ISRAEL AND THE PALESTINIAN AUTHORITY
April 20, 2009
"American-Israeli Moment of Reckoning?"
Op-Ed, Agence Global
By Rami Khouri, Senior Fellow, The Dubai Initiative
The moment of reckoning in US-Israeli relations is approaching due to two related developments: the hardline position of the new Israeli government, and the linkages between progress in US-Iranian relations and progress in Arab-Israeli peace-making.
AP Photo
April 16, 2009
"Grounds for Optimism over Middle East Peace"
Op-Ed, The Scotsman
By Azeem Ibrahim, Research Fellow, International Security Program
"...Israeli hawks have historically been better at moving towards peace than doves. Begin made peace with Egypt, Sharon left Gaza, Barak — a Labour ex-military hawk — left Lebanon, and Netanyahu gave Palestinians control of Hebron and parts of the West Bank to the Palestinians.
This time round, Netanyahu says he will personally oversee a government committee to improve the West Bank economy. If it works, and Palestinians in the West Bank feel the improvement, then Fatah could come out of this year's likely Palestinian legislative elections with an increased majority, strengthening the moderate Palestinian leadership, and so improving its ability to actually implement any negotiated agreement it might make...."
AP Photo
April 6, 2009
"Colonial Values Rule Again in Palestine"
Op-Ed, Agence Global
By Rami Khouri, Senior Fellow, The Dubai Initiative
Colonialism is all about one law for white men, and a different, harsher set of rules for the native darker people. Such is the negotiating reality for Palestinians with Israel and the West.
AP Photo
April 1, 2009
"Israel’s Choke-Hold on America Loosens"
Op-Ed, Agence Global
By Rami Khouri, Senior Fellow, The Dubai Initiative
In the United States these days, there is a slow but steady erosion of the once absolute taboo to speak out about the excessive influence of pro-Israeli groups on the country.
AP Photo
January-March 2009
"Is It Love or The Lobby? Explaining America's Special Relationship with Israel"
Journal Article, Security Studies, issue 1, volume 18
By John J. Mearsheimer and Stephen M. Walt, Robert and Renée Belfer Professor of International Affairs; Faculty Chair, International Security Program
"In The Israel Lobby and U.S. Foreign Policy, we argued that the "special relationship" between the United States and Israel is due largely to the influence of a domestic interest group—comprised of Jews as well as non-Jews—and that this unusual situation is harmful to both the United States and Israel....[P]ublic opinion in the United States does not explain why the United States gives Israel such extensive and nearly unconditional backing. Although most Americans have a favorable image of Israel, surveys show that they also favor a more even-handed Middle East policy and a more normal relationship with Israel. Thus, the special relationship is due primarily to the lobby's influence, and not to the American people's enduring identification with the Jewish state."
March 18, 2009
"Criminally Unhelpful"
Op-Ed, Agence Global
By Rami Khouri, Senior Fellow, The Dubai Initiative
"It is bad enough when two of the world’s most powerful governments pull back from their previous positions of branding Israel’s contraventions of international law and UN resolutions as illegal and impermissible and instead call them “unhelpful” or just a threat to a lasting settlement. It is infinitely worse when the United States and the EU spend half their waking hours trying to spread democracy and the rule of law to the rest of the world while watering down a central Israeli contravention of the rule of international law."
AP Photo
March 9, 2009
"The Promise of 'Normal Ties'"
Op-Ed, Agence Global
By Rami Khouri, Senior Fellow, The Dubai Initiative
Now that the United States has initiated diplomatic engagement with Syria and Iran, Damascus and Tehran will feel new pressure to say what they want -- rather than mainly to criticize the US and say what they reject.
AP
March 6, 2009
War or Peace: President Obama’s Challenges in the Middle East
Speech
By R. Nicholas Burns, Professor of the Practice of Diplomacy and International Politics
The only way forward for the United States is to lead, but in a new way and with a new attitude.
AP Photo
March 4, 2009
"Adults Acting Like Children"
Op-Ed, Agence Global
By Rami Khouri, Senior Fellow, The Dubai Initiative
"Throwing large amounts of money into Palestinian reconstruction while reinforcing a political context that only perpetuates Israel's regular destruction of Palestinian institutions is wasteful folly at best, and complicity in criminality at worst."
AP Photo
March 3, 2009
"U.S., E.U. World Community Organizers"
Op-Ed, The Providence Journal
By Richard N. Rosecrance, Adjunct Professor; Senior Fellow, International Security Program; Director, Project on U.S.-China Relations
"In the Mideast, community organizing requires not a two-state solution, but an approximation to a two-state confederation. The Palestinians cannot survive (even geographically) without access to Israel and the outside world. Israel cannot continue its imperial role in the West Bank (and the use of force in Gaza), nor can it withdraw. Autonomy and exclusion is not possible for two such inextricably related foes. They can exist only together."
