Author hzPosted on December 23, 2016December 24, 2016Categories Articles

By Alberto M. Fernandez: Asked recently about the absence of the United States from talks by Russia, Turkey and Iran on the future of Syria, the State Department spokesman dismissed its importance, saying: “The Secretary is perfectly fine not being in the room” if the result is “a cessation of hostilities that can actually matter over a period of time.”
The spokesman’s words sought to put the best spin possible in what was a singular event, part of a larger global trend, which is the marginalization of American influence in the region and the aggressive attempt by other powers to curtail the Americans further and expand their own spheres of influence. The spokesman’s words also glossed over a greater truth – that these talks are about more than recent events in Syria.

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Author hzPosted on December 23, 2016December 25, 2016Categories Articles

Samantha Power, US Ambassador to the UN

By Editorial Board: President Obama’s decision to abstain on a U.N. Security Council resolution condemning Israeli settlements reverses decades of practice by both Democratic and Republican presidents. The United States vetoed past resolutions on the grounds that they unreasonably singled out Jewish communities in occupied territories as an obstacle to Middle East peace, and that U.N. action was more likely to impede than advance negotiations between Israelis and Palestinians.
The measure, approved 14 to 0 by the Security Council Friday, is subject to the same criticism: It will encourage Palestinians to pursue more international sanctions against Israel rather than seriously consider the concessions necessary for statehood, and it will give a boost to the international boycott and divestment movement against the Jewish state, which has become a rallying cause for anti-Zionists. At the same time, it will almost certainly not stop Israeli construction in the West Bank, much less in East Jerusalem, where Jewish housing was also deemed by the resolution to be “a flagrant violation under international law.”

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Author hzPosted on December 22, 2016December 23, 2016Categories Articles

By Armin Rosen: The Brookings Institution’s Saban Center is a fixture of Washington’s Middle East policy establishment. Prime ministers and secretaries of state have spoken at the center’s yearly forum, and when a respected Brookings-affiliated researcher finds that a 46 percent plurality of Americans back U.S. action on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict at the UN, the think tank’s imprimatur strongly suggests that the finding reflect some broader reality in public opinion. But University of Maryland professor Shibley Telhami’s latest poll of American attitudes on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, published earlier this month, is worth a closer look, both in spite of, and because of, its lofty provenance. Along with its discovery of a broad base of support for prospective American peacemaking efforts at the UN, the study contains a number of startling findings.

According to the survey, 55 percent of Democrats agree with the statement that Israel is a burden to the United States—but 70 percent also agree with the statement that the country is an “important ally.” Some 46 percent of respondents—including 60 percent of Democrats—agree with the U.S. imposing “economic sanctions or more serious action” over Israel’s West Bank settlement policies. Only 34 percent of respondents, and just a slim 51 percent majority of Republicans, support the U.S. using its Security Council veto to block a resolution on Palestinian statehood.

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Author hzPosted on December 22, 2016December 22, 2016Categories Articles

By Prof. Eli Podeh: Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s recent visit to Azerbaijan and Kazakhstan is another layer in Israel’s policy to strengthen its ties with what former Minister Ephraim Sneh refers to as “the new periphery.”

Similar to the “old periphery” idea of the late 1950s, when Prime Minister David Ben-Gurion searched for allies in the region against Egyptian President Gamal Abdel Nasser and the Nasserism and found Turkey, Iran and Ethiopia – the revolution in Iran, the Soviet Union’s dissolution, the occupation of Iraq, the overthrow of Saddam Hussein and the Arab Spring created new circumstances for cooperation.

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Author hzPosted on December 22, 2016Categories Articles

By Raphael Ahren: Outgoing United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon on Friday acknowledged a well-established “bias against Israel” within his organization. “Decades of political maneuverings have created a disproportionate volume of resolutions, reports and conferences criticizing Israel,” he told the Security Council, admitting that this situation has often done nothing to help the Palestinians.

And yet, in the waning days of 2016 and the Obama administration, the specter of yet another anti-Israel resolution at the UN’s most important body is again dominating local headlines. Several countries are said to be planning to circulate various drafts with different intentions, though it is unclear if and when who will propose what text, and what would happen next.

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Author hzPosted on December 21, 2016December 21, 2016Categories Articles

By Ron Kampeas: President-elect Donald Trump said during his campaign he wants to move the US Embassy to Jerusalem. His nominee for ambassador to Israel, David Friedman, has said he hopes he will work from an embassy in the city.

Trump’s transition team has affirmed the intention to move the embassy, albeit without a timeline. And now, Israel’s ambassador to Washington, Ron Dermer, in a forceful speech at Tuesday night’s Hanukkah party at the embassy here, encouraged Trump to make good on the pledge, saying it was long past due.

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Author hzPosted on December 21, 2016December 21, 2016Categories Articles

By Mitchell Bard: The first semester of 2016-17 has been another phenomenal one for Jewish students across the country. While fear-mongers have been scaring parents with exaggerated claims about how dangerous it is for Jewish students on campus, the truth is that campuses across the country are beehives of pro-Israel activity that has gone unnoticed because it does not fit the narrative of Jews cowering in fear in their dorm rooms. In fact, more students are engaged in pro-Israel activity today than ever before.

While once a handful of pro-Israel groups such as Hillel, AIPAC and various uncoordinated Israel action committees operated on campus, today a multiplicity of organizations engage students from different perspectives. These organizations include (forgive me for any I’ve inadvertently left out): Hillel, AIPAC, AICE, StandWithUs, the David Project, AEPi, Hasbara Fellowships, ZOA, JNF, ADL, the Israel on Campus Coalition, Students Supporting Israel, Chabad, the Israeli American Council, the Maccabee Task Force and Christians United for Israel.

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Author hzPosted on December 21, 2016December 22, 2016Categories Articles

By James S. Robbins: In his March 2016 speech at the American Israel Public Affairs Committee policy conference, then-candidate Donald Trump promised that his administration would “move the U.S. embassy to the eternal capital of the Jewish people, Jerusalem.” Last week, ambassador to Israel designate David Friedman said he looks forward to working “from the U.S. embassy in Israel’s eternal capital, Jerusalem.” Senior aide Kellyanne Conway has confirmed that the move is a “very big priority for this president-elect, Donald Trump.”

Trump’s intention to keep his promise is creating a political uproar. “Madness,” fumed New York Times columnist Thomas Friedman. It will “constitute a potentially explosive provocation,” said Rashid Khalidi, director of Columbia University’s Middle East Institute. Sheikh Ekrema Sabri, imam of Jerusalem’s al-Aqsa Mosque, said the move would be tantamount to a “declaration of war.”

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Author hzPosted on December 20, 2016December 21, 2016Categories Articles

By Ariel Ben Solomon: Israel and Turkey recently took their latest step towards restoring full ties by exchanging ambassadors, but their slowly improving relationship may be more of an acknowledgement of regional reality than an expression of mutual admiration.

Earlier this month, Israel’s new ambassador to Turkey, Eitan Na’eh, presented his diplomatic credentials to Islamist Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan. Na’eh previously served on Israel’s National Security Council and had worked in the Israeli Embassy in Turkey. Newly appointed Turkish Ambassador to Israel Kemal Okem, meanwhile, is a former adviser to Turkish Prime Minister Binali Yildirim.

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Author hzPosted on December 19, 2016December 22, 2016Categories Articles

By Terry Glavin: “Aleppo is now a synonym for hell,” is the way outgoing UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon described the merciless bombardments and massacres that the Russians, Assadists and Shia militias were inflicting upon the last major stronghold of the fractured and hopeless Syrian rebels last Friday. Five years after Syria’s quixotic, non-violent democratic uprising began, nearly half a million deaths, more than five million refugees, and it had all come to this.

“We have collectively failed the people of Syria,” Ban declared at his farewell press conference at the UN headquarters in New York. “Peace will only prevail when it is accompanied by compassion, justice and accountability for the abominable crimes we have seen.”

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