Every Media Outlet Proclaims Israel Accepts Quartet Statement to Return to Negotiations Without Preconditions But Leaves Out Israel’s Demand for Preconditions

This is so frustrating but predictable. I did a search of major news sources- Washington post, MSNBC, NYT, Reuters and even read the State Department press briefing from yesterday and with the exception of the Israeli Daily Haaretz, all are reporting Israel will return to negotiations based on the Quartet statement and is urging the […]

Chutzpah: Bibi Netanyahu to Demand Quartet Change Mideast Peace Plan Statement

After the US and our allies have spent the past however many months running around arm-twisting and cajoling the world to deny the Palestinians any recognition at the United Nations, after the US has intervened on behalf of Israel with regard to deteriorating ties with Turkey, Jordan and Egypt, after the US President gave a […]

How A Strong Sovereign Should Respond to a Slap in the Face From an Ally

While the U.S. rewards Israel for each public and private slap in the face leveled at the President, German Chancellor Angela Merkel demonstrated the appropriate response after being taken for granted by Bibi Netanyahu: German Chancellor Angela Merkel took Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu harshly to task Friday over last week’s decision to approve 1,100 housing […]

Palestinian Authority Rejects Quartet Proposal

The so-called Mideast Quartet issued a statement yesterday that was, quite frankly, insulting to the Palestinians. The Palestinians have rejected it. Given the stakes at the UN, you would think the US would allow the Quartet to actually issue something substantive for once but given the administration has tacked far to the right on Israel, […]

The Price of Israel

There is a good article over at Foreign Policy about how most countries, including our European allies, are pretty much fed up with the United States’ constant pandering to even the most damaging, de-stabilizing Israeli dictates. The irony of course is that in doing Bibi’s bidding, the Obama administration is, in essence, validating right-wing Likud […]

Israeli Defense Minister to Meet With Secretary of State. Again.

Ehud Barak will be in Washington tomorrow to meet with just about everyone with a title. Gee, when was the last time Salam Fayyad or Abu Mazen got an audience with all these Cabinet Secretaries? Not recently. Of course, they are in the in the dog house for daring to do something the U.S. doesn’t […]

It’s Time to Stop Chasing the Peace Process Unicorn

As someone who believed in the peace process and the two state solution, it’s not been easy to reach this conclusion, but all the evidence points this way. Earlier this month I wrote several posts about how the Mideast Quartet had become little more than a vehicle for the U.S. and Israel to strong-arm their […]

Some Rare Good News: Unprecedented Security Cooperation Between Palestinian Authority and Israeli Defense Forces

When we briefly put aside all the rhetoric, propaganda and finger pointing on both sides, there have definitely been improvements in the relationship between the Palestinian Authority and Israel. One thing that helped improve the relationship was the death of Yasser Arafat, who continued to play both sides- he said publicly what people in the […]

Mideast Quartet Update: The REAL Reason They Didn’t Issue a Statement

Last night I stayed up and hung around waiting for the State Dept. background briefing on the status of the Mideast Quartet meeting to take place. Originally scheduled for 9pm, it didn’t take place till quite a bit later. By the time I almost gave up, I got word it had started and called in- […]

The Mideast Quartet *updated*

Pardon my cynicism, but it’s becoming increasingly clear that the Mideast Quartet is just another proxy group for the U.S. to stymie any real international effort to get Mideast peace talks restarted. In other words, as usual, the U.S. is the 800lb gorilla in the room throwing its weight around to protect Israel from having […]