New rumors swirl about an American attack on Iran, including a particularly worrying report in the Jerusalem Post.

Not well reported in the Israeli press (which is busy covering the Ehud Olmert corruption scandal), but there are indications that a major prisoner swap between Israel and Hezbollah is set to occur sometime in the next few days. The deal will involve a return of Eldad Regev and Ehud Goldwasser — the two IDF soldiers whose capture by Hezbollah in the summer of 2006 sparked the 33-day Hezbollah-Israeli war — in exchange for several Shiite militants and the bodies of several others. Hassan...

A biweekly feature of news and opinion pieces from the Israeli and Palestinian press. 1.) Bowing to pressure from Israel, the United States has withdrawn the grants of seven Palestinian Fulbright scholars-to-be. Analyst Daniel Levy, over at his blog, writes that such a decision is shameful; moreover, he notes, it is a stunning testimony to the diminished stature of the Bush administration. If American officials are unable to force concessions from Israel on issues as minor as this one, Levy wonders,...

One thing is clear: He sure talks a big game.

It is often said that future historians will view the Bush administration’s invasion of Iraq, its mistreatment of enemy combatants, and its bumbled operation in Afghanistan as some of the worst foreign policy blunders in American history. There is certainly cause for such thinking. But I wonder if there’s not another great failure – often overlooked – that goes beyond poor policy choices. Senator Joseph Biden, writing in the Wall Street Journal recently, hinted at what this...

A biweekly feature of news and opinion pieces from the Israeli and Palestinian press. 1.) As an ongoing corruption investigation puts Ehud Olmert at great risk, there is increasing discussion in the Israeli press as to who might be the next prime minister. Although Tzipi Livni, the current foreign minister, has often been mentioned as the favorite, some opposition figures have hinted that her gender makes her unfit to deal with a fractured and violent Palestinian leadership, a rising Hezbollah power,...

It’s a strategy that has been much maligned, and rightly so. And, as Helene Cooper points out in the NYT, the rhetoric doesn’t exactly match the substance. While Mr. Bush and his advisers have repeatedly scorned the idea of talking to enemies without first getting preconditions met, administration policy over the last seven years has been far more nuanced. In fact, the United States under the Bush administration has shown a sliding definition of just when it is beneficial to talk to...

We’re in for the long haul.

It’s hard to know what to make of reports that suggest that American trade with Syria actually increased last year. Remember, this is despite the fact that the Syrian Accountability Act (2003) leveled strict trade sanctions and barred the sale of most American goods. General Motors, Coca-Cola, and a few others corporations are apparently doing a brisk trade, however, effectively skirting the restrictions by shipping in their goods from overseas factories. Nonetheless, overall market access between...

A biweekly feature of news and opinion pieces from the Israeli and Palestinian press. 1.) Palestinian negotiator Ahmed Qureia wants his Israeli counterpart, Tzipi Livni, to allow for the creation of a standing Palestinian army. According to Ynet News, “Livni, though perplexed by the sudden demand, made clear that all previous accords specifically spoke of a demilitarized Palestinian state. A senior Israeli source said that Livni sought to clarify if perhaps Qureia had meant a Palestinian police...

Highly recommended is the article by Steven Simon (an analyst at CFR) in the latest Foreign Affairs.

At Guantanamo Bay, there are now roughly half of the 700something detainees that once served time in the facility. Most have been released, with many of those that remain being termed the ‘worst of the worst’ – hardened terrorists who would allegedly, if let go, help to organize or participate in acts of terrorism. The central debate now raging in policy circles is what is to be done with the remaining few. Needless to say, the Bush administration has pushed for an approach that relies on the...

A biweekly feature of news and opinion pieces from the Israeli and Palestinian press. 1.) Israel is planning on building a new housing complex and a synagogue in East Jerusalem. As was reported yesterday, “the area slated for the new project is located 200 meters from the Old City walls, in an area considered one of the most sensitive in the present negotiations with the Palestinians over the final-status agreement.” An editorial in Haaretz today expresses unease with the plan: “The...

Oh no, not the Munich analogy!

One of the funniest political sketches I’ve seen in a long time. Hat tip to reader Citizen Kang.

Hallelujah. Defense Secretary Robert Gates has provided a welcome injection of sanity into the perennial debate over the United States’ bloated defense budget.

I’m a little surprised at those who took at face value Edward Luttwak’s piece in yesterday’s New York Times. In an astonishing article, Luttwak makes the case that a President Obama is likely to find his relationship with the Islamic world to be tense and volatile. The reason? As an “apostate” (his words, not mine), the Senator from Illinois would be subject to the death penalty under classical Shari’a law. His conversion, however, was a crime in Muslim eyes; it...

A biweekly feature of news and opinion pieces from the Israeli and Palestinian press. ..1.) Israeli analyst Daniel Levy writes that Condoleezza Rice may be finally coming to her senses about how difficult it is to end the Israeli occupation. On her recent visit to Israel, she met with Prime Minister Olmert three times during a two-day visit to discuss the issue of roadblocks. But Rice has gotten virtually nowhere. According to the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs, in late 2005...

Writing at Land and People, Lebanese blogger Rami Zurayk chronicles events in Beirut as they unfold. His accounts are fascinating in their clarity. Friday, May 8th, 8:26AM: I live in Ras Beirut, between Hamra and Manara. We woke up this morning to the sound of machine gun shooting. I looked from the window and there was a few young armed civilians running in all directions. The kids were startled and we did what everybody does at times like these: seek the news. I sat at my computer and logged into...

Last month, at their summit in Bucharest, NATO bowed to pressure from Moscow and failed to offer paths to membership for Georgia and Ukraine. Instead, they decided to endorse the deployment of an Eastern European-based missile defense system, a longstanding goal of the Bush administration. But, as political analyst Seth Weinberger argued shortly after the summit’s conclusion, NATO got its priorities backwards. Both programs are likely to antagonize Russia, but if NATO was only to get one of...

Kick Burma out of the United Nations? That’s what The Wall Street Journal is suggesting is an appropriate punishment for the country’s miserable response to Cyclone Nargis: The United Nations this week said the refusal of Burma’s government to allow workers into the country’s devastated agricultural region was unprecedented in the history of humanitarian relief. The human catastrophe produced by Burma’s refusal to permit aid in the wake of Cyclone Nargis has stunned...

Yes, argues blogger Matt Dupuis; it’s high time that Pyongyang was pressured to adopt the Beijing model.

A biweekly feature of news and opinion pieces from the Israeli and Palestinian press. 1.) In an encouraging sign, the Palestinian Authority deployed several hundred policemen to Jenin this weekend as part of an effort to “restore law and order,” reports The Jerusalem Post. This action follows similar moves in Nablus and Tulkarm that have occurred over the past few months. The police force has promised to crack down not just on criminals, but on armed groups like the Al-Aqsa Martyrs...

I want to draw TMV readers’ attention to the article earlier this week in the NYT about Debbie Almontaser. An Arab-American woman, she started a school in Brooklyn last fall known as the Khalil Gibran International Academy. The goal was to bring young people of Arab descent together with those of other ethnicities in order to create a cadre of students who would become “ambassadors of peace and hope.” But Almontaser was forced out, as a result of a chorus of concerned voices who think she...

A biweekly feature of news and opinion pieces from the Israeli and Palestinian press. 1.) In a strikingly harsh op-ed in Ynet News, entitled “No Need for Phony Sorrow,” Israeli columnist Uri Orbach writes that the death of Palestinian civilians is a fact of war and need not elicit an Israeli apology. If we are all destined to suffer here, it would be good that they suffer more than we do. And if the Palestinians continue to overestimate their power, we can assume that along with their...