Robin Messing

Bibi Netanyahu has repeatedly demanded that the Palestinians recognize Israel as a "Jewish State" for peace talks to go anywhere.  It is not enough for the Palestinians to recognize Israel's right to exist peacefully as a normal state.  No, according to Netanyahu the Palestinians have to go beyond that and recognize Israel's right to exist as a Jewish State.  Israel hasn't always demanded this.  It did not require that either Egypt or Jordan recognize it as a Jewish State bef

Ask almost any supporter of Israel about how the Arab/Israeli conflict started and they are likely to mention Arab attacks against Jews in 1920/21 that left 47 Jews dead and 150 wounded.  They may point to Arab rejection of  Churchill White paper of 1922.  Undoubtedly they will point to the attacks in Hebron in 1929 in which more than 60 Jews were murdered and the rest were driven out of the city.  Or they will recall in horror how the Grand Mufti of Jerusalem,

Human Rights Watch has extensively documented Israeli destruction of Palestinian homes in East Jerusalem and in the 62% of the West Bank under total Israeli control known as Area C.  This article by HRW is long and somewhat repetitive, but it is a must read for anyone trying to understand how Israeli actions are jeopardizing the peace process.  Here are a few key passages to give you a flavor or the article, but you really should read it yourself.

As Joel Braunold points out in his Open Zion article, intervening in Syria is both a security imperative and a risk.  I agree with everything he says, but I think he missed the most important reason to intervene in Syria.  Israel is watching this very carefully to see if Obama's red line in Syria means anything.  If we fail to launch some sort of attack (preferably as part of a multinational force), then Israel will conclude that we have a backbone made of silly putty.  Israel will conclude that it can not count on us to keep our w

Read this article in Slate which describes how Israeli actions are pissing off the rest of the world.

Peter Beinart and Alan M. Dershowitz have a brilliant suggestion for jumpstarting the peace process between the Israel and the Palestinian authority.  Read the whole article, but pay particular attention to the partial settlement freeze they propose:

Here are two articles that I highly recommend.  First, James Zogby discusses Israel's true agenda behind Operation Pillar of Defense.  In the second article, Former Knesset member, Rabbi Michael Melchior claims that he has spoke with religious leaders amongst Islamic extremists and they are willing to live with Israel.  I'm not sure what to make of the second article.  Melchior doesn't mention any names and it is impossible to know exactly what these extremists told him.  Were they leading him on and deceiving him into believing that a final and permanent peace is possible when, in fact, they really only intended a hudna,

I attended a rally today at Cornell University to protest Israel's bombardment and threatened invasion of Gaza.  Or rather, I attended two rallies going on at the same time. .

I am glad to see that I'm not the only one who believes Israel should be linking the Iranian nuclear threat to negotiating a solution to the Palestinian peace process.  A small number of senior Israeli security officials now are arguing for linkage as well.  J.J. Goldberg, editor-at-large of the Jewish Daily Forward,  writes that  

Israeli historian Benny Morris wants to see a war with Iran.  He is frothing at the mouth and screaming "Attack! Attack!, Attack! Kill! Kill! Kill!"  Well, maybe I'm exaggerating a little.  OK, so maybe it's more than a little.  But he certainly seems to support Israel taking military action against Iran within the next few weeks if Obama doesn't give Israel an iron-clad guarantee that the U.S. will attack Iran by March 1, 2013 if Iran does not abandon its nuclear weapons program.  Read his column NOW before proceeding with my rebuttal.