Diplomacy-related Parries
March 2010
Friendship is for Weenies
It’s amazing, given the adulation he enjoyed elsewhere, that the Israeli public knew from the start not to trust this US President.
January 2009
Shanghai Europe
So, finally, we stopped yesterday; the Israeli assault of late 2008/early 2009 on Gaza is over. With it, Israel lost moral purity and made vital strategic gains.
December 2007
Tony Blair and the Four-State Vision
Ariel Sharon’s disengagement policy reflected an understanding that ownership of the Palestinian issue is shared with Egypt and Jordan. Once Tony Blair acquires this view, he can help facilitate an end to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.
April 2007
Franklin or Jonah?
In The Autobiography of Benjamin Franklin one of the major lessons the author wishes to impart is that when proposing new initiatives it’s best to stay in the background because people are jealous and are far more likely to enthusiastically come aboard a new project if it seems to come from themselves or from the ether. But should Israel be applying this wisdom to the case of denuking Iran?
Now the Sailors are Safe, Pursue the Matter
Even though the British government did a great job in getting the kidnapped soldiers back, that is the first step, not the last. Such piracy must cost dearly in order to discourage the Iranians (or anyone else) from doing anything like it again.
March 2007
Right to Exist? Gee, Thanks
Recently the term Palestine has come increasingly into currency, used even by venerable Israelis and ardent Israeli supporters such as Hillel Halkin and Charles Krauthammer. In the wake of this change, within the past couple of years the term “Israeli-Palestinian conflict” has been telegraphed increasingly into “Israel/Palestine”. What next?
Diplomacy-related Photos
Latmag does Diplomacy
January 2010
Leon R. Kass, The Beginning of Wisdom, Pp. 406-7.
Jacob’s Summary
“ The biblical counterpart of Odysseus, Jacob must solve the fundamental human difficulties illustrated in the pre-Abrahamic chapters of Genesis. ”
May 2005
David Pryce-Jones, “Jews, Arabs, and French Diplomacy: A Special Report”
The Zionists Must Understand
“ The Zionists must understand once and for all that there can be no question of constituting an independent Jewish state in Palestine, or even forming some sovereign Jewish body. ”
August 2003
Robert Graves, I, Claudius
Ask Me Anything
“ The drink was as remarkable as the food, and Caligula became so lively as the meal went on that, deprecating his own generosity to Herod in the past as something hardly worth mentioning, he now promised to give him whatever it lay in his power to grant. “Ask me anything, my dearest Herod,” he said, “And it shall be yours.” He repeated: “Absolutely anything. I swear by my own Divinity that I will grant it.” ”
December 2002
Henry Kissinger, The White House Years
The Meeting Went Badly
“ Ford was unfamiliar with Israeli negotiating methods, which reject the biblical assurance that the meek shall inherit the earth, and he grew even more restless when he discovered that the Israeli request would draw down the reserve stocks of the American military and hence affect the readiness of American armed forces. ”
And on the Trail
Thu 3 May ’12
The power shvitz in the basement of the Finnish embassy in Washington.
Mon 9 Apr ’12
Dore Gold’s Jerusalem Center for Public Affairs summarizes the gradual thawing of China-Israel relations as China matures.
Tue 6 Mar ’12
Jeffrey Goldberg interviews a very articulate, reasonable-sounding President Barack Obama prior to Netanyahu’s visit.
Wed 28 Dec ’11
There’s a name for something I’ve always wanted to do and lacked the gumption and follow-through and doubted it: Radical Honesty. The FAQ.
Sun 11 Dec ’11
An argument that at the euro summit Cameron overplayed his hand.
Sun 4 Dec ’11
“European “normality” was based to a large extent on West German “abnormality”. Now that the reunified Germany is becoming more “normal”, it is undermining European “normality.” A sobering analysis of Deutsch affairs by Tony Corn.
Thu 25 Aug ’11
Despite Libya, what matters now is Syria, namely defeating Iran there.
Wed 1 Jun ’11
What’s there to disagree with in The Third Man, Elliott Abrams’ account of the Obama-Bibi-Abbas fracas.
Mon 30 May ’11
Walter Russell Mead waxes deep on Netanyahu’s speech to Congress. “…The people and the story of Israel stir some of the deepest and most mysterious reaches of the American soul.”
Sat 21 May ’11
On George Mitchell’s retirement: the Israeli-Palestinian conflict is not and was never comparable to Northern Ireland.
Wed 27 Apr ’11
Fri 14 Jan ’11
The fault line runs between George Mitchell and Dennis Ross.
Mon 19 Jul ’10
Ruth Lapidoth, Professor Emeritus of International Law at the Hebrew University, on the legalities of Israel’s naval blockade of Gaza. Note how long the Turks had Gaza: 400 years — far far longer than anyone else around today.
Fri 14 May ’10
Complete common sense by Hussein Ibish on the Israeli & Palestinian future.
Fri 9 Apr ’10
Mon 29 Mar ’10
Israel-Iran war games at the Saban Center. Game simulation — such a powerful way to think.
Sat 27 Mar ’10
Robert Kagan expounds dispassionately on the Obama Administration’s unhinged approach to world affairs.
Thu 18 Mar ’10
Finally, the piece of news I’ve been after, and it comes from Yossi Klein-Halevi in TNR“: According to an Israel Radio poll on March 16, 62% of Israelis blame the Obama administration for the crisis, while 20% blame Netanyahu. (Another 17% blame Shas leader Eli Yishai.)
Mon 18 Jan ’10
George Mitchell with Charlie Rose for 52 whole minutes on the current Israeli-Palestinian situation. Great man… A few days later Elliott Abrams responds.
Mon 9 Nov ’09
Elliott Abrams encapsulates a year of the Obama Administration on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. It ain’t pretty, but it does have the merit of being so feckless as to be irrelevant, thereby not interfering with the real progress on the ground.
Tue 20 Oct ’09
Some quickly digestible nuggets of imperial wisdom from Byzantium, as channelled by Edward Luttwak in Foreign Policy.
Sun 11 Oct ’09
Boogie Ayalon articulates the bottom-up approach to the Israel/Palestinian conflict.
Thu 27 Aug ’09
If ever the US has been close to achieving potentially terminal self-marginalization in the Middle East, it is now, under Obama. By Michael Young, opinion editor, Lebanon’s Daily Star.
Mon 10 Aug ’09
Sharper in style than his dad, John Podhoretz slices open Obama’s new “honest” Israel policy.
Sun 31 May ’09
Joe Lieberman points out the unprecedented convergence of concerns about Iran among Arabs and Israelis alike — and that some of the strongest alliances in history have been forged among old antagonists when confronted by a new, common threat.
Sun 26 Apr ’09
Mark Steyn isn’t even trying to be funny any more. In “The End of the World as We Know It”= he expresses what I’m thinking and feeling, that we’re in deep trouble because Americans voted impetuously and like spoilt children for a Feelgood o’Balma that’s going to stop feeling good mighty fast as Americans realize that given the choice, and if you can’t have both, it is indeed better to be feared than loved — and in America’s case, better for everyone.
Mon 13 Apr ’09
The title of Krauthammer’s latest, “It’s Your Country Too, Mr President”, seems borderline treasonous. (Not that I don’t agree.)
Sat 21 Mar ’09
Condi Rice, for the hour, on Charlie Rose. What a babe at 54. “The United States is too big a country, too important a country, too gracious a country to have permanent enemies.”
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