The Quranic argument for Jewish sovereignty in the land of Israel
| 7:00 AM Mar 18, 2010
Over the past 15 years, the political conflict between Israeli Jews and Palestinian Arabs has been reframed as a religious war in which leaders from Yasser Arafat to Hassan Nasrallah to Osama bin Laden have appealed to the authority of the Quran to support their goal of eliminating the State of Israel. The authority of ...
New book reveals PM’s motives
| 12:00 PM Mar 5, 2010
Slain Israeli Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin agreed to strike a deal with Yasser Arafat because, he told a top aide three days before he was assassinated, “[Arafat] and his [Palestine Liberation Organization] represent the last vestige of secular Palestinian nationalism.”
So we learn in a forthcoming book by that aide, Yehuda Avner. Rabin was extremely skeptical ...
Cohen compares group to the PLO of yore
| 3:00 PM Feb 11, 2010
On the heels of a debate Tuesday night where he argued that the United States should maintain a normal, rather than special, relationship with Israel, columnist Roger Cohen has a provocative piece in tomorrow’s International Herald Tribune essentially recapitulating his central point: that, even as President Obama decries settlements, in effect the United States is ...
Plus happy 100th to a New York knishery, and more
| 5:00 PM Jan 15, 2010
• Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas told an Egyptian news agency that Israel killed Yasser Arafat, and he is worried he will meet the same fate. [Arutz Sheva]
• Legendary Lower East Side knishery Yonah Schimmel’s celebrated its 100th anniversary. [City Room]
• Hamas asked Egypt to stop building an underground wall along its border with Gaza. The ...
Stephen P. Cohen weighs in on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict
| 7:00 AM Nov 23, 2009
Psychologist Stephen P. Cohen has made his career as what he calls a “citizen diplomat.” He runs the Institute for Middle East Peace and Development, which he founded, and he’s been working for 40 years to try to help resolve the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, participating in secret negotiations that have included Israel’s Shimon Peres and Moshe ...
As Obama sits down with Netanyahu and Abbas, a brief history of the trilateral summit
| 7:00 AM Sep 22, 2009
This morning, President Barack Obama is scheduled to meet jointly for the first time with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas. The meeting, at the Waldorf-Astoria, was hastily announced Saturday and billed with very low expectations from all sides, with both Israeli and Palestinian officials warning that no one should ...
It’s Israel’s fault, says Fatah
| 3:00 PM Aug 6, 2009
Who—or what—killed Yasser Arafat? Four years after the Palestinian leader’s death, and rumors and conspiracy theories still abound. Was it late-stage Parkinson’s, AIDS, or old age? These questions have percolated back into headlines, courtesy of Fatah’s sixth General Assembly, which met today and adopted a proposal mandating a full investigation into Arafat’s death, presupposed on ...
Settlements vs. Iran, Spielberg honored, and more in the news
| 9:10 AM Aug 6, 2009
• At this week’s conference, Fatah resolves that Israel bears full responsibility for the death of former leader Yasser Arafat. [JPost]
• Still hoping to revive peace talks, the U.S. asks Israel to freeze settlement growth for one year. [Reuters]
• Meanwhile, a group of Republican leaders on a visit to Israel think President Obama should shift ...
And a conspiracy was behind it, says Fatah official
| 4:40 PM Jul 15, 2009
“The Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) on Tuesday harshly criticized Farouk Qaddoumi, secretary-general of Fatah, for accusing President Mahmoud Abbas of involvement in the alleged poisoning of Yasser Arafat…. [Qaddoumi] said that the minutes of a joint Palestinian-Israeli-American meeting held in early March 2004 proved that [Abbas and Fatah strongman Mohammed Dahlan] were involved in the ...