Stephen Walt and John Mearsheimer got it wrong when they laid blame for the Iraq War on the "Israel Lobby" (in their book, The Israel Lobby and U.S. Foreign Policy). However, a war with Iran could be a different story. As I warned back in March 2012, a much clearer line can be drawn between the efforts of U.S. Jewish groups and hawkish Iran policies. "For more than a decade," I wrote, "the same forces that Walt and Mearsheimer erroneously blamed for America's Iraq debacle have openly led efforts to convince Washington and the American people that war with Iran is necessary and inevitable."

Security for Settlers, Not the State of Israel

Analysis by Peace Now's Director General, Yariv Oppenheimer

Last week, Dov Weisglass - former top advisor to Prime Minister Ariel Sharon - wrote in Yedioth Ahronoth (Hebrew edition) about the Israeli security needs and the Jordan Valley. His article, translated by Israel News Today (INT), is required reading for anyone following this issue and how it is being exploited today in efforts to block progress toward an Israeli-Palestinian peace agreement.

For years, Israel and the American Jewish community have been sounding the alarm over Iran's nuclear program. This alarm is wholly justified, given the Iranian regime's record in the nuclear arena, the views and behavior of many of its officials over the years, and its support of international terrorism.

We Israelis often complain that 'there is no one to talk to.' But for many young Palestinians, Israelis are a lost cause - and anti-normalization means there is less interaction than ever to prove this wrong.

By Ori Nir

I recently met with a group of about a dozen young reporters and photojournalists from the West Bank. I asked them whether they had any contacts with Israeli journalists and was shocked to hear they did not. I told them that when I covered Palestinian affairs for Haaretz in the 1980s and '90s, Palestinian journalists were my primary sources - and my good friends. Back then, journalists on both sides of the Israeli-Palestinian divide sought contact with each other, first and foremost because they thought their readers needed and wanted to know about their neighbors.

An article by Shaul Amsterdamski in today's edition of the Calcalist - an Israeli business daily linked to Yedioth Ahronoth - reports on a remarkable phenomenon: the variety of "loans" made by the Israeli government to settlements and individual Israeli settlers, either with a formal or informal understanding that part, most, or even all of the loan would never be repaid.

The original article (in Hebrew) is available here. Includes here is a portion of the article, as translated into English by Israel News Today.

Cynicism about new Israeli-Palestinian peace efforts comes in a variety of flavors.

Anyone familiar with the history of Israeli-Palestinian peacemaking can be forgiven for viewing new Israeli-Palestinian negotiations with a certain degree of skepticism, in large part fueled by concern that settlements will, once again, be used to undermine the chances for achieving peace.

In October 2011 the Israeli government, with a huge majority including most of the Likud's ministers, voted in favor of releasing more than 1027 Palestinian prisoners, 280 of them having been convicted for murder and assisting in the murder of Israeli citizens, in return for the release of the kidnapped soldier Gilad Shalit. The released prisoners were received as kings, and the Hamas movement used the opportunity to the utmost in order to show how violent resistance is the best way to make Israel bow down.

Iran's election of Hassan Rouhani, a former nuclear negotiator who promised greater nuclear transparency and to pursue "peace and reconciliation" with the outside world, presents the best opportunity for serious progress on diplomatic negotiations with Iran in over eight years.