Israel Archives - Page 60 of 132 - Foreign Policy In Focus

Congressional Legislation Aimed at Isolating Hamas is Likely to Backfire

by John Gershman, Stephen Zunes | Jun 14, 2006

Since the Palestinian Legislative Council elections earlier this year, in which the Islamist group Hamas captured a majority of seats, the Bush administration has suspended U.S. economic assistance to the Palestine Authority (PA) and has led an international effort to impose sanctions against the Palestinians. This has meant enormous hardship for ordinary Palestinians, with reports that hospitals in Gaza have difficulty providing immunizations for children or dialysis machines for kidney patients. The World Health Organization warns of a “rapid decline of the public health system … toward a possible collapse.”

The Hamas Victory: Another Side to the Story

by John Gershman, Stephen Zunes | Feb 6, 2006

Lost amidst the predictably negative reaction to the victory by Hamas in the Palestinian parliamentary elections is the crucial role that the U.S. government had in bringing the radical Islamist group to power.

The U.S. Invasion of Iraq: Not the Fault of Israel and Its Supporters

by John Gershman, Stephen Zunes | Jan 3, 2006

As the official rationales for the U.S. invasion of Iraq—that Iraq possessed “weapons of mass destruction” which threatened the national security of the United States and that the Iraqi government had operational ties to al-Qaida—are now widely acknowledged to have been fabricated, and the back-up rationalization—of bringing freedom and democracy to Iraq—is also losing credibility, increasing attention is being given as to why the U.S. government, with broad bipartisan support, made such a fateful decision.

Israel & Palestine: A Way Out?

by John Gershman, Conn Hallinan | Jan 3, 2006

In a 2002 Le Monde Diplomatique article titled “Constructing Catastrophe,” Israeli journalist Amon Kapeliouk challenged one of the central myths about the ongoing conflict between Israel and the Palestinians. To wit: that Palestinian President Yasir Arafat was offered a great deal at the Camp David talks in July 2000, but turned it down and launched Intifada II.

Dinner with Condi and the Fate of Gaza

by John Gershman, Conn Hallinan | Dec 14, 2005

There is a moment in Jeffery Goldberg’s New Yorker profile of Brent Scowcroft, George Bush Senior’s former National Security Adviser, when the current administration’s combination of arrogance and cluelessness crystallize. Over dinner, Secretary of State Condoleeza Rice tells Scowcroft that the good news from the Middle East is that Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon is pulling out of Gaza , the first step toward resolving the issue of a Palestinian state.

The U.S. and the Israeli-Syrian Peace Process

by Stephen Zunes | Oct 12, 2005

U.S. Security Assistance to Israel

by Joseph Yackley, Stephen Zunes | Oct 4, 2005

Key Points

Sharon’s Judenrein?

by Col. Daniel Smith (Ret.), Emira Woods | Oct 2, 2005

In an article posted on the History News Network website in early January, freelance writer Rachel Neuwirth asks, ÂWhy is it that people are proposing a Middle East peace plan that will make Judea and Samaria Judenrein–the Nazi term for a place with no Jews?Â

The Release of Mordechai Vanunu and U.S. Complicity in the Development of Israels Nuclear Arsenal

by John Gershman, Stephen Zunes | Oct 2, 2005

The recent release on April 22 of Mordechai Vanunu from an Israeli prison provides an opportunity to challenge the U.S. policy of supporting Israel ’s development of nuclear weapons while threatening war against other Middle Eastern states for simply having the potential for developing such weaponry.

Tear Down That Wall, Mr. Sharon

by John Gershman, Ian Williams | Oct 1, 2005

The International Court of Justice’s advisory opinion on the legal consequences of the Israeli Wall in the Occupied Territories is a triumphant vindication of the Palestinian decision to get their case heard there, and of their long term strategy of underlining and restating their legal rights. In effect, the Court ruled against Israel and its patron, the U.S., on every point. It appears that even the Arab states and the Palestinians may not have been entirely prepared for such an unqualified victory.