By Alon Ben-Meir American, Israeli and Palestinian officials today are frantically grappling with the various pros and cons concerning the Palestinian Authority’s (PA) plans to seek recognition from the United Nations this week. Regardless of the merit or wisdom behind such a move, the Palestinians seem determined to proceed with their plans unless Israel agrees to …
By Alon Ben-Meir I recently spoke at the NY United Nations Association following a screening of the documentary “Budrus,” named after a Palestinian village in the West Bank (WB). Although I carefully followed the events in that small village as they occurred in 2003-2004, when I previewed the documentary, I realized how little has changed since …
By Alon Ben-Meir On the surface, the current stalemate in the Israeli-Palestinian peace process seems illogical. After all, each side knows, with the exception of the Netanyahu government, that the basic framework of a negotiated settlement: a two-state solution based on the 1967 border with land swaps that keep the major settlement blocs inside Israel proper. …
By Alon Ben-Meir The supposed controversy over President Obama’s speech on the Middle East, manufactured by Prime Minster Netanyahu and enabled by the media, is disgraceful and insincere. President Obama said nothing new about borders, just the facts: no border will ever be acceptable to the Palestinians that does not carve out a Palestinian state in …
By Alon Ben-Meir Although President Obama stated nothing new during his speech last Thursday about the 1967 borders with “mutually agreed land swaps” as a basis for a negotiated Israeli-Palestinian agreement, he put it in a manner that should give the Palestinians pause before they go to the United Nations General Assembly to seek statehood recognition. …
By Alon Ben-Meir Will Assad have the courage and the vision to rise to the historic occasion and change the geopolitical dynamics throughout the Middle East? The time and circumstances have presented Syria’s President Bashar Al-Assad with a clear choice: Continue to convey an image of an impotent dictator sounding eerily similar to the embattled, aging …
By Alon Ben-Meir President Obama has already developed a reputation for tough talk and little action. Worse yet, the United States’ cautiousness in the wake of the lessons of Iraq and Afghanistan-while understandable-threaten to paint a picture of the Obama White House as weak, ineffectual and cowardly. Just days into a military campaign to cripple Colonel …
By Alon Ben-Meir On Saturday, Feb. 12 the Egyptian army issued a communiqué reassuring the Egyptian people and the international community of its intention to usher in a civilian government and honor all of Egypt’s international commitments, including the peace treaty with Israel. Although such a pronouncement provided Israel with some comfort, many Israeli officials and …
By Alon Ben-Meir While much is unknown about the ultimate implications of the Egyptian uprising for Israel, one lesson can already be drawn: The missed opportunities to achieve peace with the Arab states could have disastrous impacts. Of course, many Israelis see the unraveling of the once vaunted Egyptian government and argue that the increasingly …
By Alon Ben-Meir Egypt’s day of glory can be sustained only if the revolutionaries, the opposition figures and the establishment work together while realizing that they are shaping Egypt’s destiny. I want to begin this column by first applauding the Egyptian people. I applaud them not only for their heroism, but for their tenacity, their deep sense …
By Alon Ben-Meir NEW YORK: It is hard to describe the state of affairs of the Arab-Israeli conflict at this particular juncture without using adjectives such as “sad,” “unfortunate” or even “tragic,” which I think is the most appropriate description. The collapse of the so-called Israeli-Palestinian peace process is indicative not only of the failure of …
By Alon Ben-Meir NEW YORK: The Israeli government must still approve the proposed United States-Israeli agreement to freeze settlement construction in the West Bank in exchange for a US offer of $3 billion worth of military hardware, including stealth fighter jets. If Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu succeeds in obtaining cabinet approval, the parties will have 90 …
By Alon Ben-Meir It is time for the White House to bring on a new Mideast peace team. At various points in the past several months Special Envoy for Middle East Peace George Mitchell has responded to reporters’ questions about the stalled peace process by recalling his experience mediating the conflict in Northern Ireland, stating that …
