For almost all of the eighteen years since the negotiations between Yitzhak Rabin and Yasser Arafat, Israelis and Palestinians have shared an awareness of the main articles of agreement. It is a queer negotiation when both parties know the outcome and yet are seized by a paralysis that prevents them...

There is a tendency at the opening of each new round of Israeli-Palestinian peace negotiations for the parties to begin at the point where the previous negotiations concluded. That should be avoided this time. Because the most contentious issues remain on the table, it is not surprising that...

Four years ago this week Hezbollah launched a cross-border attack from Lebanon into Israel. Eight Israeli soldiers were killed and two reservists kidnapped. This attack ignited a month-long war. Israel responded with an air, sea and ground campaign, while Hezbollah launched some 4,000 rockets and missiles into Israel. Nearly 1,200...

Many sophisticated experts confidently predicted that President Obama and Prime Minister Netanyahu would have another failed meeting this week. It was not a failed meeting. Many analysts declared the meeting a victory for Netanyahu. This may be true. But it was also a victory for Obama. Both of them achieved...

By Stephen P. Cohen
Author, "Beyond America's Grasp: A Century of Failed Diplomacy in the Middle East."

Until the tragic and reckless Israeli raid on the Gaza flotilla, three recent developments dominated the current environment in the Middle East and offered President Obama opportunities for successful Arab-Israeli peacemaking:
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Israeli government actions since Vice President Biden's visit have thrust Jerusalem into the forefront of the Obama administration's efforts to revive the peace process. They have brought US-Israel relations to their lowest point since the first Bush presidency. How did we get there? How can we get out?

In the...

Israel's announcement of a new or renewed massive building project in East Jerusalem occurred earlier on the same day that Vice President Joseph Biden was to meet with the Israeli president and prime minister. This synchronicity can in no way be dismissed as happenstance or as a resoundingly bad-timing accident....

President Obama began his presidency just over a year ago with a stated, strong intent to ameliorate America's relations with the Islamic world and, in particular, its Arab sector.

The United States has had an active presence in the Middle East for more than two centuries. President Jefferson dispatched...

From an objective point of view, President Obama made the logical decision to focus on settlements as a first step in bringing Israelis and Palestinians to the table. Settlements are not popular among Israelis. There is no issue on which Israel and the United States have disagreed for so long.