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Steven L. Spiegel
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Steven L. Spiegel, Professor of Political Science at UCLA and National Scholar at IPF, is among the world's foremost experts on American foreign policy in the Middle East. He is the Director of the Center for Middle East Development (CMED) at UCLA and of Track II Middle East programs at the University of California’s Institute on Global Conflict and Cooperation.

As a National Scholar of Israel Policy Forum, Dr. Spiegel provides policy direction and expertise, and also writes frequent analyses of the latest developments in Arab-Israeli relations.

Blog Entries by Steven L. Spiegel

Abbas Needs An Exit Ramp From the UN

(91) Comments | Posted November 27, 2012 | 11:15 AM

By Steven L. Spiegel, Danielle Spiegel-Feld, and David Andrew Weinberg

The Middle East is boiling over with crises. We've had the missile conflict between Hamas and Israel. We're in the midst of the quintessential post Arab Spring domestic conflict over how much power President Morsi of Egypt should have, even...

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Lessons of the Gaza War

(78) Comments | Posted November 22, 2012 | 9:34 AM

Now that the cease-fire between Israel and Hamas has begun to take effect (at least for now), it's time to begin to assess the outcome of the war, and where we go from here.

1. The big star and game changer is the Iron Dome anti-missile...

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How to Turn Crisis Into Diplomatic Promise in Gaza

(282) Comments | Posted November 16, 2012 | 8:26 AM

The crisis over Gaza was triggered by a Hamas escalation of missile attacks against Israel, which resulted in Israeli retaliation, the killing of Ahmed Jabari -- the Hamas military chief, and the destruction from the air of major Hamas missile emplacements. The question now is how this escalation will end.

...
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Obama and Israel: The Record, the Facts

(208) Comments | Posted October 24, 2012 | 12:41 PM

President Obama has been criticized for being wrong for Israel. Even in the third debate of the Presidential campaign, a lovefest toward Israel, which was mentioned 31 times by the candidates, Governor Romney managed to get in a couple jibes against Obama's Israel policy. "I think the tension...

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The Three Competing Strategies That Led to the UN

(47) Comments | Posted September 29, 2011 | 10:44 AM

The controversial Palestinian request for UN membership is the culmination of three competing strategies pursued by the US, Israel, and the Palestinians over the last three years.

The curtain opened in early 2009 with two new governments: a right-wing coalition in Israel and a more diplomacy-oriented administration in the...

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After Midterms, Don't Count Obama Out on Mideast Peace

(12) Comments | Posted November 8, 2010 | 4:55 PM

The midterm elections are over in the United States, and the cognoscenti who follow Israeli-Palestinian negotiations have a new consensus. The election is a victory for the Israeli right wing.

The theory is that President Obama, who has vigorously, but so far unsuccessfully, pursued direct talks between the Israelis...

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The Israeli-Palestinian Peace Process: How to Turn the Current Mess Into a Success

(414) Comments | Posted November 1, 2010 | 6:34 PM

The Obama administration's intense efforts to restart serious negotiations between the Israelis and Palestinians have stalled once again, so far for the last month. U.S. attempts to achieve direct talks have stymied because of characteristic posturing: Once the Israelis agreed to a ten-month moratorium on construction in the West Bank,...

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A New Approach to the Israeli-Palestinian Proximity Talks

(154) Comments | Posted April 28, 2010 | 4:13 PM

The idea sweeping Washington over recent weeks has been the notion that the President should release an Obama Plan, or a set of Principles, or a Statement, outlining where the US stands on all the core issues in the Israeli-Palestinian dispute (Jerusalem, refugees, borders, and security). The National Security Advisor,...

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Why Obama's Mideast Policy Will Work

(226) Comments | Posted October 8, 2009 | 12:12 PM

I am sick and tired of hearing about how Obama is "not good for the Jews," or, as a friend of mine put it recently, "everyone who voted for him should be ashamed." If looking for solutions to Israel's toughest problems -- Iran and the Mideast peace process -- and...

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Building Momentum for Mid-East Peace: Bring Back the Multilaterals

(4) Comments | Posted September 25, 2009 | 3:25 PM

The first phase of the Obama administration's efforts at progress on the Arab-Israeli dispute is over, and let's be honest: it's not what the administration hoped would happen when it embarked on its campaign to bring the parties to the table. In a prelude to negotiations, the Israelis were supposed...

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NCIS and Obama/Netanyahu Revisited: Mysteries and Mayhem

(10) Comments | Posted May 21, 2009 | 4:34 PM

Within 36 hours, President Obama and Prime Minister Netanyahu met at the White House, and "NCIS," the crime drama about a naval intelligence unit, concluded its season with an emergency trip to Israel. Last week, I asked whether the U.S.-Israeli relationship depicted in the NCIS intelligence connection to...

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What NCIS Tells Us About Obama and Netanyahu

(37) Comments | Posted May 15, 2009 | 5:24 PM

If you want to understand the state of the U.S.-Israeli relationship, I suggest you look at some recent episodes of NCIS, the Navy crime drama on CBS, a show that has risen to #5 in the TV rankings this season. Apparently, for a long time, a peculiar arrangement has existed...

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Could a U.S. Regional -- Really Regional -- Plan Save the Arab-Israeli Peace Process?

(115) Comments | Posted March 24, 2009 | 2:09 PM

It's the Iranian New Year, Nowruz, and everyone seems to be celebrating. In my neighborhood in Los Angeles, the local bakeries are offering "Happy New Year" cakes for the local Iranian residents. President Obama and even President Peres are sending greetings of hope and future peace to the Iranians still...

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Why Obama Would Be Better on National Security than McCain

(98) Comments | Posted October 30, 2008 | 10:30 PM

Conventional wisdom has it that one of the few ways left for John McCain to win the presidency is for a national security crisis to intervene before election day. And Senator Biden's misunderstood comment about a challenge to the next president early on that perhaps mistakenly reinforced that conclusion...

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