ISRAEL AND THE PALESTINIAN AUTHORITY
December 11, 2012
"The Iranian Nuclear Negotiations: What's Been the Blockage"
Op-Ed, The Huffington Post
By Charles G. Cogan, Associate, International Security Program
"Suspicion on both sides — Iranian and American — is extremely high. Iranian fear of American-sponsored regime change may seem unrealistic in today's world, but the fact is that Iran was the victim of an American regime change back in 1953."
AP Images
December 10, 2012
"The Coming Clash Over Iran"
Op-Ed, National Interest
By Graham Allison, Director, Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs; Douglas Dillon Professor of Government, Harvard Kennedy School and Shai Feldman, Member of the Board, Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs
Graham Allison and Shai Feldman write that while the Obama administration and the Netanyahu government were largely on the same page during the Gaza crisis, "much greater turbulence in their relations can be expected by the middle of next year when the issues associated with Iran’s nuclear project will likely reach another crescendo."
December 10, 2012
"Abbas and Netanyahu in Wonderland"
Op-Ed, The Jerusalem Post
By Chuck Freilich, Senior Fellow, International Security Program
"...[D]id Israel have to respond to the UN decision by reviving long moribund settlement plans in Ma'ale Adumim and Jerusalem, that it will probably not implement any way and whose sole practical import is to infuriate the entire world, including the US and Europe? Were there no other options, or have we too become more interested in form than substance? Do we truly wish to cut off funding to the PA and undermine the security cooperation which has significantly contributed to the near total absence of terrorism from the West Bank in recent years?"
December 6, 2012
"Refocus beyond Benghazi"
Op-Ed, Boston Globe
By Nicholas Burns, Professor of the Practice of Diplomacy and International Politics, Harvard Kennedy School
Republicans continue to question this week about what UN Ambassador Susan Rice knew and when she knew it on Benghazi. A real debate would focus on what we must do to reinforce security at our embassies and consulates rather than argue over who said what in the days following the attacks. What Congress should also focus on are the increasingly serious challenges confronting us in the ever-volatile Middle East.
AP Photo
December 2012–January 2013
"Striking Iran: The Debate in Israel"
Journal Article, Survival, issue 6, volume 54
By Chuck Freilich, Senior Fellow, International Security Program
"Although the unusual public nature and stridency of the debate struck many around the world, it is still hard for those abroad to understand how great the effect on the Israeli public has been. The Iranian nuclear programme had been the one consensual issue in an otherwise politically frenetic and deeply divided country and was dealt with, so the public believed, in a manner appropriate to the severity of the threat."
December 3, 2012
"Not Even an Itsy-Bitsy Step"
Op-Ed, The Huffington Post
By Charles G. Cogan, Associate, International Security Program
"Israel demonstrated once more, implicitly, that it does not favor a two-state solution. It also demonstrated once more that it has no strategic vision as to how to end its 45-year-old occupation of the Palestinian territories. And while it calls on the Palestinians to return to the negotiating table 'without preconditions,' while it continues to build settlements in these territories...."
November 20, 2012
"The Never-Ending War in the Middle East"
Op-Ed, Washington Post
By David Ignatius, Senior Fellow, Future of Diplomacy Project
"The most depressing aspect about the latest Gaza war is that it dramatizes this 'no-exit' aspect of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. Wars recur every four or five years, but they never seem to settle anything. The Israelis pound the Palestinians until they accept a cease-fire, but it’s temporary. The emotional state of war continues," Writes David Ignatius of the Washington Post.
November 23, 2012
"Renew the Mideast Peace Process? Not Now"
Op-Ed, Los Angeles Times
By Chuck Freilich, Senior Fellow, International Security Program
"The United States too cannot afford a further blow to its regional status. One aspect of American power is the perception that it can force the sides to reach agreement — and succeed in brokering a deal. Another aborted attempt would merely reinforce the Arab image of the U.S. as a weak, declining power, making it that much harder for the U.S. to play an effective role when the time is right."
November 22, 2012
"Israel's Iron Dome"
Op-Ed, Boston Globe
By Juliette Kayyem, Lecturer in Public Policy
"For Israel, the chorus of cheers about Iron Dome risk muting the smart strategic reason why it was put in place: to ensure that a huge number of Israeli fatalities did not force the government's hand in launching a land war in Gaza. The shield provided the political space for a conservative leadership, and a divided nation, to consider alternatives to an invasion that would have surely inflamed Palestinian and Arab sentiment."
November 17, 2012
"US Should Stay Out of Israeli-Palestinian Peace Efforts, for Now"
Op-Ed, GlobalPost
By Chuck Freilich, Senior Fellow, International Security Program
"Some believe that President Obama should make use of his second term to renew efforts to promote the peace process, as have all of his predecessors. Honorable sentiments aside, he should not, at least not now; the last thing Israelis and Palestinians need is another failed peace initiative. Both already despair of the prospects of peace, and the last thing the US needs is to squander its political capital in the Middle East once again."
