Unesco’s approval of full membership for Palestine is not without practical significance: The U.N. organization bestows and enforces the status of World Heritage Site, and with portions of the Heritage-aspirant Dead Sea located in Palestinian territory, as well as Bethlehem’s Church of the Nativity and the Hebron tomb of Abraham and …
Palestine
Palestinian U.N. Recognition Bid Gets Balkanized
Everyone talks about the United States using its Security Council veto to stop the Palestinian application for UN membership, but there’s another calculation driving the most intense diplomacy now bubbling around the UN bid: If the Palestinian bid doesn’t get nine votes from other members of the Security Council, Washington won’t have …
How the Middle East Conflict Could Look Like “Seinfeld”
Some days reality defies improvement. Tuesday may have been such a day in Jerusalem, where the actor Jason Alexander of “Seinfeld” fame paid a call on Shimon Peres, the president of Israel. Alexander was visiting the Holy Land as part of a pro-peace delegation from a grassroots group called OneVoice, dedicated to finding a two-state …
EXCLUSIVE: Mahmoud Abbas Will Offer Hamas Elections in January, Says Aide
When rival Palestinian factions Fatah and Hamas agreed to bury the hatchet in Cairo , the reconciliation pact promised two things: New elections by May 2012, and a caretaker government of technocrats to run the Palestinian Authority until then. That was more than five months ago, and ever since the two sides have been jammed up on the …
Good for Hamas? Ramallah Residents Weigh-in on the Gilad Shalit Prisoner Exchange
Just how good for Hamas was the Gilad Shalit deal? A good place to inquire was downtown Ramallah, the West Bank city, just north of Jerusalem. It’s the main stronghold for Hamas’ rival faction, the secular Fatah party led by Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas, popularly known as Abu Mazen. If Hamas is getting props around …
Gilad Shalit and the End of the Israeli-Palestinian Peace Process
As momentous as Tuesday’s release of Sergeant Gilad Shalit and 477 Palestinian prisoners (with another 550 to freed within two months) may be, it is unlikely to be a game-changer — or a milestone on the road to peace. Indeed, while the spectacle of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu breaking the ostensible taboo on negotiating with …
A Journey to Gaza by Way of the Rabbit Hole, a.k.a. Erez Crossing
It used to feel like tunnels were the only way to get into Gaza. And on the Strip’s western boundary, they still are – dozens of actual subterranean passages that run from sovereign Egypt on one side to the Palestinian territory on the other, freightways to haul in everything from tuna to Toyotas to lions.
But the way in from …
Who Gains, Who Loses in Israel-Hamas Prisoner Swap to Free Gilad Shalit?
Win-win outcomes are all too rare in the Middle East, but the agreement that will see Hamas free captive Israeli soldier Gilad Shalit in exchange for a reported 1,000 Palestinian prisoners will allow each of its stakeholders to claim victory.
Details of the deal concluded in Cairo under Egyptian mediation remain sketchy, but it is …
On World Tour for Palestinian Statehood, Mahmoud Abbas Still Talks About Talks with Israelis
In the wake of the Palestinian application for full United Nations membership, the game is catch-me-if-you-can. Israel and Washington are painting the UN bid as an effort to achieve the dream of statehood without negotiations. The Palestinians argue that it’s a way to assure future negotiations are meaningful, the previous 18 years …
Why Cutting U.S. Aid to Abbas Could Hurt Israel More Than it Hurts Palestinians
“This is going to hurt me a lot more than it’s going to hurt you” may be a cliche once tossed out by parents about to spank their children, but it could well prove to be the case if Congress proceeds with plans to punish the Palestinians for seeking U.N. recognition by cutting off U.S. aid to the Palestinian Authority (PA).
Listening …
Mahmoud Abbas Goes Globe-Trotting with Palestinian Statehood Bid
How long will it take the United Nations Security Council to answer the Palestinian application for membership in the global organization? “Technical procedures require about a month,” Mahmoud Abbas replies when the question comes up in Strasbourg, where the president of the Palestinian Authority has come to make the most of the time …
Does Qatar Share the West’s Agenda in Libya?
When Qatar took a lead in the military campaign to oust Libya’s Colonel Gaddafi, Western officials gushed with praise for the tiny Gulf State punching way above its weight. The nation of just 2 million sent six Mirage fighter jets to lend an all-important Arab presence in the air campaign; it cajoled the Arab League into supporting …
Is Israel Again Weighing an Attack on Iran’s Nuclear Facilities?
“I think the most effective way to deal with Iran is not on a unilateral basis,” Defense Secretary Leon Panetta told reporters in Israel on Tuesday, stressing that the Israeli government needed to act in concert and consensus with the international community. Israeli reporters noted his repeated use of the word together when it came …