Just days after the New York Times Magazine's lurid cover story, "Israel vs. Iran," the Washington Post struck back with a two-fisted effort to win the "most dire prediction" contest. The Post's foreign policy pundit David Ignatius wrote a widely-circulated column claiming inside information:...

It's an impressive piece of art: the cover of this week's New York Times Magazine. "ISRAEL VS. IRAN," spelled out in charred black lettering, with flame and smoke still rising from "IRAN," as if the great war were already over. Below those large lurid letters is the little subtitle: "When...

You might have thought that every Republican presidential candidate would have the same motto emblazoned on his campaign office wall: "It's the economy, stupid." No doubt that famous Clinton '92 slogan does show up on each of those walls. But it's well below another, more salient, Clinton saying:...

The latest Washington Post / ABC poll should gladden Barack Obama's heart. In what Mitt Romney calls the battle for America's soul -- "What do you think is the bigger problem in this country, unfairness in the economic system that favors the wealthy OR over-regulation of the free...

Israel has shocked the world by apologizing for the death of three Egyptian officers from Israeli gunfire -- a stark reminder that Israeli leaders don't just do whatever they damn please. They calculate their own and their nation's interests like any other politicians. When it's in their interests...

The Palestinian leadership is seriously considering a concrete plan to seek membership in the UN. In July the Palestinians would ask the Security Council to recommend a seat for their new nation. Barack Obama keeps on saying that the U.S. will veto the request, and all...

The Myths That Underpin the Failure of American Policy in the Middle East

Tuches aufn tish: Buttocks on the table. That’s the colorful way my Yiddish-speaking ancestors said, “Let’s cut the BS and talk about honest truth.” It seems like a particularly apt expression after a...

The New York Times has finally joined the growing bandwagon calling for Barack Obama to "put a map and a deal on the table" for Israeli-Palestinian peace. "The outlines of a deal are no secret," a Times editorial said. "They were first proposed by President Bill Clinton...

Did you hear the one about the elephant who had a mouse cornered and trampled on that mouse from time to time, whenever he felt like it? The president of the United States stepped in to make peace between them. "We Americans have always been committed to peace and freedom...

Crossposted with TomDispatch.com

Here are the Three Sacred Commandments for Americans who shape the public conversation on Israel:

1. For politicians, especially at the federal level: As soon as you say the word “Israel,” you must also say the word “security” and promise that the United States will...

There's one crisis in the Middle East that Barack Obama can see coming a long way off. In September, the Palestinians are likely to declare an independent state, and it's likely to be recognized by a vast majority of the international community, including close U.S. allies. So far the administration...

Inside the beltway, there's just one newspaper that everyone reads: the Washington Post. But these are busy people. Mostly they just scan the headlines and lead paragraphs. Let's take a look at the recent flareup in the Israel-Palestine conflict, as told in WaPo leads, all written by the WaPo's woman...

For us opinion poll junkies, it's the logical gaps and inconsistencies that are most revealing. In a CNN poll released on March 21, 70% of Americans favor imposing a no-fly zone in Libya. When CNN last polled, on March 11 - 13, only 56% approved. How...

J Street, the most prominent American pro-Israel, pro-peace group, has packed its 2011 national conference with sessions on nearly every aspect of the Israel-Palestine conflict, U.S. Mideast policy, and American Jewish attitudes toward Israel. Conspicuously missing, though, is the most important topic of all: The narrative of Israel...

Crossposted with TomDispatch.com.

When I try to figure out why we are still in Afghanistan, though every ounce of logic says we ought to get out, an unexpected conversation I had last year haunts me. Doing neighborhood political canvassing, I knocked on the door of a cheerful man...

The Israeli peace movement is coming back to life, and it's a very courteous movement indeed. When activists find things marked "Made in USA" lying on the ground they deliver them directly to the U.S. ambassador to Israel.

The other night they returned a bunch...

The great brass ring of Barack Obama's foreign policy -- an Israeli-Palestinian peace agreement -- seems to be rapidly slipping from his grasp. His demand for a moratorium on West Bank settlement expansion is now dead and buried, with scarcely an obituary in the U.S. mass media to mark its...

As Israeli Jews were preparing to light their first Hanukkah candle, the Prime Minister of Gaza, Ismael Haniyeh, told a press conference: "We accept a Palestinian state on the borders of 1967, with Jerusalem as its capital, the release of Palestinian prisoners, and the resolution of the issue...

Crossposted with TomDispatch.com.

Palestine as America’s next Vietnam? Like all historical analogies, it’s far from perfect. We aren’t about to send the U.S. Army to the West Bank or Gaza to kill and die in a war that can’t be won.  Where else in the world, though, is...

Israel can do whatever it damn pleases, and the Obama administration will never say no -- or so the common wisdom goes. But it ain't so. Obama has backed down far too often, but there's also a long history of Israel giving in to U.S. pressure in the last...