Mahmoud Abbas
How Abbas’s U.N. Gambit Empowered Hamas
Only once before has a U.S. President applied overt diplomatic pressure on Palestinians the way President Obama did this week at the United Nations, as he pressured Palestine to rescind its request from the U.N. Security Council for immediate full membership status. Unfortunately, the precedent for this type of overt pressure is not particularly encouraging, neither for Israel, nor for the United States. READ MORE >>
Road Block
In his State Department speech last week, Barack Obama threw down the gauntlet to Benjamin Netanyahu. In the Oval Office a day later, and more fully in an address to Congress yesterday, Netanyahu picked it up and threw it right back. READ MORE >>
That Nebo Feeling
Wowy, zowy, Obama is doing his own thinking on the Middle East and here’s the even worse news: He’s taking advice from Tom Friedman and Fareed Zakaria. READ MORE >>
Dictators in Turmoil
Many Ways to be a Jewish State
When Mahmoud Abbas, president of the Palestinian Authority, spoke to some 60 influential Jewish-Americans in the Plaza’s Edwardian Room on September 21, the first question came from World Jewish Congress President Ronald Lauder, who pushed Abbas on whether he was prepared to recognize Israel as a Jewish state. Mr. Lauder was echoing a demand repeatedly made by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu during the last year and a half. READ MORE >>
The Dovish Editor At More-Than-Dovish Ha'aretz Praises Bibi Netanyahu, And Very Deservedly
And he deserves it. READ MORE >>
Ovadia Curses; In the Meantime Hamas Shoots Four Israelis Dead, One Pregnant
Yes, Rabbi Ovadia Yosef, one of those scholarly madmen in the Israeli orbit, did call forth a malediction against the Palestinians and their leaders. And, frankly, he deserves a similar anathema from all of us, he with his direct line to God from which he derives his marching orders to his followers. Fortunately, these followers may adore him. But they don’t seem to honor his most egregious commands. Which is nothing you can say about the Hamas faithful in both the West Bank and Gaza. READ MORE >>
