A powerful debate between APN's Lara Friedman and Rabbi Daniel Gordis in the New York Times.
Israel’s expansion of settlements in the occupied territories has been an obstacle to the two-state solution, considered the most likely hope for peace with the Palestinians.
By Aaron David Miller
Why Israel's prime minister can't call the shots on Iran or the peace process.
Benjamin Netanyahu is one smart Israeli politician. This year, he will become the longest continuously serving prime minister in Israel's history. He is the only Israeli leader to win back-to-back elections. And despite his detractors' efforts to portray him as an illegitimate expression of Israeli popular desires, his staying power -- at least on security and foreign policy -- is an authentic expression of where much of the country stands in 2014.
Yet on the eve of his White House meeting with President Barack Obama on Monday, March 3, when the two leaders will discuss Iran, peace talks, and other issues, Bibi faces the prospect of being ensnared in traps that will limit his room to maneuver and undermine Israel's interests, as he defines them.
New poll shows that if the two-state solution collapses, U.S. public favors democracy over Jewishness.
By Shibley Telhami
Middle East leaders are beating a path to the White House's door. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu will meet with President Barack Obama on March 3, and Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas will arrive on March 17 to discuss the U.S. administration's diplomatic effort to reach a two-state solution.
Although Secretary of State John Kerry has said that "failure is not an option" in these talks, the reality is that both Israelis and Palestinians assume that there is only a slim chance of finding a conflict-ending solution. The president himself put the odds at less than 50 percent. With the Obama administration's goal to reach a negotiated settlement set for the end of April, we could be witnessing the death of the two-state solution. A key, but often unasked, question is whether the American public even cares.
How will the U.S. Jewish establishment, such as AIPAC, confront the prospect of peace for Israel when it is mired in an echo chamber of self-righteous axioms and simplistic thinking?
At the entrance to the enormous hall at the Washington Convention Center, where
some 14,000 chairs were lined up for AIPAC’s conference participants, stood a television reporter holding a
microphone, seeking interviewees.
"How’s it going?" I asked. “Not so good,” he replied. “I was sent to do a story on what AIPAC members have to say
about prospects for Israeli-Palestinian peace and nobody is willing to talk about it. All they want to talk about
is Iran.”
He was right. Hard-line statements on Iran elicited long standing ovations, time after time, while hopeful comments
on the possibility of peace were all but ignored. It got so bad that two prominent Israelis – Prime Minister
Benjamin Netanyahu and legendary Israeli high-tech entrepreneur Yossi Vardi – had to urge the armada of pro-Israel
lobbyists to applaud comments they made about peace. And when Howard Kohr, AIPAC’s executive director of eighteen
years, addressed the crowd with a speech that typically sets the policy agenda for the conference, all he spoke
about was Iran.
In Washington this week, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of Israel sounded two different notes about peace negotiations with the Palestinians, which are nearing a critical juncture. In a speech to the American Israel Public Affairs Committee, the pro-Israel lobby, he enthusiastically advocated a peace agreement as a means to improve Israel’s ties with its Arab neighbors and “catapult the region forward” on issues like health, energy and education.
But at other moments, a more familiar skepticism was apparent. He demanded that Palestinians recognize Israel as a Jewish state with “no excuses, no delays.” In response, a senior Palestinian official, Nabil Shaath, accused Mr. Netanyahu of putting an end to peace talks because Palestinians have already rejected that designation. (Palestinians recognize Israel as a state, but not as a Jewish state because they believe that that would undercut the rights of Palestinian refugees.) And, on Monday, at the White House, Mr. Netanyahu asserted that while Israel has worked hard to advance peace, the Palestinians have not.
