Not for the first time, Barack Obama said all the right things at the AIPAC dinner over the weekend. All of the expected words and sentiments were out in force—tributes to the enduring friendship between the two nations, reassurances of shared goals and acknowledgments of common strategic interests. Read More
You can thank all that traffic in Midtown this week to the 66th session of the United Nations General Assembly, which brought in not only the world’s most important leaders, but all their bodyguards and beefed up security as well. Don’t even try going east of 3rd Ave today, is all we’re saying. Read More
“Israel has no better friend than America, and America has no better friend than Israel,” the prime minister said. “We stand together to defend democracy. We stand together to advance peace. We stand together to fight terrorism.”
These are indisputable facts, but they bear repeating from time to time. Mr. Netanyahu reminded Americans that as Read More
In demanding that Israel retreat to its pre-1967 borders as a starting point for negotiations with the Palestinians, President Obama confirmed what many have suspected for some time: he is not a friend of Israel.
No friend, no true ally, would ask another state to put its very existence in jeopardy. But that is precisely Read More
As Israeli complaints about the Obama administration grow louder, Representative Eliot Engel says that the slack he's cutting the president is about to run out.
"We have a new president and a new administration and we have to give them leeway to do the things that they think they need to do," said Read More
In an interview for a story I wrote about Barack Obama's impact on Israel politics in America, Anthony Weiner suggested that the president's attention-getting statements about settlements weren't the real issue. The main point of contention among local Israel supporters, he said, may end up being Obama's position on aide to Gaza.
"He Read More
Barack Obama is changing what it means to be a pro-Israel politician in America.
That much is obvious from the unusually thoughtful, nuanced and varied reactions by officials in New York—the world capital of Israel-boosterism—to his criticisms of the Netanyahu government’s settlement policies.
“I think Obama feels that this type of shock Read More
The reaction of Israel supporters to President Obama's Cairo speech has been closely monitored for signs of increasing tolerance for criticism of the Israeli government's policy on settlements, which the Obama administration has explicitly opposed in recent weeks.
While some veteran Middle East analysts have suggested Obama did not go far enough in Read More
Barack Obama’s visit to Saudi Arabia this week was made at the request of Benjamin Netanyahu during a meeting last month with Hillary Clinton, according to David Makovsky, Director of the Project on the Middle East Peace Process at the Washington Institute.
Speaking on a conference call with New York Jewish leaders organized by Read More
In his major address to the Muslim world in Cairo today, President Obama once again argued that the freezing of Israeli settlements was a central element to achieving peace in the Middle East.
"Israelis must acknowledge that just as Israel's right to exist cannot be denied, neither can Palestine's," said Obama. "The United States Read More
