Robert K. Lifton

To the surprise of most political analysts both in Israel and America, Prime Minister Benyamin Netanyahu and Kadima Party head Shaul Mofaz this week unexpectedly announced an agreement to form a new coalition to govern Israel. It was unexpected in part because after Mofaz defeated Tzipi Livini in April to...

Until now, the American people generally have paid very little attention to the judiciary even though it constitutes the third branch of our government. In part this is because unlike the case of the executive and legislative branches, the federal judges are not elected. Thus, the public generally has not...

In support of his run for the Republican nomination, Mitt Romney has cited his experience at Bain Capital, the private equity firm he founded and led for many years. He has argued that that experience in which he "created 100,000 jobs" demonstrates his capabilities at job creation for...

After more than a year of stalled negotiations between Israel and the Palestinians, it is clear that for the foreseeable future there will be no deal resolving their differences and establishing a Palestinian state. It is fruitless to blame one side or the other. In my article in the Huffington...

Listening to the economic programs presented by the Republican candidates in their debates, I can't reconcile them with the facts I have experienced in my own life. It would be very helpful to me, and I would think to other voters, to better understand the factual basis for these programs....

Now that Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas has applied to the U.N. for recognition of a Palestinian state and membership in the U.N., putting great pressure on all the parties, the Quartet (the United States, the U.N., the European Union and Russia) has presented a plan to the U.N. General...

President Obama can win the election in 2012 by losing the fight to Republicans for his jobs bill and related tax measures.

If the Republicans were to defeat the American Jobs Act, presented by the president as a plan to save existing jobs and create new ones, then the...

While raising the debt ceiling has generated an untoward amount of conflict and anxiety, the really tough fight still lies ahead of our country -- how to enact a program that reduces deficits and ultimately the overwhelming national debt. Any effort in this direction places the question of tax increases...

I am a Zionist. Like most Jews living in the United States and elsewhere in the world, I believe in the indispensability of a Jewish state as an ultimate haven and as representative of the Jewish people, whose long history of pogroms, mistreatment as second class citizens, mass expulsions and...

As the countdown continues to the beginning of August, our nation and the rest of the world waits to see whether Congressional Republicans and Democrats, working with the Obama Administration, can come together to raise the debt ceiling, allowing the government to borrow to fund its activities. Assuming that Congress...

More than any other portion of President Obama's May 19th speech, the segment devoted to the peace process between Israel and the Palestinians has attracted great attention, generating heated rhetoric from both sides. Yet, in truth, there was nothing in the speech that should have surprised anyone following the process...

The fast changing events in the Middle East have brought the Palestinians to a cross road of history. One path leads to a serious opportunity to create a successful state for the Palestinian people. The other path leads to destroying any present hope for a viable Palestinian state. The choice...

Once again, with the incursions in Libya, our nation is getting involved in military action in the Middle East. Although we are part of a coalition effort, as usual America is carrying out a large part of the action and at no small cost. Since our government representatives and the...

We watched with admiration the revolt of the Egyptian public, led by its youth, against the autocracy that controlled the country. The protestors demanded jobs to reduce the crushing burdens of unemployment, particularly on the young. They raged against the rising prices for food and other goods that were the...

While the world watches the events in Egypt play out, we should recognize a disturbing reality. No matter what the results of the uprising, Egypt will be a volatile nation, no longer a country that the United States can count on to maintain a stable, peaceful Middle East. If President...

These thoughts were inspired by an exchange I watched on CNBC this morning between Tom Friedman, Pulitzer prize winning author and columnist for the New York Times and Joe Kernen, a co-anchor on CNBC's Squawk Box. Friedman commented that although the extension of the Bush tax cuts may have been...

With the interim Congressional elections and the attendant enormous media attention over, the political pundits will now turn their focus to the Presidential elections two years from now. Republicans have captured around 58 seats in the House, giving them majority control and about six seats in the Senate, leaving the...

In October 1988, during my term as President of the American Jewish Congress, in what I called an "Occasional Letter," sent out to influentials in this country and abroad, I referred to the history of cities I had just visited -- Istanbul, (Constantinople) Rome and Jerusalem.

The history of...

The end of the 10-month moratorium on building in the Israeli settlements in the West Bank has presented the Palestinian leadership with a difficult decision. There is considerable pressure from some Palestinians, including The Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine, a faction of the PLO and from Hamas, to...