In the three years since Israelis and Palestinians last tried and failed to negotiate an agreement on dividing the land they live on, Palestinian leaders have gained little for their people. Livelihoods have crumbled and jobs have been shed as dreams of growth ran up against the realities of Israeli occupation. Construction equipment, kicking up…
Secretary of State John Kerry had promised that the Israeli-Palestinian peace talks would be kept confidential, so that the negotiators could exchange ideas without being subject to pressure from extremists on each side until a package of mutual concessions was ready that could show each side what it received in return for what it gave…
President Barack Obama spoke separately by phone on Thursday to Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, the White House said, as the United States seeks to keep up the momentum for peace negotiations. The calls came days after Israeli and Palestinian negotiators broke a three-year lull in talks and met in…
Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas laid out his vision on Monday for the final status of Israeli-Palestinian relations ahead of peace talks due to resume in Washington for the first time in nearly three years. Abbas said that no Israeli settlers or border forces could remain in a future Palestinian state and that Palestinians deem illegal…
Well, surprise, surprise. After months of hearing from all the wise pundits from left to right that Secretary of State Kerry was beyond his depth in Israeli-Palestinian peace-making, that he was “naïve and ham-handed” (מגושם in the original), “dumb” and “clueless,” it turns out they all got it wrong. Of course, they’re still a long…
Israel has agreed to release Palestinian prisoners in order to resume peace talks, but will not yield to other demands the Palestinians say must be met before they return to the negotiating table. Strategic Affairs Minister Yuval Steinitz said on Saturday that Israel was prepared to release some “heavyweight” prisoners but could not accept Palestinian…
As Palestinian leaders gathered to discuss a possible U.S-brokered resumption of peace talks on Thursday, the Israeli government denied a shift in its conditions that might help end a three-year stalemate. President Mahmoud Abbas was due to begin briefing fellow PLO leaders in Ramallah shortly on his meetings this week with U.S. Secretary of State…
Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas praised Egypt’s military on Thursday for toppling President Mohamed Mursi and his Muslim Brotherhood, the ideological ally of Abbas’s Hamas rivals. The fall of Mursi’s government deprived Hamas of a sympathetic neighbor, and may strengthen Abbas’s chances of nudging Hamas toward a long-delayed reconciliation and power-sharing pact. By intervening to remove…
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