For progress to be made, Lieberman must get over his distaste for Abbas, who is Israel’s best chance for a peace partner, and continue to craft unprecedented proposals. Ultimately, Prime Minister Netanyahu must show a willingness to negotiate on West Bank settlements if he desires a comprehensive peace.
It seems that the Europeans are committed to the concept of a viable two-state solution but are unwilling to do anything to catalyze or encourage it.
To be frank, with recent tectonic shifts of the political and social terrain in the Middle East, Israel can’t afford another ground war and occupation of Gaza. The Israeli position now is not as secure as it once was four years ago. The Middle East of 2008 is not the Middle East of 2012, and the Hamas of 2008 is not the Hamas of 2012.
Reworking the Strategy towards Iran. Netanyahu is becoming infamously impatient, and the reactors keep spinning (despite false claims to the contrary last week; I doubt we’ll ever really know what is actually going on in those nuclear plants). The current strategy cannot continue.
But regardless of whether it is openly discussed or not, as long as the world’s economy runs on oil, as it seems will be the case for at least the next few decades, Middle Eastern conflicts will continue to have a disproportionate impact on the global economy.
Within the story of the MEK lies the greater story of the ways in which the ideology and activity of a given entity can change, sometimes for worse and sometimes for better.
Impotent or not, Orwell teaches me, it is writing about the hard topics, speaking out on Syria, that automatically breathes life into my words. Political purpose, it turns out, is nothing less than a writer’s very oxygen.
Certainly an organization representing a global unified body would have the most legitimacy. The UN was formed with the core principles of peace and security in mind, but a lack of unity of member states only allows magnifies the problems on the ground.
Despite changing governance in the region, the United States will uphold its policies of the past three decades so long as it continues offering aid to the Egyptian military and the military respects its peace treaty with Israel.
The crux of Waltz’s argument is that “power begs to be balanced.” He suggests that “Israel’s nuclear monopoly has long fueled instability in the Middle East." I’m no fan of Israeli nukes, but I don’t think the warheads are the primary source of Israeli unpopularity.
Follow us at
Like us on
Recent Comments