Romney Versus the World Bank In Print by Hussein Ibish - The Daily Beast (Opinion) - July 30, 2012 - 12:00am Republican candidate Mitt Romney's visit to Israel was marked by a series of largely boilerplate comments about the special relationship between the United States and Israel. And, like Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, he almost entirely avoided the question of peace and the two-state solution, preferring to focus on the threat posed by Iran's nuclear weapons. In his speech in Jerusalem, the word “Palestinian” did not once cross his lips. » Read more

July 11th

The Anti-Balfour Declaration In Print by Hussein Ibish - The Daily Beast (Opinion) - July 10, 2012 - 12:00am Wonder what it feels like to have inadvertently put yourself between a rock and a hard place? Just ask Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. On Monday the Levy Committee, which he appointed last January, issued its report that was supposed to examine the question of Israeli “state lands” in the occupied Palestinian territories, but has far exceeded its mandate. The most significant aspect of the report is its blunt assertion that Israel is not “the occupying power” in the occupied territories. » Read more

July 6th

Arafatuous In Print by Hussein Ibish - Foreign Policy (Editorial) - July 5, 2012 - 12:00am In November 2004, a sad but very familiar scene played itself out: A sick, 75-year-old man who had been living in squalor for several years after an extremely difficult life -- including a near-death experience in the Libyan desert -- finally passed away. Doctors at the Percy hospital in France determined he died of natural causes: a stroke caused by an unidentified infection. As is so often the case, human life ends not with a bang, but with a whimper. » Read more

July 2nd

Ten Questions + One for the One-Staters In Print by Ziad Asali - The Huffington Post (Blog) - June 29, 2012 - 12:00am The supporters of the two-state solution are often told that this vision is unrealistic and has become unachievable. Young, idealistic seekers of justice and equality are increasingly offering what they claim is a more "realistic" solution: a single state for all Israelis and Palestinians, including refugees. » Read more

June 26th

Questions For One-Staters In Print by Ziad Asali - The Daily Beast (Opinion) - June 26, 2012 - 12:00am Supporters of the two-state solution are often told that this vision is unrealistic and has become unachievable. Young, idealistic seekers of justice and equality are increasingly offering what they claim is a more "realistic" solution: a single state for all Israelis and Palestinians, including refugees. Here are ten questions that might help these single-staters think through the feasibility of the project they have in mind: » Read more

The perils of alienation over Palestine In Print by Ghaith al-Omari - The Daily Star (Opinion) - June 26, 2012 - 12:00am Critics of the American Task Force on Palestine get one thing right: Palestinian Americans have largely failed to make their voices heard in the mainstream American political and foreign-policy conversation. However, this is the fault of self-styled “pro-Palestinian” advocates who operate in a cult-like echo-chamber and advocate an approach that does considerable harm to the Palestinian cause. » Read more

June 13th

To honor a tragic history, we must work for peace In Print by Ziad Asali - The Daily Star (Opinion) - June 13, 2012 - 12:00am I do not need anyone to teach me about the Palestinian Nakba. It is the defining moment of my existence. During the 1948 war, my family had fled our home in Talpiot in southeast Jerusalem and taken shelter in a monastery. We quickly gathered some possessions and climbed down and up the mountain to Bethany, and then to Jericho. We eventually resettled as refugees in East Jerusalem.Because I was a graduating medical student at the American University of Beirut during the war of 1967, I became a double-refugee. » Read more

June 11th

Democracy in Arabia In Print by Hussein Ibish - Bookforum.com - June 11, 2012 - 12:00am If anybody asked me, particularly in a plaintive tone of desperation, for a comprehensive backgrounder on the uprisings that have convulsed much of the Arab world since December 2010, I’d have no hesitation in pointing them to The Battle for the Arab Spring. » Read more

June 1st

Why Unilateralism Won't Work In Print by Hussein Ibish - The Daily Beast (Opinion) - May 31, 2012 - 12:00am Israeli Defense Minister Ehud Barak recently warned that if negotiations with the Palestinians do not yield results soon, Israel might consider "unilateral measures" in the occupied West Bank. He didn't specify what those might be, but several others have suggested that Israel create “temporary” or “provisional” unilaterally-imposed new borders in the territory. This idea is simple, superficially appealing and profoundly dangerous. » Read more

May 29th

People Power for Peace In Print by Hussein Ibish - The Huffington Post (Blog) - May 25, 2012 - 12:00am June 5, 2012 marks the 45th anniversary of the start of the Six-Day War. One of us experienced the war in Jerusalem at the age of 11, and the other in Beirut at age 4, yet it haunts us to this day. The war led to the ongoing Israeli military occupation that has come to define the conflict. It has lessened neither the fears of the triumphant Israelis, nor those of the defeated Arabs; the mindset of confrontation that produced the war still haunts the region. » Read more