Ruthie Abel

Photographer

I had travelled to the West Bank to photograph two stories, both put on hold as persistent rocket fire and airstrikes erupted between Gaza and Israel. With time on my hands, I set out to explore new developments in Palestinian contemporary art.

Dan Rather

Host, 'Dan Rather Reports'

In 2008, Israel responded with a brutal aerial bombardment and ground invasion that left more than 1,000 Palestinians dead. November's conflict left about 150 Palestinians dead. How do you explain the stark difference in the death toll?

Craig Newmark

Founder, craigslist and craigconnects.org

Folks, I want to know: how does the Internet give you a voice? I'm collecting answers about how the Internet gives people a voice that I will share on Internet Freedom Day on January 18th.

Stephen Zunes

Professor of Politics and Chair of Mid-Eastern Studies, University of San Francisco

The Obama administration's reaction to November's Israeli onslaught on Gaza is emblematic of the contradictions in its foreign policy. Though the administration deserves credit for preventing greater carnage, why did it apparently give Israeli the green light during the first week of fighting?

James Zogby

President, Arab American Institute; author, 'Arab Voices'

Instead of acting as spectators, enablers, or waiting for the United Nations or the United States to provide solutions, there are practical steps through collective Arab action that might make a real difference.

Alan Elsner

Author, 'Gates of Injustice: The Crisis in America’s Prisons'

Israel's upcoming Jan. 22 parliamentary election had been expected to be a status quo affair leading to an easy victory for Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. Instead, it's turned into a race to the extreme right that is threatening to kill the two-state solution. And Washington seems oblivious.

Alon Ben-Meir

Senior Fellow, NYU's Center for Global Affairs

Prime Minister Netanyahu may well form the next Israeli government; yet the Netanyahu of 2013 will not enjoy the same political sway he commanded in 2009.

Rabbi Arthur Waskow

Founder and director, Shalom Center

This process is rooted in the dark underside of the best teaching of Torah, "Love the stranger, the pariah, for you were strangers, pariahs, in the Land of Egypt." This is repeated 36 times in the Torah. Why? Because to repeat the command so often means it is being rejected, disobeyed.

Rachel Olstein Kaplan

Associate Director of Yahel

For all of my adult life, I have been struggling with my relationship to Israel/Palestine. My identity as a half-Israeli Jew often comes in conflict with my critical liberalism. Even when I find a way to reconcile these identities within myself, I run into problems when relating to others.

Alan Elsner

Author, 'Gates of Injustice: The Crisis in America’s Prisons'

Naftali Bennett, who could emerge as leader of Israel's third largest political part after elections on Jan. 22, is charismatic, media- savvy and super-rich. But his ideas are highly dangerous for those of us who care about the future of a Jewish democratic Israel and a two-state solution.

Ed Koch

Former Mayor, New York City

The war against the Jews -- and against the State of Israel -- continues unabated.

Michael Luongo

Freelance writer, editor and photographer

If peace does break out on a permanent basis, the ceasefire holding, if the blockade is lifted and freer movement occurs, Gaza might be the most interesting place in the world for tourists to visit, to catch up on both their tans and history.

Bill Quigley

Law Professor, Loyola University New Orleans, CCR Associate Legal Director

Remember the 20 children who died in Newton Connecticut.

Robert K. Lifton

Fmr. President, The American Jewish Congress and Israel Policy Forum and co-Chair of The Middle East Project of the Council on Foreign Relations

It is only by peeling off argument after argument that one can get down to the point of judging the underlying approaches that each party brings to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict to see whether they make sense from the perspective of that party's long range interests.

Alon Ben-Meir

Senior Fellow, NYU's Center for Global Affairs

Genuine efforts can and must be made to mitigate distrust through a peace process based on reciprocal and reinforced provisions, to which both Israelis and Palestinians must commit to reach a lasting peace agreement.

Brian Levin

Deconstructing politics, policy and current events

History shows that in the delicate arena of foreign policy, actions often have unintended, if not devastating, consequences. It is for this reason that I fear that Israel's response to the Palestinian Authority's successful bid for non-member observer state status at the U.N. does not serve its long-term interests.