The clock is ticking and the window is closing for a diplomatic solution to the Iran nuclear standoff, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton warned Saturday, ahead of talks scheduled for April 13 in Istanbul. “We are determined to …
Israel
A New Season of Palestinian Protest Challenges Both Israel and Abbas
The Arab League is talking about Syria; Israel and the U.S. are talking about Iran. Nobody in the corridors of power, these days, is talking about the Palestinians. In part, that reflects the shifting geopolitical sands and the …
Is Netanyahu Dreaming in Cuban on Iran?
President Barack Obama, speaking Saturday in Turkey on the Iran nuclear standoff, reiterated his belief that “there is a window of time to solve this diplomatically, but that window is closing.” That may be a rhetorical device …
Egypt Brokers a Gaza Ceasefire
After more than 170 rockets fired by Palestinian militants into Israel, and 37 attacks by the Israeli military into the Gaza Strip, the latest round of warfare appeared to end on Tuesday, as both sides honored a cease-fire …
Diplomacy With Iran: Hey, What’s the Hurry?
Such is the chasm between Washington and Tehran that last week’s comments by Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatullah Ali Khamenei on President Barack Obama’s recent speech verged on geopolitical flirting: “We heard two days ago that the …
Bibi’s Domestic Constituency: Why Netanyahu Knows for Whom He Speaks
It’s not all about personality, the famous difficulty between Barack Obama and Benjamin Netanyahu. They are indeed very different people, and by all accounts far from friends. But the Iranian nuclear dilemma would guarantee …
Netanyahu Signals Determination on Iran, but War Will Have to Wait
Had he been speaking Hebrew in a dramatic TV broadcast back home, parts of Benjamin Netanyahu’s fire-and-brimstone speech on Monday night might have been mistaken for the words of an Israeli Prime Minister about to launch a …
Must-Reads from Around the World: March 6th, 2012
Fleeing Syria — Fearing for their lives, hundreds of Syrians are fleeing their country, crossing its western border into neighboring Lebanon, the Associated Press reports (via the Guardian). Urging the U.S. to intervene in the …
Vowing Military Action if Iran Builds a Bomb, Obama Demands Time for Diplomacy
If the tunes that followed each speech on Sunday at the AIPAC policy conference had been chosen along interpretive lines, President Barack Obama might have walked from the podium serenaded by the Rolling Stones’ chorus, “You …
Why Netanyahu’s Visit to Discuss Iran Puts Obama in a Political Minefield
President Barack Obama’s reelection bid could face a stern test when he addresses the annual conference of the America Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC) on Sunday, and then meets with Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin …
Hamas Signals Break with Iran, But Is That Good for Israel?
A popular Washington illusion once held that the right combination of incentives and punishments might “peel off” Syria’s President Bashar al-Assad from Iran’s “Axis of Resistance,” but nobody would have predicted that the weak …
What Iran’s Inspection Rebuff Says About Prospects for Nuclear Diplomacy
To those mesmerized by the drumbeat for war with Iran, Tehran’s rejection on Tuesday of an International Atomic Energy Agency request to visit a sensitive military site signaled grim prospects for diplomacy resolving the nuclear …
A Hunger Striker at Death’s Door Turns Up the Heat on Israel — and on the Palestinian Leadership
Update 2.21.2012: Palestinian detainee Khader Adnan has reportedly agreed to end his hunger strike on its 66th day, following a deal under which the Israelis have agreed to release him in April and not seek an extension of his …