Gershom Gorenberg
Obama stopped through for two nights and a day, as if he were writing one of the New York Times travel pieces about how to spend 36 hours in some locale. At first glance, the trip was purely about photo-ops, gathering footage for later campaign ads that will air in south Florida. But there [...]
Obama in Israel: Political Implications
July 27th, 2008 · 6 Comments · Politics and Policy
Tags: Ehud Barak·Hamas·Netanyahu·Obama·Olmert·Sderot·terror·Tzipi Livni
Golan On The Table, Gaza In The Sights
May 26th, 2008 · 4 Comments · Politics and Policy
In the past, when the press has reported that Israel’s leaders were talking to Syria about returning the Golan Heights for peace, I was skeptical. First Yitzhak Rabin, then Binyamin Netanyahu, then Ehud Barak signalled to Syria that they were willing to contemplate a full withdrawal from the Golan Heights in exchange for a peace [...]
Tags: Gaza Strip·Hamas·Israel·Palestinians·Peace and Reconciliation·Syria
Obama. What’s Complicated Here?
May 13th, 2008 · 7 Comments · Politics and Policy
Gershom Gorenberg
Dan Kurtzer, the former U.S. Ambassador to Israel and an Orthodox Jew, is in Jerusalem for the 60th anniversary celebrations. This morning my wife heard him being interviewed on Israeli Radio, in Hebrew, about the U.S. election. Kurtzer explained that he’s backing Barack Obama.
This was not exactly a revelation. Kurtzer has explained his reasons [...]
Tags: Dan Kurtzer·Gallup·George W. Bush·Hamas·Hezbollah·Hillary Clinton·Iran·Iraq·John Hagee·Lebanon·Marc Ambinder·Martin Indyk·McCain·Obama·Syria·two-state solution
Obama, Carter and Meshaal: Campaign rhetoric v. policy
April 11th, 2008 · 3 Comments · Politics and Policy
Alas, Barack Obama is apparently not reading South Jerusalem. If he were, perhaps his campaign would have responded to Jimmy Carter’s reported plans to meet Hamas leaders in Damascus with something a bit more sophisticated than this statement, carried by JTA (thanks to Ben Smith for the head’s up):
“Senator Obama does not agree with President [...]
Tags: Carter·Hamas·Meshaal·Obama
Is Hamas Looking For a Two-State Solution? Should We Listen?
April 10th, 2008 · 20 Comments · Politics and Policy
Last week Khaled Meshaal, the Damascus-based head of Hamas’s Political Bureau, gave an interview to the Palestinian newspaper Al-Ayyam. The choice of venue is significant, since Al-Ayyam is a pro-Fatah paper, linked to the Palestinian Authority government in Ramallah, and Meshaal is the presumed leader of Hamas, whose breakaway government rules Gaza since last [...]
Tags: Al-Ayyam·Fatah·Hamas·Israel·Khaled Meshaal·Meshal·Mishaal·two-state solution