It's easy to be dismissive of the idea that the Israeli-Palestinian conflict will be solved through a negotiated two-state solution. Libraries are filled with books about failed peace efforts. The daily news is replete with reports of developments that undermine a two-state outcome. Those who oppose two states are growing more powerful on both sides. And the impotence of the United States and international community when it comes to getting serious about this issue is so self-evident as to be cliché.
1. Bills, Resolutions & Letters
2. Syria Debate on the Hill - Broader Implications?
3. Members on the Record (on things other than Syria)
4. Hearings/Briefings
5. News of the Weird
by Jake Wallis Simons
The "enough blood and tears" speech, which Yitzhak Rabin, then prime minister of Israel, delivered on the White
House lawn on Sept 13 1993, is widely regarded as his finest. The Oslo Accord negotiations had been concluded, and
a declaration of intent to end hostilities had been signed; he and Yasser Arafat, the Palestinian leader, had just
made history by shaking hands, to thunderous applause.
Two years later, Rabin was assassinated by a Jewish extremist opposed to territorial compromise. In 2000, a bloody
Intifada erupted across the region, claiming the lives of about 1,000 Israelis and 3,300 Palestinians. Israeli
politics came to be dominated by parties from the political Right and the settlements on the West Bank continued to
be expanded.
Breaking the Silence | Metropolitan Books (2013)
Book Review (Publisher's Weekly) |
CampusBooks
APN is deeply concerned over the spiraling calamity in Syria. More than two years of fighting has left the country in ruins and more than 100,000 people dead, including, in the latest phase, hundreds killed in a chemical weapons attack.
When Israel's Maariv daily wrote about housing construction in East Jerusalem this summer, it offered exact numbers - down to the individual house.
Israeli and Palestinian negotiators are preparing to resume their peace talks Wednesday in Jerusalem.
Complex issues lie before them, according to Lara Friedman Director of Policy and Government Relations for
Americans for Peace Now. She spoke with VOA's Susan Yackee on August 14, 2013.
Cynicism about new Israeli-Palestinian peace efforts comes in a variety of flavors.
It is impossible for any thinking person to view yesterday's release of
Palestinian prisoners - and the planned release of more prisoners - with anything but very mixed feelings.
Anyone who recognizes that Israeli-Palestinian peace is vital for Israel's security and viability as a democracy and a Jewish state must welcome the release -- as a measure that can strengthen and give credibility to the new negotiating effort -- even as we feel compassion for those for whom these releases awaken terrible memories of heinous crimes committed against loved ones.