Will Germany enact a law that demands that every Turk aspiring to citizenship swear allegiance to the “German Federal Republic, the Nation-State of the German People”? Sounds like a ridiculous idea. Will the U.S. Senate adopt a law that would compel every candidate...
Which is the real Netanyahu? Bibi the weakling, the invertebrate, who always gives in to pressure, who zigzags to the left and to the right, depending whether the pressure comes from the U.S. or from his coalition partners?The tricky Likud chief, who is afraid that...
SHUAFAT, Occupied East Jerusalem - A peaceful morning is interrupted by the sounds of an Israeli helicopter circling overhead – often a sign of trouble on the ground. Later Sunday the news broke: a Palestinian man was shot dead in the village of Issawiya by Israeli...
With a key Arab League meeting delayed until Friday, the administration of U.S. President Barack Obama is scrambling to keep one-month-old direct Israeli- Palestinian peace talks alive. The stakes are high. If the talks fall apart, a number of observers believe a...
The disclosure of the details of a letter reportedly sent by President Barack Obama last week to Benjamin Netanyahu, the Israeli prime minister, will cause Palestinians to be even more skeptical about U.S. and Israeli roles in the current peace talks. According to the...
Benjamin Netanyahu, Israel's prime minister, has insisted from the launch of the current peace talks that the Palestinians set no preconditions, while making his own precondition the centerpiece of negotiations. Netanyahu has said talks are futile unless the...
Ehud Olmert raised his hands before his face, two fingertips almost touching: “We were that close!” He was talking about the negotiation he had conducted personally with Mahmoud Abbas, just before he himself was forced to vacate the prime minister's office. That was...
With the resumption of settlement construction in the West Bank Monday, Israel's powerful settler movement hopes that it has scuttled peace talks with the Palestinians. It would be misleading, however, to assume that the only major obstacle to the success of the...
SILWAN, Occupied East Jerusalem - Tension, the twisted carcasses of gutted vehicles, buses with smashed windows, smoldering dumpsters, streets riddled with rubber-coated steel bullets and empty cartridge cases, tear gas, and air thickened with black soot from burning...
Surfing the television channels, I came across an interview with the grandson of Mahatma Gandhi on an American network (Fox – would you believe it?). "My grandfather told us to love the enemy even while fighting him," he said, "he fought against the British...
