Barack Obama

The central issue in the Middle East is not the Arab-Israeli peace process but the Arab civil war that has been reignited by the so-called Arab Spring

Plus Casspi plans triumphant return, Peres turns 88, and more

Yet Turkey, the U.S., and others still seem to hope Assad will come around

Electoral college math makes Jewish vote there mighty valuable

In face of horrors and condemnations, engagement still continues

Kadima party leader says American Jews being put in a tough position

Activists—from the youth protesting steep rents in Tel Aviv to those dejected by their failure to reform Washington—should listen to Moses, reject magical thinking, and learn how to play politics

The recent massacres in Oslo, Norway, and Hama, Syria, were both carried out by heartless sociopaths. Why does one of them—Syria’s Bashar al-Assad—continue to enjoy diplomatic relations with Washington?

Contest for Weiner’s empty seat turns into statement on Obama and Israel

With a looming deadline, deep-seated distrust, and competing claims to resources, Washington’s effort to reach a debt deal is a stateside version of the ongoing quest for Israeli-Palestinian peace

Republicans are once again arguing that American Jews will abandon the Democratic Party. But it won’t happen, because Jews recoil from the GOP’s overt Christianity, even when it comes with staunch pro-Israel views.

Conventional wisdom says Israel must reach a peace deal quickly, before population trends and diplomatic isolation overtake the Jewish state. Demographics and geopolitics tell a different story.

Plus Arafat’s succesor? and more

Barack Obama’s poll numbers are down among Jews—and that’s normal. For more than 30 years, nearly every incumbent president has fared less well among Jews in his re-election effort than in his first campaign.

Obama’s unsuccessful foreign policy in the Mideast is based not on idealism or realpolitik but anti-colonialism, a legacy of the collapse of the European empires