand still. The oppression of the Palestinians went on at full force, while the diplomatic…