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DELEGATES FROM Israel and a consortium of Arab states will meet in the United States this month with the hope of devising an agreement - or at least the DNA of an agreement - that will lead to the formation of a Palestinian state and, theoretically, stability in the Middle East. It is the first such US-led summit in years, and regardless of the outcome, it will be a historic event.
There is, it seems, an unbridgeable gap between the western world's apparent recognition of the dangers of Palestinian suffering and its commitment to do anything whatever to stop it. This week the collective punishment of the people of Gaza reached a new level, as Israel began to choke off essential fuel supplies to its one and a half million people in retaliation for rockets fired by Palestinian resistance groups. A plan to cut power supplies has only been put on hold till the end of the week by the intervention of Israel's attorney general.
When the university and college lecturers' union, the UCU, voted at its conference in May this year to have a debate on an academic boycott of Israel, all hell broke loose. British academia was criticised by many commentators in the UK, and by professors around the world, for anti-Semitism and for inhibiting the free flow of ideas.
Gordon Brown and Tony Blair teamed up yesterday to try to salvage a planned Middle East peace conference in America by clinching Saudi Arabia’s attendance.
According to British officials, first the Prime Minister and then his predecessor met King Abdullah of Saudi Arabia yesterday. It was made clear at the meetings that the country’s participation was crucial for what is being billed as the best chance for peace in the region for seven years.
The European Union's policy in the Middle East is the litmus test of its common foreign and security policy. Many Europeans share this belief, but, as the EU considers entering the fray of Middle East peace talks, it must respond to former Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon's jibe that in the region "you are payers, not players."
If the plot of land belonging to Dr. Salam Fayad, the Palestinian prime minister, were located 50 meters west of its present location, in the level part of the village of Deir al-Ghusun, it would now be growing thorns and thistles. If it were located 50, or at most 100 meters, to the west, Fayad's plot would have found itself on the other side of the separation fence, on the other side of Gate 609, which soldiers open and close three times a day to allow entrance to those who have managed, after investing considerable efforts, to get permits in order to get to their land.
It is not easy to discuss the negotiations between Israel and the Palestinians in a practical manner, without past grudges. Too many emotions, historical memories and political interests are involved, turning every discussion of a solution to the conflict into a slogan contest: "diplomatic horizon," "partition of Jerusalem," "right of return."
It might take as long as half a century before U.S. troops can leave the volatile Middle East, according to retired Army Gen. John Abizaid.
Back in the 1980s the major American Jewish welfare organization adopted as its fundraising slogan "We are One." The implication was that American Jews were a united bloc. But we are not "one" and never have been. Ideologically, we are everything from anarchists to Zionists, working people to the gilded rich. Noam Chomsky is as Jewish as Irving Kristol, and Norman Finkelstein as Jewish as Alan Dershowitz. We are neither angels nor saints.
The Palestinian organizations responsible for the massive firing of Qassam rockets and mortar rounds at Israel over the past few days may harbor hostility toward one another, but they share a common goal: Dragging Israel into a massive activity in the Gaza Strip.
Yesterday, it was the Fatah-affiliated Al-Aqsa Martyrs' Brigades that fired a heavy salvo of rockets at Sderot. But despite their affiliation, the men who launched the rockets are not taking orders from Fatah chief and Palestinian Authority Chairman Mahmoud Abbas.
AMERICAN FOREIGN policy confronts a basic paradox. The United States stands alone as the world’s most powerful nation, with the strongest military, the largest economy, the highest level of technological capacity and the most extensive cultural influence around the world. Even after the setbacks of recent years, no other single power or grouping of states comes close to matching the United States. And yet America’s ability to accomplish things abroad has rarely—in recent memory—seemed so limited. Why?
The prevailing worldwide view of how to resolve politically the conflict of two nationalisms in Israel/Palestine is the so-called two-state solution - the creation of two states, Israel and Palestine, within the boundaries of the onetime British Mandate of Palestine.
Actually, this position is not at all new. One might argue that it was the prevailing worldwide position throughout the 20th century.
Links:
[1] http://www.americantaskforce.org/print/5824
[2] http://www.americantaskforce.org/printmail/5824
[3] http://www.americantaskforce.org/printpdf/5824
[4] http://www.americantaskforce.org/rss/wpr
[5] http://www.americantaskforce.org/world_press_roundup/20071101t000000
[6] http://www.boston.com/news/globe/editorial_opinion/oped/articles/2007/11/01/in_humanity_lies_hope_for_peace/
[7] http://www.guardian.co.uk/israel/comment/0,,2202896,00.html
[8] http://student.independent.co.uk/university_life/article3113491.ece
[9] http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/politics/article2781332.ece
[10] http://www.dailystar.com.lb/article.asp?edition_id=10&categ_id=5&article_id=86419
[11] http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/919155.html
[12] http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/919141.html
[13] http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20071101/ap_on_re_us/abizaid_middle_east
[14] http://www.lewrockwell.com/polner/polner22.html
[15] http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/919586.html
[16] http://www.nationalinterest.org/Article.aspx?id=15992
[17] http://www.iht.com/articles/2007/11/01/opinion/edwallerstein.php
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