In view of conflicting media reports about the chances of success of the tripartite negotiations between the Biden administration, the State of Israel and Saudi Arabia to draw up a normalization agreement between the latter two countries, one should look at the last decades and understand that such an accord is inevitable – but has […]
Read MoreIsrael’s Arab Allies Signal Business as Usual, Despite Far Right’s Rise
TEL AVIV — When Benjamin Netanyahu won a general election last month, analysts wondered how three Arab countries that normalized relations with Israel in 2020 — Bahrain, Morocco and the United Arab Emirates — might react. Mr. Netanyahu forged the deals himself when last in office, but his new far-right allies have a history of […]
Read MoreSidney Nolan, portraits of the Holocaust
A few weeks ago, on Tuesday August 16, Mahmoud Abbas, President of the Palestinian Authority, was in Berlin seeking help and support from the German government. The cause of the Palestinian people has of course been rather beleaguered since other Arabs finally realised that they had a lot more to gain from positive engagement with Israel. Even Turkey, which has stood up for the Palestinians in the past, has just restored full diplomatic relations with Israel.
Read MoreIsrael shutters Palestinian rights groups, drawing diplomatic backlash
TEL AVIV — Israel closed the offices of five leading Palestinian rights organizations in an early-morning raid in Ramallah on Thursday, tightening its restrictions on civil society nearly a year after it labeled the organizations terrorist groups in an internationally criticized move.
Read MoreOpinion | The Abraham Accords Might Bring an End to Israel’s Occupation After All
Monarchies have a different concept of time. Their tyrants have patience, of the kind that a country which goes to the polls approximately once every two and a half years on average – and recently has changed prime ministers like pairs of socks – does not have. And this patience can be seen in every step in the growing normalization between Arab countries and Israel. Here is a gesture, there a gesture, and here and there is the slow building of local influence.
Read MoreOpinion | Why the Palestinians Should Join the Abraham Accords
One of President Joe Biden’s major stated goals for his trip to the Middle East is to bolster the Abraham Accords. Mind-bogglingly, the Accords were initiated by none other than the Trump Administration in 2020. They were designed to bypass the thorny Palestinian-Israeli conflict by forging direct ties between Israel and Arab states. However, even […]
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