Pope Benedict said in his New Year’s message on Tuesday he hoped 2013 would be a year of peace and that the world was under threat from unbridled capitalism, terrorism and criminality. The 85-year-old pope rang in the new year with a mass for about 10,000 people in St Peter’s Basilica on the day the…
A pair of new polls indicates that right-wing Israelis are surprisingly open to a peace deal with the Palestinians. The polls laid out a two-state-solution scenario to Israelis and asked them if they would back it. Among voters of Likud-Beytenu, the right-wing coaltion that is expected to win the January election, in a Smith Institute…
Pope Benedict, leading the world’s Roman Catholics into Christmas, on Monday urged people to find room for God in their fast-paced lives filled with the latest technological gadgets. The 85-year-old pope, marking the eighth Christmas season of his pontificate, celebrated a solemn Christmas Eve mass in St Peter’s Basilica, during which he appealed for a…
Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas reportedly said he wanted to negotiate with Israel it if freezes construction for six months in the West Bank and Jerusalem. Abbas made the statement on Sunday in Qatar during a meeting of Arab League nations in Doha, The Jerusalem Post reported. He was responding to statements by Qatari Prime Minister…
European Union states struggled to agree on Tuesday on a common response to Israel’s plans to expand settlements in the West Bank, highlighting the divisions within the bloc over how to tackle the Palestinian-Israeli conflict. At a meeting in Brussels, ambassadors responsible for security issues discussed the possibility of all 27 EU states writing to…
Pope Benedict on Wednesday urged Israeli and Palestinian leaders to make “courageous decisions” to end the Gaza conflict, saying it risked spilling over into the rest of the Middle East. He told pilgrims and tourists at his weekly general audience in St Peter’s Square that he backed efforts to negotiate a ceasefire. “I appeal to…
Recognized for its contribution over the course of six decades “to the advancement of peace and reconciliation, democracy and human rights in Europe”, the European Union was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize last Friday. There has been the usual carping from the reliably reactionary elements in the American commentariat – “The once-significant award has become…
Mitt Romney’s pessimistic take on Israeli-Palestinian peace prospects has drew some headlines in the press but not much noise from centrist Jewish groups. The revelation this week of Romney’s remarks, in which he suggested that the Israeli-Palestinian conflict cannot be solved at present and that the best that could be done was to “kick the…
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