Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu announced today his cabinet's decision, "To suspend new construction in Judea and Samaria." (Yes, they still call it Judea and Samaria). The Obama Administration responded within hours with a statement released by Secretary Clinton followed by a press briefing from Special Envoy George Mitchell....

Two months ago the Israeli government announced that it would be launching a campaign against the organization Human Rights Watch (HRW) and the smear industry of supportive rightist NGOs and journalists swung into action with a volley of attacks on the group.

The timing of this move was no coincidence....

Last week witnessed a concerted attack against the credibility of the NGO Human Rights Watch (HRW), seeking to link supposed fundraising activities in Saudi Arabia with that organization's criticism ("bias", according to its detractors) of Israeli practices in the occupied territories, also claiming HRW is soft peddling on Saudi violations....

By Daniel Levy and Amjad Atallah

"One giant leap for Benjamin Netanyahu, but just one small step for Middle East peace."
That was how commentators in both of Israel's leading dailies, Yehidot Ahronot and Ma'ariv, chose to describe the Prime Minister's address yesterday. One thing...

In the hectic days of Presidential campaigning of July 2008, then candidate Obama took time to visit the Middle East and Europe. That trip will be most remembered for the huge crowds in Berlin and basketball shots at Camp Arifjan U.S. Army base in Kuwait, but the words Barack Obama...

Barack Obama is not even President yet but he may have just played a central role in getting to a ceasefire in the current Gaza Israel crisis -- just by being there. All the signals are that we are in a final and ugly escalatory cycle in advance of hostilities...

For many people, what happened today between Gaza and Israel may have all too familiar a ring to it - Israel warns and then retaliates to an alleged or real Palestinian escalation of violence, there is Arab condemnation and international exasperation, eventually things de-escalate but according to Israel's timetable as...

Details are finally emerging of the American military operation inside Syria in Abu Kamal on Sunday afternoon. While there still has been no official on-record briefing from the Pentagon, unnamed DoD sources have filled in some of the gaps and reports on the operation appear in today's press....

Yesterday, on the twenty-fifth anniversary of the bombing of U.S. and French peacekeeping force barracks in Beirut - an assault which remains one of the most deadly and ugly attacks of its kind - the New York Times chose to run two opinion pieces on the subject, both offering the...

Israelis awoke today to what most would consider to be very scary news. Hebrew University Professor and peace activist Ze'ev Sternhell received minor injuries after being the target of a pipe bomb attack. OK -- maybe this rates not so high on the Israeli scariness scale, but it's a...

Jews in America have, essentially since 1932, felt far at home with one Party and voted accordingly. Democrats could rely on a solid 75% plus of the Jewish vote and the Jewish community could comfortably feel that they had a home in a party which embraced positions and values with...

You may have missed it, but renowned Time columnist Joe Klein and the Jewish neoconservative blogosphere are at war with one another. The reason this is more important than an argument on who sits where in shul is that Klein has refused to cower, and as a respected member of...

Senator Barack Obama was a big hit in Israel. The local TV last night and press this morning was in gushing form. According to Israel's most viewed news show, on Channel 2 TV, Israel's leaders (all of whom the Illinoisan senator met, from both government and opposition) entered something of...

The latest round of brinksmanship with Iran following that country's much publicized missile test not surprisingly became a talking point between the presidential campaigns and their surrogates. The lines of attacks were mainly predictable although many took encouragement from the enthusiasm that the Obama campaign displayed going head-to-head with McCain...

Senator McCain gave the keynote address at yesterday's opening of the annual AIPAC Conference and promised that the same vision of perpetual warfare served up by Bush, and offered as an option to Americans in November, would also be available to his Israeli friends were he to become the...

Today's New York Times story on the seven Gazan students unable to take up their Fulbright Scholarships due to the Israeli government's denial of exit permits, and the American government's inability to reverse the decision, is a terribly sad reflection on today's realities. Sad of course for the seven...

Senator McCain's 'Hamas attack' on Senator Obama has certainly got a lot of play. The McCain campaign even used it in a fundraising email.

While neither campaign has come out of the episode bathed in glory, the way in which Senator McCain manipulated this raises some worrying questions...

Yesterday could not have presented a more stunning portrayal of the self-marginalization of America as an actor in Israeli-Arab conflict resolution under the Bush administration.

On the Israeli-Palestinian front the president was hosting PLO Chair Mahmoud Abbas at the White House while the real action was taking place in...

The debate around the Barack Obama candidacy has not surprisingly heated up of late in the Jewish and pro-Israel communities. Most of the arguments are well rehearsed and predictable, (some are spurious and deplorable) but they often miss the point and fail to connect between the broader Obama appeal and...